Footers are ready to pour

Well we passed our first inspection today for the building footers. These are the 12"X20" trenches that have 6 steel reinforcing bars in them. They are beefed up for our house because we have less than perfect soil on the property. There's pipe clay about 6 feet down which is pretty common in this area. The expansive clay can crack a foundation quickly so it's worth the extra money. Unfortunately that assurance adds thousands of dollars to what would otherwise be a simple foundation.



You can see my supervisor in the foreground inspecting the work. She approves...I think.

We'll be pouring tomorrow morning. Unfortunately there's a chance of rain in the forecast. My luck...it hasn't rained here for a few weeks it seems like.
Let's talk about the green aspect of this pour:
I'm renting a boom pump truck because the concrete trucks won't be able to maneuver around the lot and get close enough to place the material. Plus this will keep the trucks far away from the trees that we have fenced off around the lot.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we'll be using concrete that has 20% fly ash. This is a byproduct of coal plants and takes the volumetric place of typical cement.