Digging A Hole... A Big Hole!



Removing The Topsoil To Be Preserved For Later

 At this stage of the game we don't even get phazed when things don't go as planned... we've realized it's part of the game and if you aren't ready to roll with the punches, it's going to be a traumatizing experience.   Sunday evening the rain started lightly and by midnight it was a typical November shower for the Lower Mainland.  I must have woke up every hour just to have a listen outside and try to gauge whether we'd be digging in the morning or not.  We weren't sure which day the guys installing the foundation forms would be coming and we didn't want to dig the hole and have it sit in the rain while we waited for them.  As it happened, the rain got stronger in the morning and we decided to wait a day before digging.   Neal came by on tuesday afternoon around 1:00 to do some maintenance on his excavator and while the weather was sunny we still weren't sure when the forms guys would arrive.  Neal had just left at 3:00 when I decided to call Dwayne to see if he had heard anything about the forms; he informed me they were ready to go as soon as the hole was dug.  I managed to get through to Neal who promptly returned to start the dig. 

Starting To Look Like A Hole

It was in the next couple hours that I learned about how to properly alter a landscape on a large scale.  We had a large rectangle paced off and marked with stakes that were about five feet wider in all directions, perhaps I had it in my head that it was as easy as digging out everything between the four posts and voila, we'd have our hole.  As it turns out, the top soil needs to be removed first and stock piled for later.  In our area we only have about two feet of top soil which leaves another eight feet of clay to be excavated.  The clay was piled seperately and will be used for backfilling the foundation once the concrete has cured and the forms are removed.  The remaining clay will be spread around the yard for countouring the landscape and then the topsoil will be spread around on top so that grass can later be planted.  Seems logical enough after you see it done but it adds about seven hours to the excavation as the massive pile of top soil has to be moved away from the edge of the excavation to make room for the clay.  If there were hills of soil, there were mountains of clay and all the material had to be moved a few times.

Top Soil In The Foreground And Clay In
The Background

After digging the hole to the approximate depth of ten feet (our basement will have 9' ceilings), Dan, the site superintendant brought out a laser level so that we could ensure the ground was level inside the hole.  After determining the lowest point of our excavation, the self-levelling laser was set up on a tripod and a seperate receiver unit was attached to an extendabel guide stick.  When the guide stick was placed somewhere with in the excavation that was higher than our low spot, an alarm on the unit would sound and flashing arrows would indicate if the point needed to be dug deeper or if it was level with the low spot.  This process took about four hours with Neal carefully scraping the high spots until the ground was as level as could be done.  Shortly after we finished levelling, a truck arrived with our first load of drainage rock.  Two loads of the rock were dumped and then spread around the excavation in preparation for the forms to be installed over.   About the time Neal finished spreading the gravel, the sky had clouded over as rain is in the forecast for tomorrow.  The forms will be arriving at first light and we are keeping our fingers crossed but I think the guys will working in the rain tomorrow.





30' High Pile of Clay

Another 30' Pile of Clay