Prepping the ground for the concrete slab proved to take a lot longer than we had expected. You might remember that we have already been delayed with our foundation, but it just got crazier.
It rained an awful lot before Mr. Excavator came. They say we had three inches in one storm. Therefore, we needed to pump out all of the water. The ground needed to be dry to be able to do anything.
They decided to fill in the inside edges with washed sand about half of the way up the ICF’s and let it sit overnight. This sand was supposed to help absorb the liquid. It was possible that we could end up with quicksand, so some of the excavating crew wanted it to sit for a couple of days. We were on a time crunch and hoped it would only take the overnight hours. Our pour was scheduled for Saturday at 6:30am and it was now Wednesday.
By lunchtime the next day, they were able to pack it down without it becoming quicksand, so we were good to go! They continued to bring in washed sand and my husband started packing it down. Towards the end of the day they found a wet spot that was one big goo ball. The more they drove their machine on it, the worse it became. They stopped at this point for the day to see if it would dry out overnight.
The goo ball did not dry out and needed to be dug out. They proceeded to do that and I was a bit shocked at the amount they dug out. It seemed like my soil was very disturbed under my future kitchen. They filled it in with rock and then put more sand on top. A lot of sand was brought in for this foundation and there was a lot of packing done. Unfortunately, the job would not get done that day and would need to wait until Monday for more.
Prepping the slab seemed to take forever. One blessing was that we were able to enjoy a weekend away at my parent’s cabin. So, a little break from everything. However, it was forecasted to rain again, so we did have a little anxiety about our ground becoming wet. My husband bought a big tarp, big enough to cover our whole foundation. He diligently covered the already prepared sand and ICF’s being careful to put enough straps and logs on it to hold it down during a good storm.
On our way home from the cabin, we stopped to check on things. The tarp held, but now we needed to get the water out. We started by rolling the tarp and moving the water to one corner. Then, we set up the pump and grabbed a bucket and a small cooler to start sloshing the water off the tarp. Water is quite heavy, so it took some time to get it out enough for us to lift the remaining water out over the top of the ICF’s. We had some help from my in-laws and my oldest two kids. Great family teamwork!
Of course, the rest of the kids decided to get right into the muck that the water created…. Needless to say, we all came home muddy. Too bad we did not buy lake property and too bad our temporary well pump was not installed yet. We were able to find a few puddles here and there to at least get a layer of mud off of everyone.
In the end, we were satisfied that we blocked the rain from our foundation. Thankfully, the forecast looked promising for lots of sunshine in the week to come.
On Monday, the job was finally completed. We were now ready to move onto the next step in prepping for the slab, laying the plumbing.
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