After the foundation footings crew came in, the well driller showed up promptly the next day (Tuesday June 10th) to start drilling our well – unlike city folk we have no municipal water or sewer services so we’ve got to drill a well for our water, and have to have a septic system installed to take care of…well, you know  🙂

To select a spot to drill the well, we first started by selecting a location which was the prescribed distance from our septic system location (50′ minimum), and also where would be a good location for the water lines to enter the foundation.  From there, the well driller used his “dowsing rods” to check if there is any water below ground, in or around the area.  In our case the rods indicated water at a spot close to where we selected so we decided we would have a shot there.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not one to generally buy into such things like dowsing, but really it didn’t make any difference to me how the well driller picked the spot – I was going to just trust his judgment regardless of how he made his determination.

They started drilling at maybe 9am and had hit water at 140′ by around 11am.  They “shocked” the well (basically the dump in a bunch of chlorine) and capped it off, and were set to return later for a yield test.  That day was today, and as it turns out, our well is artesian, which means we hit a good vein of water under positive pressure, that will just flow naturally to the surface through our well – if we ever have a power outage situation, we’ll still be able to get water from our well – great news for a well!  We had heard there was good water in this area and this experience seems to have borne that out.  Also, perhaps some anecdotal evidence for dowsing rods?

This week has been a busy one – first off we had the foundation crew in to set up the forms for the foundation footings, after they were done I installed the “radon ventilation piping” as recommended in the latest Ontario Building Code.  Basically this is just 4″ PVC pipe that has holes drilled along one side (typically used in septic system weeping beds) and runs around the interior perimeter of the foundation footings, and then come up through the basement slab, where it is for now just capped off – but at a later date could be vented outside.

I guess right now the townships around these parts of eastern Ontario just don’t know if radon gas will ever become an issue, but it was only a few hundred bucks and a couple hours of time to lay the pipe in place, and why not do that now before pouring our basement slab floor – a lot easier to do it now than to add it later if radon ever does become a problem, I figure.

We ordered and took delivery of 140 sheets of 2″ x 2’x8′ XPS foam and 150′ of weeping tile drain (for radon protection).  We also got a 20’x100′ roll of 6mil poly to use as a vapour barrier under the XPS.

The XPS foam we will double up to give a total of 4″ of foam, or R-20 insulation under our slab.  From there we will staple down our 1/2″ hePEX tubing to provide the radiant heat in the basement slab.

In the old days, we would have been out there with shovels and pickaxes, busting our asses digging through that rocky, rocky soil.  Thankfully, we were able to leverage some modern technology to assist us with the excavation.  All told the job was done in about two hours!

Because there is bedrock about 2′ down across our site, we couldn’t go very deep, but, we may be able to arrange a walk-out basement with this setup!