Hey guys. My house is all jacked up along the back side as we are doing major renovation to the foundation, sill, joists and stud ends.
Its an 1880's colonial. The foundation was originally brick on top of fieldstone. The fieldstone went up about 5ft and the brick about 18" above that to the sill. Anyway We removed the brick as it was in pretty bad shape and frost had heaved it in so it bulged in over the years. So I had some guys come out and poor a footing ontop of the fieldstone.
This is what I expected. I expected them to clean the surface of the fieldstone frame out the area and fill it about 6" high with concrete.
I had to run when they were starting and I came back as they were pouring the first bit of concrete...
They had boxed out a form from 2x8 which was fine. But they had thrown a lot of the removed brick directly onto the fieldstone. Just kind of tossed it on there. Which I was initially concerned about, but they said its filler material and normal for this type of operation. Hey I dont do concrete, what do I know.
But I was thinking about it. Since the rubble (which esentially randomly filled the entire bottom of the form) was not uniform, it woudl not allow concrete to flow through it and connect to the fieldstone, creating an area without a seal and could let moisture invade and cause problems. Shouldnt they have poured a bit of concrete directly on the fieldstone, THEN added the filler material then another course of concrete?
Am I correct in thinking this? or is this not as big a deal as I made it out to be?
Also the form was two seperate forms. two 2' x 10' boxes next to each other. So it had two 2x8s going across the middle where there would be no concrete. They told me that I should jsut leave them there and they would build the block right over the top of that. That seemed a bit stupid to me, since the wood would eventually rot out leaving a gap in the foundation. I plan to cut out the form and fill the gaps myself before they come back and lay the block. I would just do it all myself but I dont have a saw for cutting the block.
What are your thoughts?
Also should the block be filled with crete?
thanks!