1
One crew digs it and pours it
The excavating and the concrete are the same company and the same men. No separate excavator to schedule, no gap between the two, and nobody to blame if the hole is wrong.
Case studies
Three additions. Three foundations.
Every builder asks the same thing before he hands a foundation to somebody new: what does this guy actually do when he gets on site. So here are three room additions, in Wheaton, Oakbrook Terrace and Elmhurst, start to finish. The access, the dig, the pour, and what the framer walked onto.
Wheaton
Room addition foundation in Wheaton
A great room for De Groot Construction, poured in December snow.
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Oakbrook Terrace
Room addition foundation in Oakbrook Terrace
About 2,000 square feet of addition and garage. It doubled the house.
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Elmhurst
Room addition foundation in Elmhurst
A side yard turned into an attached garage, with a master suite going on top.
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Every job, not just these three
The parts that do not change.
Three different lots, three different towns, three different sets of problems. These are the things that were the same on all of them.
2
Six bag mix, every pour
There is a cheaper way to order concrete and Abel does not order it. Same mix on a garage floor as on a foundation wall.
3
The neighbors get handled first
Abel is usually the first trade on the lot and the one on the property line at six in the morning. John has that conversation before the equipment shows up, so it stays off the builder's plate.
Got an addition coming up this season?
Send John the print and the address. He will walk the site with you before anyone pours.