Essential Tools for Building with Concrete

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Building with concrete is the most important component of construction. At the very least, every home, commercial building, structure and edifice requires a foundation and/or footings. There are about a dozen critical tools for pouring footings, foundations and finishing flat work. Every concrete job will require the following:

Excavating Tools

• Shovels ' preferably both spades and flatheads. Without a shovel, a concrete job is dead in the water. Whether it is leveling the grade beneath the forms, filling in the spaces between the form and the ground on grade, filling wheelbarrows, filling buckets with sand or aggregate to fill a mixer, mixing concrete, cleaning up a spill, the tasks within a concrete job that require a shovel are countless.
• Wheelbarrow ' The fastest way to move material manually, with very few exceptions, almost every job site requires a wheelbarrow.
• Pick Ax ' Breaking up compacted dirt or rocky soil with a pick ax is often the preamble of shoveling. Tearing up the ground before shoveling makes the process exponentially faster.
• Digging Bar ' A digging bar simply can not be replaced. When you require a great deal of leverage, only a digging bar will do. Also, they are good for breaking up hard ground in tight fit areas like the holes required for forming tubes.

Forming Tools

• Tool Belt ' A good tool belt is required to remain organized while working.
• Tape Measure and Long Tape ' Arguably the most important tool on any jobsite, a tape measure is used for determining the lengths of forms, for keeping the forms square and for checking your work. A long tape serves the same purpose and is necessary when the lengths exceed that of the tape measure.
• Building Square ' Square and plumb being the most important aspect of building with concrete, a building square is used to keep forms perfectly perpendicular to once another.
• Two-foot and Rocket Level ' Levels are necessary for checking ' the level of the forms and checking for plumb.
• Hammer and Hand Maul ' While most contractors now use hand drills and decking screws to assemble their forms, hammers are still necessary for all kinds of different situations, particularly when stripping the forms. Additionally, a hammer is required to tap the sides of the forms in order to settle the concrete and release trapped air stuck between the concrete and the forms. A hand maul is necessary for driving in stakes and busting them loose once the concrete cures.
• Pliers and Wire Cutters ' Tying rebar and the tie wire in between the forms requires pliers. Mistakes require wire cutters as does pulling the forms once the concrete cures.
• Crowbar ' From everything to pulling nails and pulling forms to gaining the leverage required to lift or torque forms, crowbars are essential tools for building with concrete.
• Rebar Bender ' With the exception of slabs poured over wire mesh, almost every concrete job ' with the exception of very small jobs or specialty projects ' requires rebar.
• Electric Drill ' While hammering nails into the forms is still a suitable means of attaching forms to one another and to the cleats and stakes, a drill is much faster, less labor intensive, and more precise.
• Circular Saw ' A circular saw is necessary for cutting the forms to length.

Finishing Tools

• Concrete Vibrator ' While not essential, vibrators ensure a solid, airless concrete cure. A simple stick can be used to serve the same purpose, but it is not as efficient nor effective.
• Aluminum Straight Edge ' A straight edge is necessary during the pour. Once the concrete is settled relatively flat with the vibrator, the straight edge is used to level the concrete to a greater degree. The width between forms will determine the length required.
• Trowel ' A trowel is used to smooth the concrete and create a semi-slick finish.
• Edger ' An edger is used to add a nice, round edge to the sides of a concrete job.
• Groover ' A groover is used for pads and sidewalks. The soft fault line created is the first to crack if the concrete is stressed as it settles. The crack inside the groove, it is hidden from view.
• Floats ' Floats are used to give concrete a slick finish. A float is used last, after the straight edge, trowel, edger and groover.

Although building with concrete may seem like a grueling task with many needed tools, it can be quite easy if you have all of the essentials. Contact our team at BN Products today and we will get your started with your project.

Southwest Florida is a beautiful place to settle down and build your dream home. First, however, you need to make sure you build your home on a solid foundation if it's going to survive everything our climate throws at it. In , Hurricane Ian cost $112.9 billion in repairs ' the third most costly since .

