We have reached a new milestone in Villaflor; the foundation has been completed!

All of the footers have been poured and the three pads have been laid. In total, it took about 13 weeks from the groundbreaking to reach this point. Weather was the primary factor in delays as the concrete must be mixed and allowed to set without being exposed to precipitation. We are now tentatively looking at a move-in date of November 1st, about a four week delay. But, despite the delays, we are incredibly pleased with the work that has been put in to reach this point.

Our architect Marco, and his team of 5 workers, have installed an absolutely massive foundation on a site far from the urban sprawl. This undertaking included:

• 250 sacks of cement mixed, moved by wheelbarrow, and poured on site. Each sack weighed 50 kgs (110 lbs) for a total of 12,500 kgs (27,500 lbs) of cement.
• 48 m³ (1695 ft³) in large stone was hand-placed during the construction of the footers.
• 32 m³ (1130 ft³) of gravel and 40 m³ (1413 ft³) of sand were shoveled during the mixing of the concrete.

Wouldn’t it have been faster to have the concrete delivered in a ready-mix truck?

Yes, it certainly would have. And we may have gone that route, if it was a viable option for us.

The final few kilometers of road to our lot is narrow and unpaved. Water runoff can cause holes and ruts to form and the path has a couple switchbacks with significant elevation increases. While smaller two and three axle trucks can deliver material without much of an issue, a concrete truck, because of size and weight, may find itself in a heap of trouble pretty quickly. And a stuck concrete truck, with a thousand-dollar load and time-sensitive material, could be quite damaging to both the truck and our budget. So, every single one of the 250 cement bags were mixed on site.

Once the concrete was cured, iron plates were welded to the exposed rebar along the perimeter of the pads and other internal locations corresponding with load bearing walls . Each plate will soon support iron channel that is welded to the plate and becomes structure for the coming walls, second story, and roof. In the first photo of this post you can see the first load of iron channel has already arrived on site. And with the foundation now done, work can continue even in inclement weather.