The O. V. Foundation
There will be seven sections to this page. I went around the house five times so there will be a section for each "Round"
and a section called "The Curb" as well as one called the
"Window Well"
Just on a brief note, I took this winter off and started the season with painting the wicker furniture at the O. V. before the Memorial Day parade; which was a great day at the O.V.
Then I skipped over to another customer to build a deck.
The weather has been on and off with rain that has slowed down my work schedule but I am just about to wrap up the
foundation job at the O. V. before continuing on to do a kitchen floor tile job.
SO Here we go ... Round 1
Yes, right away you can see I am about to have some real fun with this project.
Somebody did some patch work with hydraulic cement, creating a lot of work
for me to correct. Let me continue from here and go right around the house.
Here is the view from the opposite side. I cleaned up the opening where the electric goes into the house and secured the wires so that they were not in my way.
As I figured, the hydraulic cement was impossible to grind down without expensive abrasive diamond wheels.
I will have to grind down the dirt and mold to have a fresh clean surface to work from.
But first I chipped out whatever was loose and non supportive.
I chipped the loose materials from this section and the next pics shows what I am starting with.
I clean out everything that is of no value and vaccuum out the joints, prior to painting the area with a bonding agent.
I continue around clearing the area to be worked on as I go.
This brings us to the front of the house and now I will continue over to the far side of the house. I'll meet you there in the next picture. :)
I chipped out what was loose and as you can see in the foreground of this picture
is the window well that will have it's very own section.
But first let me jump back to show the ivy that had to be removed.
I actually had to do a day's worth of landscaping to clear out the ivy. Six large garbage bags of it in fact ! Here is the problem window well before I started trying to dig it out.
Here is a close view of the rear corner of the house before chipping out what was loose.
Continuing around the rear ell of the house ...
This was there and lucky for me it was indented rather than pertruding out from the house.
This is the other side of the window from the previous picture. This is what I have to start from.
Now at the rear of the house. This is almost the end of round 1.
One more picture and we have went completely around the house.
And thus ends the tour in Round 1, showing where I am starting from.
And NOW Let's Go Right Into ROUND's TWO & THREE
since I combined the pictures a bit as not to be too boring.
I started with this corner.
I wasn't sure how well I was going to be able to hide the mess underneath.
I grinded down what I could and cleaned it up to insure a good bond.
I painted a bonding agent on and started filling the low sections.
Here is a closer view.
I had some filling in to do at the ground level. Here I used hydraulic cement.
There it is nice and close.
I continued filling in as I worked my way around the house.
I got down a little below what will be the new landscaped ground level.
More filling in below ground level.
A first coat with strikes in it to help the next coat bonding factor.
Now moving along onto the far side of the house.
I painted the pink bonding agent on and filled some more.
This was a bad spot at the rear corner of the house right before the ELL.
A couple of fill coats and then I cemented this brick in place.
Now you can't even see where I put the brick.
Then a second smoothing coat was added.
A little fill in the corner.
This is the first fill of about 4 coats.
A second coating.
Everything loose is removed.
And the filling in continues.
Looking much better now.
And even better in this shot.
I ground down the finish and removed everything loose in this section.
And this bring a new issue to light. The section called The Curb takes care of the issue at hand.
Here I put a base coat on the last little section
And here I added a second coat.
ROUND FOUR
I finished up the fill coats and this is now ready for the final screeting.
A remarkable accomplishment. I am thrilled.
A bit blurry but you can see the major change here.
The filling is done here and I continue onward.
Under the bay window.
The other half of the bay window.
And the front corner.
On to the far side of the house. Small surface cracks are filled as well.
I grinded down the entire section to remove all loose paint and dirt.
I can work from this with the final screet coat.
This section has also been ground down.
I am still filling this spot.
And yet another coat. There will be one more fill coat to follow.
This is ready.
And the last little section is ready as well.
THE CURB
I figured that the best way to get a sufficient bond at the back of the house
would be to construct a curb so to speak. The obvious issue at hand is that
below ground level there was a lot of loose materials. To screet over dirt would
never form a bond. Cleaning the dirt off the house below ground level would have been a bigger challenge than building the curb. The curb only took a day.
Sooooo ..... on to the pictures
With the ground dug out, the wall painted with a bonding agent and the forms in place it is time to add the rebar for more stability and support.
As you can see, the forms are set level. The rebar is bent using an electrical conduit 'hickey'. The green bar with the yellow band ... a handy device.
The rebar in place and tied.
All secure and ready to mix up some concrete at a rate of coverage that computes to 2/3 cubic yard per bag. 1/2 ft high. x 1/3 ft. deep x 16 ft. long x 3/2 cu. = 4 bags.
It is times 3/2 since that is saying the same as dividing by 2/3.
Haaa! That was easy.
Another view.
And now the forms are removed.
After it is totally dry I will smooth over the face of the curb with some cement, but not before the final screet coat is applied to the house.
The last touch up before the final screet coat was to fill any fine cracks with a PL
product. PL 400 is a construction adhesive that is the best so I trust all of their
products.
Round FIVE The Final Finish
Since I don't have all of the final pictures taken as of yet I can only show you what is done.
I will have to take the rest of the pictures Tuesday since weather may not be good tomorrow.
A little blurry One more ....
I will fill in the curb with a little screet coat and angle the top edge for water run off.
A little touch up on the corner and this section is complete.
This will get a slight touch up but nothing too much needs to be done.
finished and still wet.
Finished and dry.
Continuing right around.
Under the bay window.
This was a bit tricky to work around the pipes but nothing is impossible.
The far side of the house.
I have to add a shot of 'before' when the ivy was still here.
Maybe I can get a better pic with sun shining on the work.
The ELL finished.
And the little section on the left half of this pic is the only place I need to finish.
THE WINDOW WELL
This is going to be a project . Time to go back a bit further in time before this house was even built and "Think like an Egyptian"!
I cleared out all of the dirt the well was filled with. I don't even have a clue as to why it was full of dirt but I do know that mother nature didn't do it. What you can't see clearly is that the right side is raised higher than the level is was set at.
That could mean mother nature moved it with the help of a root. There is a weep hole in the front where the blue can of ant spray is setting.
After digging out the sides I determined that this was poured and built in place.
Pictures of the house in 1945 do not show the wells being present. Maybe they were added by 1950. Hard to say.
I will not be digging out the front until the time comes to put this back into it's place. And YES, it is my intent to reposition it. A little hint .... a hydraulic jack,
levers and fulcrums, and a lot of ingenuity and sweat. LOL
I am not digging because I do not want mother nature to make matters any more difficult than they are going to be. Rain would not help me, although I do know that you can make a concrete boat and have it float.
This page was last modified on Monday, July 14, 2008 03:18:59 PM