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| This beautiful Marietta home built by Kyle Henry sits on a national award-winning basement foundation. |
The entries are displayed at the World of Concrete show in Las Vegas, which is one of the largest annual trade shows in the country. The entries are viewed and voted on by some of the nearly 50,000 attendees that come from around the world.
In 2013 we submitted an entry for a foundation we constructed in East Cobb County for our longtime client, Kyle Henry of Kyle V. Henry, Inc.
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| Doug Herbert presents the Project of the Year Award to Kyle Henry. |
Kyle Henry’s complex foundation in Marietta is certainly a worthy winner. The custom home is nearly 7,000 square feet, and took Kyle a full year to construct.
We recently met with Kyle and the homeowners, Jerry and Celeste, to see this beautiful home, which was being readied for move-in. With its breathtaking views, high ceilings, and detailed craftsmanship, this home is truly an example of custom homebuilding at its finest. At that meeting, we presented Kyle with an award as a way of expressing our thanks for involving us in such a prestigious project.
Of course, with every masterpiece comes challenges, and this home was no exception. “After I bought the lot, I wondered if I had made a mistake,” said Jerry, the homeowner. A very steep grade combined with poor soil conditions meant that extraordinary measures would have to be taken. “We visited the lot and I thought to myself, ‘I’m not so sure about this’,” said Celeste.
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| The house foundation had complex 18’-0” tall walls. |
The house was a courtyard design, which meant the driveway and turnaround was across the entire front of the house. “To manage the rainfall, Doug suggested we raise the top of the basement wall up to the subfloor level across the front of the home,” explained Kyle. This allowed Kyle to direct the water away from the home and across the driveway.
Because of the incredibly steep grades and poor soil, the project started off with 50 augered concrete piers varying in depth from 5 to 12 feet. Then, helical piers were needed to transfer the load of the house away from an existing modular block retaining wall at the rear of the site. The engineer, Jim Ringo of Georgia Geotechnical, specified five different footing sizes, each heavily reinforced with rebar.
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| Kyle Henry’s ingenious design utilized the foundation subwalls to form the private spa and pool. |
Our layout crew worked closely with Kyle and his excellent grading contractor, Donald Davis. One of our robotic total station layout instruments was on the job most of the time during the footing and wall construction. The foundation had 99 points, or 99 different corners of the house that had to be laid out.
There were 21 different wall heights ranging from 4’-0” to 18’-0”. The design included a tight-radius curved concrete wall section. A sauna on the Terrace Level and the Master Bath on the Main Level were built into this unique, rounded area.
Kyle’s experience as a custom home builder surfaced early on in the construction when he suggested an addition to the original house design. Because of the steep grade, the house required a subwall for the home and another subwall for the upper terrace foundation. Kyle suggested that a pool and spa be constructed on the Terrace Level between these two subwalls, utilizing the subwalls for the pool construction.
The pool – complete with a continuous flow system for swimming in place – and waterfall give the back of the house a whole new feel. Located adjacent to private seating areas with fireplace, arched openings, and beautiful reclaimed wood walls, the ambiance created by this pool is unmistakable.
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To add some more fun to the award, we made
Kyle his very own “Championship” belt. |