Framing & Windows

Have you ever seen a chainsaw for concrete? Now I can say that I have not only seen one, but operated one. It comes with a gas powered hydraulic pump and cuts amazingly. Dean and I enlarged the openings for 2 of the 4 windows, utilizing this amazing tool. The bedroom window and living room window were enlarged to accommodate egress as well as additional natural light and ventilation.

     The basement framing pushes on with a few days to go. Most of the walls are framed with a tricky corner finished recently. The duct work does not allow for the upper framing connection on one corner of a wall. This corner therefore needs to be tied together with the other framing members located adjacent to it. I feel we came up with an elegant solution to this problem Utilizing a false header system and tying everything together with some extra lumber and nails.

Window Wells

The digging is complete and the concrete is poured. Two new window wells were added: one on the South side, in the living room and one on the North side, in the bedroom. The larger 2'-6" x 4'-0" windows are required for egress in case of a fire, for a person to escape or a fireman with an air tank to enter. The south well is 3' x 3' and the North well is 3'-6" wide x 3'-0" long. Both wells are 2'-6" deep with a 6" curb on the outside. The design of the first poured South well that had a minor failure in the form, therefore the North well was significantly reinforced. Some advice given to me after the fact was to make concrete forms stronger than necessary because it is always a giant problem if the from fails. We did not have catastrophic failure but the 1/2" plywood from needed emergency buttressing. Overall it looks good but the next one will be much better.Additionally, the concrete truck brought enough to pour the basement floor. We filled in the trenches from the plumbing and are ready for some clean up and wall framing.