The Barn, Foundation part 3

With the inspection approved it was time for concrete.  After some measurements, I decided to pour 12" thick footers instead of the 10 inches that the plans called for. My reasoning behind that was that code calls for a 24" ground clearance, and a 10" footer would have required me to add an additional block, lifting the barn to almost 30" off the ground. I would be okay with this if we weren't using 2x12 as the subfloor, as this would have put our door 42" off the ground.

After putting a call in to a local concrete company, we were scheduled to pour.  Here's some wise advise about concrete that I'm glad I did not have to learn the hard way. DO NOT mix or pour concrete if the temperatures are bellow 34F. That day the low happened to be 34F, so I opted to pour after 10am to give the temp time to rise.

Here are the tools I used: 6'cu wheel barrow, standard shovel, float, and a hired back (the same friend who helped me dig the holes). 

If you do this your self, don't be cheap and skip the wheel barrow. The extra money spent on a GOOD one was well worth it. However, be careful, it gets heavy when it's half full. Why not just pour directly into the holes? You could do it for the outer holes, if you have the clearance, but I recommend asking the driver to take it slow, so you don't end up with too much in the hole. We could only do this with 1 hole, but I didn't want to risk knocking over a batter board, so we did it all the hard way. The end result was worth it.

We used an estimated 1.7 yards of concrete for the 12 footers.

After they set up for a day, I went back out to work on the the piers. This part is why I did not want to hit the batter boards. Setting the first pier too about 20 minutes from start to finish, without fill.

This step was pretty simple as long as the lines and rebar are in the right place. I just stacked 5 blocks with mortar in the joints. I think the hardest part is going to be filling the voids with block fill and setting the anchor bolts.