As the Lee County Public Safety Department warns, home foundations may fail when hurricanes do their worst. You've got more to worry about in a hurricane than just strong winds. Flooding and storm surges can affect all parts of the county.

Building a stem wall on a concrete foundation is a great way to strengthen your home. Let's explore what a stem wall foundation is and why you should consider it for your Cape Coral new build.

What Is a Stem Wall?

Stem walls form a connection between the foundation or footings of a building and its external walls. They're short, often just a couple of feet or less, and there are three main construction styles.

Masonry Stem Walls

Builders can create stem walls from masonry blocks, typically reinforced with steel rods drilled into the footings. This provides extra stability.

The belt and suspenders approach is to then fill the space around the steel reinforcing rods with mortar. This provides additional stability.

Poured Concrete Stem Walls

Alternatively, you can pour a concrete stem wall. This is typically considered the strongest option, given the high strength of poured concrete. In this case, the foundations are laid in two pours.

First, you will pour the footings, allowing them to cure. Reinforcing steel can either be drilled into the footings or embedded before pouring. Next, shuttering is erected to form a frame for the pouring of the concrete stem walls.

Finally, the stem walls can be poured as one continuous structure around the perimeter. Depending on the level of the final foundation, you may want to leave a section with either a lower wall or no stem wall for the garage entrance.

Wood Stem Walls

It is possible to build wood stem walls in certain circumstances. However, you will need to carefully select wood that is up to code and won't expose your home unduly to the threat of a termite invasion. They are sometimes known as pony walls.

The Advantages of a Stem Wall Foundation

The purpose of any foundation is to stabilize the house. It should also be able to effectively dissipate forces applied from above or the side. A stem wall foundation may be able to do this more effectively than other types of foundation.

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That's because the stem walls are tied into the foundation of the house, meaning that the weight of the house is distributed over a larger area. This provides greater stability and allows you to construct a home of considerable weight. Like the roots of a tree, they can provide stability in a storm.

Flood Protection

Recently, flood zone maps have been redrawn in Southwest Florida. Lessons have been learned following the devastating Hurricanes Ian and Irma.

Reports indicate that more lenders now require homeowners to get flood insurance to mitigate the risk. If you're building a new home, it just makes sense to give it the very best flood defenses from day one.

A well-built stem wall foundation can provide excellent storm defenses for your home. Not only does a stem wall provide greater stability, but by raising the foundation, it can also help to keep floodwaters at bay.

Aesthetics

If you're looking to literally take your home up a notch, a stem wall foundation is a great way to do it. They provide a pleasing, elevated aesthetic which a lot of homeowners love.

They're particularly well-suited to homes that are built on ground that varies in level. The use of stem walls can help to even things out in a more cost-effective way than a poured monolith foundation.

Ease of Access

A stem wall foundation allows you to create a crawl space. This gives you much easier access to your plumbing and electrical systems. They're also easy to inspect so that you can keep tabs on pest control.

Not as Prone to Cracking

Monolithic slabs can be prone to cracking if the ground is not well compacted beneath them. This can necessitate expensive repairs. When you are looking for a new home builder, be sure to choose one that offers a great warranty on load-bearing components.

The Disadvantages of a Stem Wall Foundation

You will find that more work goes into maintaining a home with a crawl space than one that doesn't have one. They can be tricky to insulate, which is a consideration in Florida, where you want to keep cooling costs to a minimum.

Cost

In most situations, the cost of a concrete stem wall foundation will be higher than a slab foundation. The exact costs will vary depending on where your new home is located.

However, maintaining your electrical and plumbing systems may be cheaper in the future. That's because of the easier access the crawl space allows.

Access

Stem wall foundations typically elevate a home. This may mean that they do not provide the level of access that disabled people and seniors are looking for. However, using ramps could be one way around this issue.

Build Your Dream Home With Coral Isle Builders

Stem wall foundations can provide a super-strong, durable base for your new home. When you're designing your dream home, you want to be involved every step of the way. From the foundation to the finishes, this is your chance to craft a home that is just for you.

At Coral Isle Builders, we bring those dreams to life. Work with us to create a design that works for Southwest Florida, your budget, and your aspirations. Contact us today to get the process started.

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