Walls, footings and a little tractor

Walls
Our contractor will be building the forms for the new classroom, office and fellowship area foundation walls this week. If the weather stays relatively dry, they ought to be ready for another concrete pour by the end of the week.

Footings
Meanwhile, Warren and volunteers need to build two more footings -- one under the new wall for the hallway to the classrooms wing and one under the new wall in the sanctuary.

The classroom wing footing involves digging a 40-foot trench under the floor of what was Bruce Hall. The ceiling is a bit low but there is lots of sunlight under there now. And no snow or rain.

The sanctuary footing involves using a concrete saw (like a chain saw with a diamond-tipped blade) to cut two 3-foot-by-3-foot holes in the concrete "rat slab" on the ground under the sanctuary. Then, the holes have to be dug out, framed in and concrete poured in them when the walls are poured. Warren's figuring this noisy, dusty duty will fall to him.

A little tractor
Warren is searching for a little landscaping tractor with a backhoe and with a bucket/scoop on the front that is sitting idle. He is thinking you may know a landscaper who is through working for the season and may be willing to loan or rent his to the church for a very reasonable fee. These tractors can be rented, of course, but the fees aren't as "reasonable" as we're hoping for.

The tractor will be used for another large but delicate job: digging and filling footing drains. That means going around the outside of the whole new construction area plus the existing sanctuary, digging drain trenches, putting perforated pipe, landscape fabric and 100 cubic yards of drain gravel in them and then backfilling a lot of the dirt now piled up in Mound Emmanuel. If we can find the tractor, work can begin immediately around the sanctuary.

Please, click on COMMENT below this item to let us know if you'll be able to help and when. Warren will be checking to see whom to expect.