YouTube Transcript - Stem Wall Grout Ep.36

Transcript


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after all the work to get this wall
ready and to get the lay out on the hold
downs and get everything taken care of
the actual grouting is almost
anticlimactic it's kind of a victory lap
it goes kind of slow there's time to
visit all you're doing is pumping it
full just a little bit proud of full and
rotting it down and striking it off and
making sure it's completely full it's
pretty nice the only really technical
aspect of this was a mix design because
it needs to be very fluid it needs to be
runny because you want to fill every
crevice and you want it to run through
the the bond beams and and you just want
it to go everywhere and in order to make
concrete runny high slump like an 8 or a
9 inch slump without adding a whole
bunch of water and weakening it I'm
using a super plasticizer so at the
batch plant I instructed them to take it
from about a 3 or a 4 inch slump up to
an 8 or a 9 inch slump with plasticizer
I also instructed them to put Delvaux on
board now Delvaux I think is a
proprietary name or one particular
manufacturer for a retarder that is it
slows down the set because we're pumping
this into hot warm blocks that are
thirsty and dry and it's gonna tend to
make this stuff get hard in a hurry so
between the plasticizer which slows
things down in the Delvaux which slows
things down and the plasticizer which
reduces the water to cement ratio we're
gonna have time plenty of time to set
the embeds
and then we're gonna have lots of
strength when this stuff finally goes
off it's gonna be super hard super
strong and it should be super flat on
the top
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you can see now why these vents are half
blocks four inches wide this way we can
get grout above the vent by blocking off
kind of putting a floor in there with
flashing and we still have room to get
the grout below the vent by pumping into
the space that's left with half a block
sitting on that eight inch block it's
important that all the sales above and
below these vents are full of concrete
now grout as we're referring to it
refers to a concrete mix also known as
block fill it's a three eighths
aggregate mix three eighths is a pretty
small rock it needs to be a small rock
so that this mix will penetrate and get
into all the little crevices and sills
and bond beams inside of these blocks a
bigger rock just wouldn't do it it would
bridge or it would block and just not
run into all the spaces so block fill
grout is a hard rock concrete but the
that the percentage of rock is a little
less the percentage of sand is a little
more it's a compromise between shrinkage
and strength and flowability and with
the add mixtures and the mix design this
stuff's going everywhere and it's going
to be plenty strong
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one other reason that this is a fun poor
today besides the weather and the guys
that I'm working with is a fact that
nobody's bending over to finish concrete
we're not down on knee boards
we're not rotting we're not up and down
we're just standing at workbench height
pretty much striking off the top of a
wall and having if not intellectual at
least enjoyable conversation with our
friends as we grout these walls full and
don't bend over and any day you're not
bending over pouring concrete is a good
day
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so once the concrete is in place and
it's begun to sort of think about taking
up just a little bit I'm gently wet
setting or pushing in to the to the
still very soft concrete these anchor
bolts and I'm pushing them down to the
predetermined level where I stopped the
nuts I put the nuts on there to kind of
help float the bolt if the mud is too
loose and also to make a fairly uniform
projection now these are not perfectly
placed these don't have to be perfectly
placed they just have to be close and
somewhere near the call-out of 4 foot on
center and within 12 inches of the end
of a board
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now the vertical rebar that these blocks
are embracing that come up in the cells
of these blocks are tying the wall to
the footing and keeping the wall upright
helping to resist it being pushed over
by the backfill but the horizontal bars
in this bond beam make the stem wall
work like a big beam it provides tensile
strength at the top of the wall and up
the bottom of the wall that enables the
wall to support point loads and
generally distributed loads and loads
that may show up if some of the soil
somewhere settles a little bit though I
don't think it will but if it does these
bond beams and the height of these walls
make these walls very strong in
resisting any specific load in any
specific place that is either
anticipated or unanticipated these
things hold the wall together at the top
and at the bottom and reduce or
eliminate any cracking or breaking that
might happen
so constructions pretty great it's
greater when you start out I mean that
the fun aspect kind of dims over time it
becomes predictable and you learn most
of what there is to know about what
you're doing and so the fun element kind
of subsides although it is fun being on
a job like this with your friends doing
something where where you can talk and
visit and use your head and use your
strengths and that's good but from a
certain perspective I wouldn't mind if
this was the last block stem wall that I
ever grouted because I have another
outlet now that really compels me for
the last 10 years or so and that's
blacksmithing and that may be an
artistic outlet or a creative outlet
