Trenching begins for the house foundations.
A newly re-exposed pile cap.
The intersection of the new grade beam footing trench and the footing and drain pipe for retaining wall 4. The design has to rely on the accuracy of the work by Malcolm and the City - already the location of a couple of the piles is not as agreed. Luckily this miss is one easily accommodated in 'our' foundation work.
Another view of the trenches - the orange paint signifies the top of native or undisturbed soil. Our foundations need to be 18" into this soil. This becomes a big issue shortly.
This trench for the biggest footing at the house (under the CMU wall) is where we run into real trouble. The orange line on the left which signifies native or undisturbed soil disappears into the soil. This footing is right where the 'road' Malcolm cut into the property to rebuild the hill so native soil is a good bit lower than hoped. Worse yet, when the City re-graded the Owner's property they did not certify the compaction of the fill (which would have meant that the footings could have started 24" below grade e.g. a lot higher up) and, worse still, the contractor wasn't aware of this condition (even though it was documented in the soils report).
The footings are so big, the Owner wants to move into them! This footing for the CMU wall caused a stir with the neighbors; at least five called the City to object to the 'swimming pool'.
Formwork for the stem walls, rebar in the trenches is yet to come.
The footing and stem wall at the 'back' or hill side of the house.
A view from just outside of the living room ...
... and one from the driveway.