Pictures of my house forms buried by lots of dirt

[Donny]

These are some pictures of my house forms before and after being buried in the ground. There is about 8 wheel barrels of dirt on top of each form. I did this so that the forms would not float up when cement was poured into them. This worked well since I just had the cement poured and they all stayed put. I will have pictures of the concrete being poured into the forms as well as pictures with the forms off sometime next week probably.

I hope this helps somebody!

http://photobucket.com/albums/y148/nightcomes/

- Donny

[JeffandSara]

Hey, Donny-

Great to see your photos! NICE piece of land and great house site. :D Our son just asked me if that's near Dallas, since that's where your sig says you are???

Glad that the pour went well, and will look forward to seeing the photos when the forms come of. (That's SUCH an exciting day, when you do that!)

Sara

PS... With the dirt on them, they look like big ant-hills. :D We did our piers integrated together with in-ground foundation, too, so we didn't do that.

[Donny]

Bullard Texas is about 1 1/2 hours east of Dallas

[JeffandSara]

Hi, Donny--

Thanks, I see where you are on the map. Never visited that part of Texas, though we drove through once when I was a tiny kid. Sure is pretty! :D

Wishing you continued good luck on your project!

Sara :D

[Mark]

Looks great Donny.

I will be starting on mine in May.

What fasteners did you use on those corner pieces, screws or nails? Also what size and grade plywood?

[hawkiye]

Cool pics, good job!

Hey Donny just FYI for future referrence maybe for your brother, you mentioned you forgot to put the rebar in a couple of the piers. I have done stuff like that also. As a mason a little trick we use is to set a stake or some scrap rebar across the top of the form and hang your upright rebar down into the form from it and tie it to the stake with some tie wire of course leaving the amount you needd above the form. With the pump hose or cement truck shute you can just move it to one side if you need to while filling that form then move it back in place when your done. That way it is always there and you don't forget it while your busy doing the others.

Also if you need to bend the rebar after the concrete is cured to line it up or what have you just use a piece of pipe or hollow jack hande to slip over the rebar and bend as needed. You can bend it pretty precise this way.

Blayne

[Donny]

Thanks for the advice hawkiye. Mark, I used those L shaped fasteners that have about 8 holes in them for screws. You can get them at Lowes and Home depot. They are about 50 cents each and sometimes they have them on sale. I used screws to fasten them together. The plywood was 3/4 inch treated plywood. They worked great.

- Donny

[kyle]

Anyone know if there is any great advantage to using plywood instead of osb for your forms? I would assume the osb would leave little indents on the piers but other than that.

Way to go Don, I'll be building my piers over the next month or so, but first I need to get my logs cut before spring comes.

[hawkiye]

Anyone know if there is any great advantage to using plywood instead of osb for your forms? I would assume the osb would leave little indents on the piers but other than that.

I don't think there is much difference. If you got OSB i'd say use it.

Blayne

[KakarotMF]

Nice pics!

I was wondering if anyone has used 4-2x4's / pier to provide a nailing/screwing board? I hadn't considered using hinges like Donny did and now I'm not sure which one I'd prefer. I'd think 2x4's would be slightly cheaper...