After a delay due to extremely heavy rain and bad weather, pile driving has now recommenced and is going very well. In fact, despite the delay, we are still on target to complete all pile driving on schedule. There are many issues that can be encountered during pile driving, from hitting impenetrable ground and fractured piles, to simply slow progress due to ground conditions. However, in this case, we have not encountered any such issues.
While pile driving is underway on the main house on the elevated section of land, we have also been busy constructing the separate garage unit on the lower lying land. We have already constructed footings and grade beam and are now preparing the reinforcement structure ready to pour the concrete floor. As the floor will be taking a relatively high load, we are not using pre-cast slabs, but have back filled with sand and will be casting a heavily reinforced slab in place. In casting directly onto sand, it is important to ensure that the underlying layer is adequately compacted. If not compacted this layer of floor support may settle over time and 'sink away' from beneath the floor. This may then lead to cracks and other structural weaknesses in the floor slab. With the garage, we used a mechanical compactor on the supporting sand to minimize problems in the future.
While pile driving is underway on the main house on the elevated section of land, we have also been busy constructing the separate garage unit on the lower lying land. We have already constructed footings and grade beam and are now preparing the reinforcement structure ready to pour the concrete floor. As the floor will be taking a relatively high load, we are not using pre-cast slabs, but have back filled with sand and will be casting a heavily reinforced slab in place. In casting directly onto sand, it is important to ensure that the underlying layer is adequately compacted. If not compacted this layer of floor support may settle over time and 'sink away' from beneath the floor. This may then lead to cracks and other structural weaknesses in the floor slab. With the garage, we used a mechanical compactor on the supporting sand to minimize problems in the future.