Lot 8 at Post & Beam

Today brings much rain, which makes it difficult to shoot pictures. However, as you will see, I found a break in the weather to take these.

I would like to start by updating what I wrote yesterday. This particular home will have a sump pump under the house. This is located at the lowest point. It will collect water and then pump it back up to the sewer located at the street level. Water collects in the basin and once it reaches a certain level, the pump kicks on and removes the water.
The point of construction seen in the first picture is called post & beam. You can now see the black visqueen vapor barrier, the engineered "I" joists and the details of how the sill plate connects to the foundation.

You can see in the picture to the left that the floor joists fit nicely into a pre-determined cavity that was created when the foundation was formed. Before the pressure treated 2x6 sill plate goes down, there is a cellulose membrane that goes in between the two materials. This creates a tighter seal and protects against rot. Those straps that look like fingers are inserted into the concrete when the foundation is poured. They then get connected to the sill to help keep the house attached to foundation. You may have heard of horror stories of old houses sliding off their foundation in an earthquake or wind sheer? When you invest in a new Arbor Home, you can be assured you have a home that is structurally engineered to protect your family in the event of a such occurrences. New homes are substantially safer then older, used homes.

Wondering what those two long "rods" are? These are located at the rear corner of the houses and are additional structural hold downs. They run from the foundation, up through the rear "pony" wall and will ultimately connect the foundation to the first floor beams as well as the second floor framing. You will see more details on this in blogs to come.