Day 28: Pouring the first wall lift

Las Animas Concrete and Pacific Coast Concrete Pumping were back again today. This time concrete grout was pumped to fill the network of horizontal and vertical cells in the APEX blocks. The grout is inspected for slump to be sure it is not too thin or too thick. Here is a vid of Mark, the inspector from PSI, performing the slump test.

We passed with a slump of 8 inches, the thinnest mix allowed per structural engineering. A thin mix is desirable because it penetrates hard to reach areas more easily than a thick mix. Mark verified proper rebar placement before pumping. He also verified that grout filled the cells by poking a ¼” diameter rod through the APEX block skin at the bottom course. The rod came out wet with concrete indicating proper fill. Finally, Mark took samples of the grout which will be tested for compressive strength over the next several weeks.

Here is a pic of the pumping crew in action: from left to right, Trevor, Mark, Georg, Todd, Joshua & Justin.

The tasks were:

• Hold the hose over a cell with minimum grout spillage while concrete is shooting out at about 3 feet per second.
• Move the vertical rebars up and down in the cells to help consolidate the grout.
• Clean any excess grout off the top of the blocks.
• Center the vertical rebar in the cell after consolidation.
• Repeat for 100 cells.

Stapling plugs after filling cells under the window openings.


Marty strikes a pose in front of some extra grout used as fill against the east wall. This grout will help facilitate water drainage at this underground wall.

A beam support bracket set in place.

Rafael has a little fun while monitoring the hose.

We finished in just a few hours with no blowouts. We have the rest of the afternoon off, wohoo!

Pastel Green comment for today:
The Portland cement ingredient in concrete has high embodied energy which typically classifies a product as non-green. However, the APEX block cells minimize the amount of concrete needed to make an acceptable structure compared to a typical Insulated Concrete Form (ICF). Additionally, the house is expected to last hundreds of years making the use of concrete more tolerable from a life cycle analysis standpoint.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment.

Day 13: APEX blocks arrive, and more Plumbing

Correction from the plumber:

The reason the ABS pipe is wrapped in foam when in concrete is to allow expansion and contraction of the pipes so they don't wear and fracture over the years. Thanks Coady!

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The APEX wall building blocks arrived today. The road I live on is not wide enough at my driveway to provide access for the large delivery truck. For this reason, the material was moved off the delivery truck to a smaller flatbed for shuttling about 1.5 miles to the job site. A forklift removed pallets from the delivery truck – see pic below.

The pallets were transferred to a flatbed truck. The pallets arrive shrink wrapped, but they were a bit top heavy. The shrink wrapping was cut and the top 2 or 3 rows were restacked by hand. The following pic shows unloading from the flatbed at the jobsite.

The forklift broke down at one point, and 5 full pallets were moved by hand. Each pallet contains 24 blocks, so a total of 576 blocks were moved today. Each block weighs 52 pounds, so almost 15 tons were moved. It was a day of hard work, and everyone was ready for a beer when we were through. Here is a pic of about half the material that was moved by hand.

These will turn into walls over the next several weeks. Here is a pic of 2 blocks shown in position over the rebar.

While the crew was shuttling blocks, Coady and Adam finished up most of the preliminary plumbing. The kitchen and shower drains and vents were completed. Here is a pic showing all of the plumbing so far.

The pipes that come into contact with concrete get wrapped in a white foam material. The foam acts as a cushion providing a bit of protection during an earthquake. There is a pair of French drains installed below the slab. This is an unusual location for a French drain. They are usually installed outside the walls to drain water away from the foundation. These French drains will remove any Radon gas, which is heavier than air, from below the slab. We live in an area where Radon gas may be present at levels high enough to create a health concern.

Green comment for today:
Consider building with a recycled wall material. The APEX blocks contain 85% by volume recycled Expanded Polystyrene foam (EPS). On the one hand, I don’t like perpetuating the use of polystyrene. But on the other hand, the recycled foam blocks have some advantages:

• Recycling the foam keeps it out of landfills. Let’s face it, the use of polystyrene is not stopping today. That material needs to go somewhere.
• Petroleum is an incredible material with many uses. EPS provides an insulation R-value of 4 per inch which is comparable to other available materials.
• The block makes a great Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) resistant to rot, fire and termites.

I leave you with a pic of Justin and his cute puppy Stella – the construction mascot. She’ll grow to nearly full size during this project.

Thanks for reading. Your comments are welcome.