Putting in a Foundation – Home Improvement

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Good afternoon, Backyard Brian here.

Today, I’m going to explain to you the beginnings of a garage so that you can see what a foundation looks like as it goes into the ground. This particular foundation is recessed back into a foundation wall that will form the back of this garage. Since the footings hit rock on top, they had to form the footings on top of the ground. Sometimes they’ll dig trenches into the ground, but these are formed on top.  The first thing you’ll notice is the ReBar coming up out of the concrete. We found a footing, and so this will go up in the block walls to be secured to the foundation well. 

We’re going to have dirt filled against the back of this foundation wall, so we need to have those footings. The other thing you’ll see is an orange nail in the corner that’s been painted around. This is included because the foundation has been set with a surveyor, and they’ve come in after the footings were placed. They have marked all the corners so that they’re nice, accurate, and square. That’s what we’re going to use to build the foundation for this office. This gives you an example of how these things are built behind the scenes.

All right, I hope that everyone has a great weekend with their families and have lots of fun in Virginia. It’s gotten a little bit warmer, but we’re going to have a slight change in the weather with snow coming tomorrow. It’s going to be a great weekend. Have fun with your families. Talk to ya later. Bye. 

Backyard Memories – Baseball

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Good Friday afternoon!

Backyard Brian here, coming to you live from the Blue Ridge Baseball and Softball Academy batting cages.

I wanted to talk a little bit about my backyard memories from when I was a kid. One of the things that I spent a whole lot of time doing was hitting, kicking, and playing ball in the backyard. We even built a batting cage in our backyard out of recycled netting and played wiffle ball in our backyard. It’s one of the reasons that I love the backyard so much. It’s the place where I spent a lot of time as a kid. We also had woods behind our house and spent much of our time up there on our bicycle track; riding our BMX bikes. So my question is, what are your backyard memories?

I’d love to hear about your own memories from the backyard. Put them in the comments below. As you’re reading this post, what do you remember from your backyard as a kid? Maybe a great family time? It’s exciting for me, that as I go forward with our team here at Bear Creek, we get to build amazing backyard spaces.

Have a great weekend. I’m looking forward to talking to you next week and enjoy your backyard. It’s a little bit cold this weekend here in Virginia, so you might have to huddle up by the fire. It’ll be spring time soon though! 

The Sun is Shining! – Framing a Floor

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Good morning, Backyard Brian here.

The sun has come out after many cold days, and we’re excited for some sunny weather here in January. We’re getting outside to frame the floor, so I want to show you a little bit of what we’re doing. Here’s the process that’s involved with framing the floor for a backyard structure. This floor system is being built with TGI Joyce, and the advantage of this choice over conventional lumber is that they can span a much farther distance. They stay nice, straight, and flat. They have this OSB-like feature that’s used as a rim board here around the edges. Then, based on loads above, we put insert these squash blocks that help reinforce the frame to make everything is nice and strong.

This particular structure is on a block foundation that we installed this past week. You’ve also got a pressure treated plate that won’t rot under the moisture on top with a foam sealer underneath to keep moisture out. Then there are bolts inside here (anchor bolts) that secure the floor system to the foundation. That’s kind of how this all gets built and put together. We’ll show you some pictures as we go along. We’re using a zip-wall system on this particular structure, which we’ll be able to show you as the walls start to go up. We’re also using AdvanTech sub-floor here. It’s a tongue and groove, three-quarter sub-floor. It’s treated to be weather resistant so that it doesn’t swell like traditional plywood or OSB when it’s rained on, which is important this time of year.