Any Maine home construction project is exciting, particularly when you start fresh from the ground up. Of course, before the first nail goes into a piece of wood, you need a solid foundation. Getting to the point of pouring the cement for your foundation can seem like a really long time during which nothing progresses. But excavation is a key part of ensuring the stability and longevity of your new Isle Au Haut home.
Get to know the process of excavation, so you can understand what is really going on during this first phase of new construction. Below are the steps required, from the moment you sign your home building contract to pouring the concrete.
Clearing and Preparing the Construction Site
Before excavation, your construction crew must clear all vegetation from the site where your home will stand. This means removing all trees, bushes, rocks, and underbrush. Depending on where you choose to build, it also can mean digging, heavy lifting, and removal of tree stumps, boulders, and parts of old structures.
It is also important that the excavation includes the removal of tree roots. The construction team clears all such roots from at least a foot lower than the level where the building will sit. When removing objects and digging up things like boulders and tree stumps, the spaces left in the ground require filling and compacting before laying of the foundation.
Foundation Excavation
Based on your architect’s plans and where construction of your house will take place, workers “set out” the site. This involves placing wooden stakes in the ground to mark edges of the foundation site. Between these pegs are strings that map out the rest of the foundation. Your contractor also determines the foundation’s depth.
This marked site is where actual foundation excavation occurs. The process involves a lot of heavy equipment that removes earth from the designated space for pouring the foundation’s concrete. Sometimes the trench dug for your home’s base requires reinforcement to stay in place. This usually depends on your soil’s depth and hardness. For very loose soil, the crew uses planking to hold the soil back for the foundation pour.
Pouring Your Home’s Foundation
After completing the site excavation, the crew pours the foundation concrete. They pour the mixture into troughs as they shape and form it into the solid, yet workable base for your new home. This foundation pouring can take between three days and over a week. While awaiting completion of this process, the crew sometimes works on masonry or other projects.
Excavation of Your Foundation Is a Slow, But Critical Process
It is hard to wait for this part of your construction project to complete. You feel ready to see the actual framing to begin. But the foundation is so critical for the stability and longevity of your new home that no one can rush this part of the project.
For many new homes that take 15 weeks or longer to construct, the first third of this time usually focuses on excavation of the site and the foundation. It always seems like things drag on too long, here. But the reality is that you want everything to be just right with your foundation, to prevent expensive repairs years down the road.
Luther’s Home Building and Excavation of Isle Au Haut, Maine performs quality work with affordability. Of course, as general contractors, we provide full-service building and remodeling, from excavation to the final roof tile and everything in between. Call us in Isle Au Haut at 207-610-9159 to discuss your construction plans and start the process of building your dream home.
