Underground Plumbing and Digging Beams

The past two days have been busy at the house.  

Yesterday, the plumbers laid all the pipes for the underground plumbing.  Today, the slab guys came out and started digging the beams for the slab.  

I have learned bits and pieces during Ryan's 6+ years of building houses but I guess I'll really learn it all now that I am paying more attention.  

This part, I did know.  When they do a slab, it's not just concrete on top of the ground.  They dig these trenches called "beams" into the ground almost like a grid shaped base to the slab.  So, when the concreate is poured in, it fills the trenches and makes a nice, secure foundation that won't slip and slide.  If the house is really big or the ground isn't just right, sometimes they have to dig "piers" that go down much deeper than the beams.  The piers are bell shaped under the ground and provide even more support.  This is more expensive and luckily our house did not need it.

So, the beams should be finished sometime tomorrow.  The guys were over half way through.  Can I just say, this is probably on the top of my list for jobs I would not want to do.  They dig with regular ole shovels.  No fancy automatic equipment.  I was tired just watching them. 

I added the last picture of all the steel that was delivered today.  That will be the next step.  Slab pour is scheduled for Thursday morning!