Logging on!

Finally!

After 10 years of dreaming, planning, researching, cutting, peeling and spending, I finally got to raise the first log on the foundation (the irony is, I later ended up taking it off, but that's another story) but not without a bunch of effort. First a late start, then more problems. The photo essay below tells the tale.


First log slinged, it only took about 75 tries to get it balanced!


Tying on a tump line to control the swing.



Giddy-up!




Bouncey...

Git along little loggies!

Come join your friends.

Almost there...

Almost there...

We interupt this regularly scheduled log raising to bring you this shot of the awaiting foundation.

Touchdown! (part one).

On to preping the log.

Triming the uh... butt.

Maybe another slice.

Finding the middle.

Marking the center line.

Transferred all the measurements from the foundation and starting to drill... for about 30 seconds...

in the first hole.... until the drill in the picture caught fire... Ok, no problem, off the hardware store to buy a "Heavy Duty" drill.

Ok, no problem, we'll just start drilling the first hole again... until we tear the chuck off this drill...

At this point I was about ready to bleed internally...

But hey, no problem, I'll just run to the rental place, they'll have something... you guys break for lunch i'll be right back.

An hour and a half later.... we were making pine flakes.

"Kids everywhere love the great taste of Pine Flakes!"

It's slow, but it works...

I can see the light! After 3 frikin' hours! I must have 20 shots of drilling the first hole, the camera girl was wondering if we where ever going to 'git 'er done!

Log drilled and slung (that took another 30 triles). Um, does those clouds look like rain....

And it did rain... if you look close, you might see the rainbow in this shot (finally some devine intervention).

Now, back to the log...

Up.

Up!

UP!

Uh... you sure this is gonna reach...?

Oh yeah!

So close...

Uh... I hope we measured those holes right...

Almost there...

Notice the dent in the foundation? No...? Good, me neither...

Almost there...!

Touchdown! (Part 2).

This end doesn't want to go down...

Needs motivation... 15 tonnes worth!

Just like butter (4000lbs of butter!)

Ok, well maybe it will sit better if I cut a bit off...

Just a shave...

Beautiful... except for the flying end.

On to the second log... after a quick trim of the bent, too tall rebar... notice how dark it's getting...

Fast forward! Day 2.

4 logs on the wall...
Of course, the holes didn't line up on the last one...

Done... almost, still have to trim all the all-thread, and tighten all the nuts... cut all the rebar...pin all the corners.... trim all the knots...

I see eff?

So I was down in Mexico, and I saw this foundation, it's name was eff.

Ok, even by my standards, that was bad.

On to the basement!
I hummed and hawed on this one for a long time (years), how to do the basement, since costs can creep up pretty fast here. I'd thought about poured, but it's lots of money, and most of it is labour, somebody elses, plus you can get marginal results, if the contractor is shoddy, or you pay a ton for someone really good. As it was we already used a pile of cement on the footings (whaddya gonna do when your house weighs 50000lbs) but you shouldn't skimp here, ever!

I thought about cement block, but really it's not strong enough, unless you fill the space between with concrete, so then you're not really saving that much.

The problem with both of these types of foundations is that they have no thermal value, so you have to insulate on top of the cost, plus it's hard to do it right, after the fact.

Keeping this in mind, I'd also looked at the alternative.


In the end, I was lucky enough to talk to a guy at our local home show 2 years ago, who is the Ontario distributer for Quad-Lock ICF, which is a phenominal, DIY friendly, reasonably priced way to do it, and he really likes working with end-users like me.

Sold!

So over the course of a few days, myself and a bunch of friends (new and old) put this thing together, it's so light and easy to work with, I even had my kids and mother-in-law (all 98lbs of her) helping.

This is the first complete course laid out, this is probably the second hardest part (of the stacking anyway). The hardest (ok, lets say pickiest) is setting the bottom metal track into the footing.














The cool part? You get to play with a "Weapons Grade" nail gun!

That's also the scary part.

The one thing I wish I'd done was smooth the top of the footing with a trowel, just to make it easier to hold the track without it wiggling around on the bumpy surface, because with the freaking nailer, you don't want to be in the way. It will absolutely kill you if you aren't careful, at the very least you can end up with your steel toe nailed to the cement. Anything that can countersink a 3" nail into a 16" thick block of reinforced concrete absolutely demands respect!

No shots of it in action unfortunately, I was busy keeping my head down, as I let my American buddy Capt James Emge USAF handle most of it (more weapons training than the rest of us).

Here is fellow LHBA member James Linzel starting the first corner on the second course. None of us, including James had ever built with this stuff before, yet after the first row, we averaged 30-40 mins to complete each course! That's fast!


It must be fun, since James drove about 7 hours to get to my place just to help out. Thanks man!
Here's where we were by Sun afternoon, considering the late start Sat, I was happy. We could have gotten more done, but the Quad-Lock distributer wanted to check progress (and make sure we hadn't messed it up), and I still needed to get the gravel inside the footing for the basement!

Here's a video tour inside the foundation, shot by another LHBA member, Pierre Trudel. Pierre was lucky, he didn't have to drive as far to play with Quad-Lock, but a big thanks none the less!

(Note, video temporarily removed due to mass quanties of storage being taken up, I will get it zipped down and back up soon).

So, another week later (so it rained alot) we were ready to pour.

There's more work involved in installing all the bracing and preping to pour than there is stacking all the freaking ICF walls.

Pump truck and cement truck (first of 4) lined up and ready to go!

Here's the happy crew; Robert, the guy with the towel on his head (Quad-Lock distributer, that's part of the corporate dress code) his 2 sons and the pump operator (didn't get his name).

Um.. maybe a little too happy...?

Would you trust them to build your foundation...?

Mmm... juicy!

Wet setting the BAJ's (Big Ass J-Bolts!) for attaching the first logs to the foundation.

And another couple days later and voila!

Bracing gone, Waterproofing on, drainage in and ready for backfill.

Next step. Logs!