# A video you just have to watch.  I'd love to know where this is...



## jar546 (Dec 27, 2018)

OMG this has got to be a total PITA client.  This guy with zero experience now knows everything and took a year off of work to oversee his house being built.

I would love to know who the inspector is that told him that they have to clean the rebar so it bonds to the concrete.


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## ICE (Dec 27, 2018)

So you don’t ask for clean rebar?

It’s a shame that the forms gave way.


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## jar546 (Dec 27, 2018)

ICE said:


> So you don’t ask for clean rebar?



Never not once.  Never had a situation where there was an issue.  How about when they spray the inside of forms to keep the concrete from sticking to them.  Do you make them tape off the rebar so it does not get soaked with diesel or whatever they are using?


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## ICE (Dec 27, 2018)

I have placed miles of steel and concrete.  The only forms we sprayed were Simplex panels.  That was done before they were stood.  If lumber is used for forms we cleaned it and used it in building.

Two years forming basements in Colorado ....we never contaminated the steel.

So who the Heck is this and what did you do with Jeff?


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## Msradell (Dec 27, 2018)

Wait till he gets the cost for all of these great ideas he has! I'm betting at the end it's going to be twice the proposed price if he keeps going like this thru the entire process.

Clean rebar?? I'm sure that's always done, NOT


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## Sifu (Dec 28, 2018)

Seems like a real PITA, but he had me at "all building inspectors are underpaid and overworked".  BTW, I do ask for rebar to be cleaned if it has too much mud on it.  (I also discourage stabbing the verticals but thats a different topic). Also, form-a-drain has been around for a long time, I always liked it but could never justify the cost.


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## mark handler (Dec 28, 2018)

Drywall screws?


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## jpranch (Dec 28, 2018)

Well now... that was interesting...


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## ICE (Dec 28, 2018)

Abject failure describes the end result.  The form-work is too weak to hold back that little bit of concrete. I guess I’d have to watch it again to understand why there is no upright rebar. I also didn’t catch what’s up with the footing sitting on gravel......of course I’m not familiar with Georgia construction practices.  For all I know this could be stellar....he sure likes the contractor.


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## mtlogcabin (Dec 28, 2018)

They where wet sticking the upright rebar after the trowel work was done. Not a high seismic zone like you have so it is a common residential practice in the SE USA


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## Pcinspector1 (Dec 28, 2018)

"Abject" Now there's a word I haven't seen used in a sentence. "I abject, your honor!"

Jar, that video makes me want to put a 12-inch sonotube around that guy to hold down his arms, do you concur?


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## steveray (Dec 28, 2018)

He says "french" and "sucking" a lot....Pump truck on a flat site?


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## jpranch (Dec 28, 2018)

steveray, ya I know. Heck, when I was still in the trades it was all wheelbarrow. Pump truck? Whats that? You need a crane to set an 8" I-Beam or roof trusses??? Really???


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## Pcinspector1 (Dec 28, 2018)

Wait until that big tree needs a drink of water and the roots go towards that PVC drain? He won't be so ebullient, then, will he?


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## mtlogcabin (Dec 28, 2018)

ICE said:


> I also didn’t catch what’s up with the footing sitting on gravel.....


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## linnrg (Dec 28, 2018)

I would tell them to clean off the red Georgia clay that's on the rebar?  I have told people to clean off excess before.  The rebar looks like it was laid in that mud.  I have never seen this style of form.  An interesting concept on the footing drain system but do others concur about the radon system?  If he backfills the form with that red dirt then that drain will be short lived and all wasted effort.


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## jpranch (Dec 28, 2018)

I have seen form a drain about a hand full of times. Most contractors do not use it mainly because of the cost. The backfill both inside and out has to be rock or other granular fill and have a silt barrier. Your right about it will not drain and become clogged very quickly without a silt barrier just like other types of drain tile systems. It will work for radon but you really do not have to have a fan right out of the gate. Put the system in as passive and then do a radon test to see if it's hot or not and then decide. Of course even with the passive system you are required to have an adjacent GFI protected outlet to provide for a future fan unit to turn the system from passive to active.


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## ICE (Dec 28, 2018)

mtlogcabin said:


>



Thanks,
The bearing condition I understood.....what I don't get is that the footing is not into the soil at all.  Around here the footing will be, at a minimum, 24" deep and forget the fancy plastic drain.  That tends to lock the building to one location.  Plopping it right on top of the Earth seems undone to me.


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## jar546 (Dec 28, 2018)

ICE said:


> Thanks,
> The bearing condition I understood.....what I don't get is that the footing is not into the soil at all.  Around here the footing will be, at a minimum, 24" deep and forget the fancy plastic drain.  That tends to lock the building to one location.  Plopping it right on top of the Earth seems undone to me.



Uh yeah, they will backfill and this will probably be on a basement which will put it well below the 24" you speak of.  In PA most of the areas I took care of had a 36'-42" frost depth to the footer, in Florida, we only require 12" depth but every single home is engineered anyway.


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## ICE (Dec 29, 2018)

jar546 said:


> Uh yeah, they will backfill and this will probably be on a basement ...... in Florida, we only require 12" depth but every single home is engineered anyway.


It looks like it’s level with the surrounding terrain.  When we have sand the footing is usually only 12” deep just like Florida.  I used to work a section of Long Beach that had mostly sand.  I have seen a few footings near the ocean that were little more than thick slabs.  Post tension slabs can have small footings......but the soil in the video doesn't look like Long Beach and no embedment into undisturbed soil seems wrong.

I know, it's just me and I'm not used to that type of footing. They do it all the time in Georgia. Carry on and pay no attention to what I say for it's the ramblings of a dinosaur inspector.


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## jpranch (Dec 29, 2018)

I love dinosaurs!


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## ICE (Dec 29, 2018)

Pcinspector1 said:


> Wait until that big tree needs a drink of water and the roots go towards that PVC drain? He won't be so ebullient, then, will he?


I see what you did there.


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## fatboy (Dec 30, 2018)

Why didn't they put cross-ties on the forms to keep them from blowing out? Even if they were worried about putting fasteners into the top of the form, they still could have easily created some cleats. They knew it was iffy at best with the soft soil. I have never relied on only stakes to hold forms in place, cross ties work. The contractor is going to earn every penny of his earnings.


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## mtlogcabin (Dec 31, 2018)

We have seen a product similar to this recently for cross-ties and supporting rebar
https://accufooting.com/benefits/


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## Sifu (Dec 31, 2018)

The few times I saw it used they had the steel form stakes tied across the footing to each other.  Relying on the stakes in the greasy mud (if I remember the video correctly the fill was brought in, not undisturbed) was doomed to failure.


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## rktect 1 (Jan 2, 2019)

At least he acknowledges that he is a PITA and at the end that he is crazy.  He clearly knows his client.


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## mark handler (Jan 2, 2019)

mtlogcabin said:


> We have seen a product similar to this recently for cross-ties and supporting rebar
> https://accufooting.com/benefits/


More Stable than Chairs, but I do not like the weakening of the footings. Breaks up the footing ?


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