Today was a pretty difficult day of digging. Yesterday, Felipe Torres and his crew laid out the foundation forms using 2x6 boards.
These metal buildings need a 1.5" x 1.5" lip in the top edge of the slab to allow the wall sheets to sit slightly below the interior floor, so that's the extra piece of wood you can see on the inside of the forms.
We dug 16" deep, 12" wide. Luckily it rained the previous couple of days so the dirt was relatively soft. Here's my side. I think I kicked some butt today.
 |
| My digging progress |
Chris had a pickaxe that he used to break up the other side. I just used my pointed digging shovel, which was definitely a bit harder. I left my trenches about an inch shallow and an inch narrow so they could finish them with nice square edges.
 |
| This is about as far as I could get before hitting drier, more packed dirt. |
And here is the finished dig.
 |
| Digging is done! I did the whole right side (30'). North Mountain, Hueco Tanks, in the background. |
Digging is hard work. I moved about 1.5 cubic yards, over 2 tons of dirt!
Finally, Felipe showed up and they laid out the rebar in the footings and the mesh across the slab.
 |
| Footings with rebar and mesh |
Tomorrow we'll place the anchor bolts (using templates) and then pour the concrete!
