Pouring of concrete into the ICF (insulated concrete forms) started yesterday around 8am. The builder showed up alone. He had paid his helper the day prior, which resulted in a classic post-payday “sick day” for him. Luckily for the builder, one of the concrete supply guys offered to help.
I know the builder expected the job to take only a few hours, because he booked a second-opinion plumber to come at 10am. But it took until 3pm to finish pouring the walls, and what a mess they made! I have no idea if this is normal, but since my plan had been to leave the ICF wall as is/uncovered in the basement (particularly if all I’m getting is a crawlspace), I will now have an ugly mess for a wall. They also kicked the walls everywhere to ‘tap’ the concrete down to the bottom. The kicking left indents on the styrofoam wall. I don’t know anything about ICF, but I’m pretty sure that kicking the wall wasn’t the inventor’s planned means to get the concrete to the bottom. A Fine Homebuilder post indicates that multiple helpers, tamping rods, and a vibrating attachment on a drill are what are used to settle the concrete properly in the form. In that post, their forms were filled in 2 hours. Mine took 7 hours and was only three walls. http://www.finehomebuilding.com/2016/07/12/placing-concrete-icf-foundation
Anyway, at 3pm, the builder disappeared without a word. Since I had been waiting all day at the house to let the second-opinion plumber in for a tour, I was quite annoyed that this tour didn’t happen and that the builder left without telling me he was done for the day. And, since this is a long weekend, I won’t see or hear from him until next Tuesday and am left hanging on the important question of whether this can be a full basement or not. Am I allowed to swear on a blog?