that you'd be interested in or that
you've thought about and we have put
together a list of sort of entry-level
blacksmith tools and some ideas about
where you could go to get them and some
ideas about what you might have to spend
just to get set up with a with a pretty
solid and pretty versatile and pretty
permanent set of blacksmithing tools
that you could use to dive into that
craft if that was something that was
compelling to you and I can tell you
it's compelling to me so if you're
interested in that tool list check that
out in the notes to the video because we
have that we're offering it for free to
those of you who may be interested in
that so in any case craftsmanship is
awesome work is awesome
being productive is key to being happy
in your life and I hope that I hope that
you can find a way to embrace some of
these things in your life and get the
fulfillment that comes from making
things and producing things
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this little section of short blocks what
I mean by that is only two blocks high
is in the garage door opening and so
it's lower than everyplace else in this
foundation because we're going to be
driving in and out here and it's low
because the garage floor is going to be
poured over the top of this little
segment probably six inches thick at
this point so it's only two blocks high
it's not very long there's not much
grout that goes in here but there is a
bond beam in it and it's important that
it be grounded because we're going to be
driving the forklift in and out over the
top of this little short stubble for
weeks perhaps a couple of months as the
house is framed and it's got to be
strong as strong or stronger than any
other part of this foundation and we
will be tying it to the floor that we
pour later so let the floor and this
little bit of stem wall is all working
together to make the entrance of this
garage stable and flat and immovable
from now on
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well the ad mixtures that I put in this
batch cost me an additional let me guess
here probably $500 I'm not sure it's
that much but let me just say this I'm
sure glad I put them in there because
this is a nice warm summer morning and
these blocks are dry and they're hot and
if I would not have plasticized this
mixup I would not have been able to
successfully grout this pore with grout
that's going to get as hard as this
stuff is I would have added I would say
40 gallons of water between these two
loads from the time that the trucks got
here until the time that they left and
that would make a very wet very low
strength block fill but as it is I
didn't add any water and this stuff
stayed very workable for the entire
duration which is about I would say
maybe 40 minutes from beginning to pump
until finally having the wall struck off
now these last few bolts that I'm
setting are right at the end of that 40
or 50 minute window and this fill is
beginning to get a little hard and it
just makes me smile to think of how well
modern chemistry understands and has
made easier and friendlier pouring
concrete I'm a believer in plasticizer
and I'm really a believer in a retarder
like Delvaux
a lot of people are curious about how
much a foundation like this costs and
how much a foundation generally costs is
like asking how long is a rope
everyone's different every sight
condition is different every engineer
has a different set of structural
targets that he's shooting for every
market is different but if you're
interested in what this foundation costs
we make that available to our supporters
and you can go to the notes in the video
in the description of the video for
information on how to get to our website
and access all the costs on this project
if you're interested
so I always order a little more concrete
than I think I'm gonna need this time
I've got quite a little more concrete
than it turned out that we needed but I
don't mind we've got a low spot the
walls are grounded Jeff's got a place to
put it and it will make excellent
backfill
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because of the floor design that we're
gonna use on this house which is a top
flange hanger with the joist hanging
down the inside of the stem wall the
plumbing has to be able to come and
penetrate the stem wall in order to come
up into the exterior wall that's what
these cutouts are about it gives the
plumber room to bring his pipes waste
vent and water supply into and up into
the wall that presents another layout
challenge these have to come up in the
right spot between studs not inside
windows not under doors and in a place
where it can access the plumbing whether
it's upstairs or in the ground floor so
there's several of these cutouts that
had to be put in I hope they're in the
right place we made sure that the grouts
not filling them up and the plumber
should have no problem making his work
happen once we get this deck in the next
video in this series is a brief
description of how this foundation is
working together as a system why the
choices about elevation and size and
height and rebar were made and some of
the things that I learned from my
engineer that were specific to this site
that I think maybe are a little
counterintuitive and are really useful
and might be good for you to know on a
project that you might be tackled
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thank you for watching us grout this
wall thanks for watching and supporting
this series it's always a gift to me
when I realize how many people set aside
time in their day to watch a central
craftsman keep up the good work
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