Sunnyhill New Home

Last Friday, Carl Taylor & Sons Concrete Contracting, Inc. began laying out, digging and pouring concrete footings for our new addition. The purpose of footings, or footers, is to transfer the structural loads (live load, dead load, snow load, wind load, etc.) from a building to the Earth. They are an integral part of a building's foundation, and their importance cannot be overstated. 

The building code for our area requires concrete footings to be made with 3000 pounds per square inch (psi) concrete and the excavation to be 3’-6” deep, which is below the frost line and will prevent damage to the structure from frost-heave caused by freezing water in the soil. Our footings are 3’-8” deep and one foot thick. 3000 psi concrete is strong in compression, but weak in tension, so our footings also contain steel rebar set horizontally to increase the tension strength and vertically to provide attachment points and added strength to the foundation and piers that our walls and steel roof pillars will sit on. To ensure that our concrete meets specifications, samples are taken and tested. 

Carl Taylor has made excellent progress in pouring the footings. In addition, they have framed and poured some piers and repaired the foundation wall that was damaged during demolition. If you had a bird’s-eye-view of their work, you would be able to see the entire footprint of our new addition.

In other news, the winter heating issue has been addressed. TEDCO has installed a large gas fired hot air furnace in the area behind the dining room and is currently building a temporary roof to protect it. Next steps include running a gas line and electricity to the furnace, installing a thermostat and running flexible ducts through windows into the fellowship hall and the large basement classroom. Portable fans will be used to help distribute the warm air within the building, and small electric heaters will provide additional heat to the offices as needed. TEDCO has also created a new building schedule with a projected completion date of June 19. It is important to remember, however, that the schedule is a living document and could be affected by weather and other factors. A copy of the schedule will be available at church on Sundays, and a pdf version should soon be available on this blog. 

Finally, we are going to lose the large maple in the back yard. The trench for the storm drain for the new addition will go right through the root ball of the tree, compromising its health. Due to limited space, there is no alternative route for the drain. TEDCO recommends removing the tree before the addition is built and makes removal a delicate process and potentially impacts the building schedule. We will be soliciting bids today.