Category: Prep Work

Posted on by — 8 Comments

Casting the Concrete Footings!

casting concrete footings

Almost exactly one year after we moved onto our plot, we could finally get on with casting the concrete footings. We were very excited! I keep on going outside to admire Louis’ handiwork because this really is a big deal. Our future house will be standing on those very blocks of concrete. All this hard work, that is now behind us, will keep our house straight and secure. Even though they will soon be buried under dirt and the shipping containers, this is what will support the weight of the house above.

Continue reading Casting the Concrete Footings!
Posted on by — 4 Comments

Preparations for Casting Concrete

preparations for casting concrete header

Our structural engineer explained to us that the concrete footings could not sit in clay. This is because the heavy house would sink in the clay when it was wet. Therefore, as per our previous post, we had to dig below the level of the clay. Now that this was done, we could start with the preparations for casting concrete for the container footings.

Continue reading Preparations for Casting Concrete
Posted on by — 6 Comments

Digging for the Footings Again

footings

I might have mentioned once or twice on this blog that having a clay soil causes a few complications when building. A few months ago we dug some holes where we wanted to plant the concrete footings on which our container house would sit. However we didn’t have the the final specs from the structural engineer and were unable to finish the work. We are glad we did dig the holes though, because it gave us a good opportunity to examine the soil type; all information useful for us and the structural engineer. Now we have received the final specs for the shipping container house footings from the structural engineer, John Moll, so can continue the work.

Continue reading Digging for the Footings Again
Posted on by — 6 Comments

A Head Start on the Earthworks – Ground Preparation

ground preparation

Even though we had extra time over December to work on the Container House Project, we were not able to do as much on the project as we would have liked. The construction industry shuts down in December. We were not able to hire equipment or buy materials. However, just before the holidays began in earnest, we managed to complete a substantial chunk of the ground preparation on the property. Therefore, welcome to our first blog post for 2019!

Continue reading A Head Start on the Earthworks – Ground Preparation
Posted on by — 28 Comments

We Bought Building Sand and Stone. Why?

building sand header

It seems a bit crazy to buy lots of building sand and stones for our shipping container house when we have tonnes of the stuff right under our feet. There is a reason why we have done so, and this post explains what we bought and why we bought it. Building a home is kind of like baking a cake; you use different ingredients for different purposes, depending on how you want the end product to turn out.

Continue reading We Bought Building Sand and Stone. Why?