The center picture shows the current driveway approach. The two oaks that frame the driveway will be removed.
The right picture shows the preliminary staked layout for the garage.
The orange x's on the trees indicate that they will be removed for excavation of the garage.
Because the lot slopes up, the garage will have 24" high poured concrete walls to keep the garage above grade.
The front right corner is the low point, and the back left is the high point, 3' higher.
The right picture shows the location where we had planned a 12' x 24' Storage Building instead.
After much deliberation, we decided that an oversized garage would be the way to go.
We decided to build 24' wide x 32' deep with a 16' garage door and one side entry door.
to help us with this portion of the project. R&J stands for Ricky and Jessica (Walton). Ricky
is Deborah's brother.
On Friday April 29, 2005, when we got home from work, R&J Excavating had unloaded
a John Deere 455D loader to perform the major excavation and tree removal.
The loader work will be performed by Ricky for Clayton Kendrick Paving.
On Saturday April 30 Mike and Ricky cleared many trees, Ricky pushing them over with the loader
and Mike cutting off large portions of the tree so that Ricky could push the waste into the woods.
What an opening this has created. Maybe this was a mistake. No, in order to regrade to cause water to
run away from the garage, these trees had to go. We will replant smaller trees later.
What are we going to do with all this dirt?
Amanda. Her other daughter, Beth, also met us up there and we all had a nice dinner.
We were very surprised when we got home to see that Ricky and Jessica had dropped off their
Bobcat skid steer lodaer and dug the footer with the backhoe attachment.
The footer is 8" deep x 16" wide and is 12" below grade.
We also installed the grade stakes to ensure 8" depth on the footer. Mike called the Building Inspector
and while we waited for him to inspect the footer before pouring concrete, we cut rebar and keyway pieces
to be completely ready to pour concrete upon inspector approval. Stuart Concrete brought 4 yards of
concrete around 1 pm and we poured the footer. Mike installed the vertical rebar and keways while Ricky
worked the footer for a nice level finish.
We then pushed over the two large oaks that framed the driveway using the loader.
Boy, that opened things up!
Things are beinning to shape up. Look at all that dirt, it is stacked 6' above the garage floor level.
We then squared the walls to the house one last time, plumbed and braced the forms, then leveled them.
Time for more concrete! Stuart Concrete brought 5.25 more yards of concrete and we poured the walls, set the
j-bolts. We then cut up the big oak in the yard, man what a tree!
We then leveled the floor area, spread 4" of #57 gravels, 6 mil plastic, and reinforcing steel wire.
Ricky installed the expansion joints around the inside of the wall to separate the floor from the wall.
He also installed the keyway to divide and lock the floor into four sections.
Mike built the floor box for future floor drain, and the 48" x 48" stoop outside the entry door.
Neighbor Daren Layman payed for a dumptruck for two hours (supplied by Kendrick Paving) to take 15
loads of dirt to fill in a large area around his pond. Still plenty left!
We set up the transit and determined that the top of the foundation wall is the same height
as the center of the road. Ricky suggested a circular driveway exiting as seen in the left picture.
The more we think about that idea, the more it makes sense.
Deborah and Mike decided the circle drive was a good idea - time to remove more trees.
Ricky and Mike finished cleaning up the big oak from the front yard and pushed over two more poplars.
OOPS! Our first tragedy. One of the roots on the poplar must have been holding it up and pulled it to the
side and crushed the concrete well cover. The water line comes out of the top of the well and the plastic
line split. Luckily Mike had been to Lowe's the night before and bought water piping and unions to extend
the existing water line to the garage. We spent about an hour repairing the water to the house.
If that's the biggest mistake on this job, that would be great!
The Building Inspector, Jason Brown, came by late Friday to sign off on the floor inspection.
We will pour Monday!
Deborah stayed home that morning from work to watch and take photos.
The floor is poured and Ricky floats the edges by hand.
Ricky worked the floor for several hours in the hot sun, then sealed it with a 30% sealer.
He also called Clayton Kendrick to send in more dump trucks to remove more dirt.
They moved out 26 more loads of dirt. Things are really shaping up!
Mike and Ricky then located the capped water line, set the water spiggot at the corner of
the garage and continued the water line around the back of the garage.
The wall along the road was then backfilled to keep the water line in place.
Elvis from Kendrick Paving brought and spread 15 tons of gravel on the old driveway (newly expanded).
Doesn't that look much better?
Mike and Ricky ran the water line under the footer into the floor box in the back of the garage,
installed the floor drain, and ran the drain line to a large gravel pit behind the garage.
The rest of the trees in the backyard were cut up and removed, and the entire yard regraded.
The new circle drive was completed and the banks on either side cut down.
Elvis brought 15 more tons of gravel for the rest of the old driveway and the new circle drive.
He also took 3 more loads of dirt. That makes around 50 dump truck loads of dirt removed!