Replies

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 11, 1999 07:20am | #1

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   I would certainly think so. The only disadvantage is the money you will have tied up in excavation work and concrete that could be in the bank making interest. Then again, if you think materials are going to continue to go up, doing it now could be a wise investment. Your ledger bolts will most likely rust a bit. Nothing to concern you. Take the nuts and washers home with you. I'd hold off on placing the floor until Spring. If you put it down now it is possible water will pool on it and you could have some surface damage due to freeze and thaw. You will not be able to backfull and that could pose a safety hazzard. Put up some kind of fence. Also, if you do not have a gravity drain you will need to provide for a couple of low spots, one inside and one outside where you can lower a "trash" pump suction hose.

   I used to live in Illinois. Some of the spec builders I knew up there liked to have a couple of foundations in the ground before the rainy season came. Don't know where you are located but they built on them through the Winter.

2. 
   Ben_Carnes | Oct 11, 1999 07:25am | #2

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   Sure. I grew up in a house in Colorado we built (when I was four). We built one side forms full height and sections for the other side in 4' "lifts." The finished wall was about a foot thick and as we poured we stuck large fieldstones (gathered in the fields around our site by us kids in our '56 Chevy station wagon) against the forms. While the concrete was still green we stripped the forms and wire-brushed the aggregate off the stones and got a nice Frank Lloyd Wright sort of look.

   That wasn't what you asked at all, was it?.... Yes, you should be able to pour walls and let them sit for a winter....I would protect exposed metals (framing attachments) from weather, but you could probably let the concrete set for decades without any problems.

   Have fun.

   -Ben
   View Image

3. 
   Guest_ | Oct 12, 1999 02:55am | #3

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   Search the Breaktime archives. This has been discussed several times within the last year.

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 12, 1999 07:50am | #4

   *Why not start building now?

4. 
   Tex | Oct 13, 1999 06:37am | #5

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   Starting framing on a new house tomorrow. There are only two of us and we do most all the work. ie no time. We want to get our next basement poured so we don't have to go through the usual delays in early spring so we can jump right in when we complete this house. Tex

1. 
   James_Runciman | Oct 14, 1999 05:20pm | #6

   *ok, where do i start.i am going to assume general winter conditions like frost and snow, is that ok?. it is ok to pour your foundation this fall as long as you follow a few what i will call safety rules #1 install your drainage on the out side of your footing, and make a temp. transfer from the inside to the out side so that it will drain your interiour of the basement.#2 with about 2 feet of straw, yes i said straw cover atleast four feet around the interiour of your foundation so that no freezeing can get at your footing.#3 before back filling , brace your foundation walls so that when you back fill, you will not displace your foundation walls, this can be done simply by placeing two or three 4x4 aginst your walls and brace them back to the pier footings, i have a large tarp, and i put on my floor and then cover it with my tarp, but you can do it like i have told you here above#4 the last but not least , is to install a three foot tall orange safety fence around the project, because you could be resonsable if some one falls in and hurts them selfs, with a clear sign not to be on the property. I have been doing foundations for 14 years now, and one of my clients doesn't like to wait in the sprin, so i do all his in the fall, and winter, it is less money for him, because i charge less because it gives me work all year round, and and in the spring there is often charges for smaller loads because of the frost limits put on our roads for weight. well i hope you can find some good in my advice, and if you have questions, dom't be shy, email me them, and i will be happy to help

1. 
   G.LaLonde | Oct 15, 1999 02:19am | #7

   *Tex, A few words of caution.......If you let the ground below the footings freeze and you have either a heavy clay type soil or hardpan or rock a short distance below your footings, you will be replacing your basement walls in the spring. If you have lighter well drained soil, you won't have a problem.

5. 
   Tex | Oct 15, 1999 02:19am | #8

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   I am building a house in the spring. Can I have my walls poured this fall so I will be ready at first warm weather? Please give me a rundown of the pros and cons if this is possible. Thankyou.Jeff