Basement Project of the Year Competition

The Concrete Foundations Association of North America holds an annual competition for the most difficult concrete structures built throughout the country. We have won an award for the each of the past four years for challenging projects that we’ve completed.

For this year’s competition, we entered two interesting basement foundations in the competition.  We’d like to thank Greg Spencer and Brad Quin for their confidence in us to construct these unique projects.

Blue Ridge Mountain Cabin

 

Greg Spencer of Building Knowledge is building this mountain
cabin in Blue Ridge. We entered this basement project for
the “Single Family Less Than 2,000sq. ft.” category.

The first project is a basement foundation for a mountain cabin in Blue Ridge built by Greg Spencer of Building Knowledge. The basement was literally built onto the side of a steep, rocky mountain. The shape of the basement had to be modified to work around a large rock outcropping. The lot sloped 13’-0” from back to front in the 24’-0” depth of the house.  The small footprint required multiple footing jumps and seven different wall heights.

 “Because this job site was so difficult, there were many variables in trying to make the house fit on the site. The folks at Herbert Construction worked with me and helped me find the best solution to getting the house and foundation situated correctly.”

– Greg Spencer, Building Knowledge

 
 

Private Residence in Acworth

Brad Quin of BeQuin Homes is building this home located
in Acworth. We entered this basement project for the
“Single Family Greater Than 5,000 sq. ft.” category.

The second project we submitted is a large, private residence in Acworth built by Brad Quin of Bequin Homes. Using our Robotic Total Station to lay out the job helped us ensure that the complex basement was square and correct. This impressive project had a concrete safe room, used a total of 414 yards of concrete, and had a footprint of 125’x153’. There were 14 different wall heights, including 18’-0” tall walls.

“This is a big house, I really needed to get the foundation put in correctly. I knew HCC specializes in technical jobs of this scale. They did a great job and really came through for me.”

– Brad Quin, BeQuin Homes

Dumb Criminals

Say What?

In 2002 Blair MacKay, 32, was fined $600 for invasion of privacy by a court in Dingwall, Scotland. The court had heard testimony that he had barged into a female neighbor’s apartment and asserted, “I don’t listen to phone conversations!” The woman testified that she had just told her friend over the phone that MacKay was probably listening to them.

                                                                                              

Silly Guy

A five time burglar from Detroit found himself back in the can, charged with yet another burglary. How’d they catch him? He played with some silly putty in the home he’d just robbed and left his fingerprints.

Surprise!

A couple rushing to make a high school graduation ceremony led police on a high speed chase that ended when they sped through a train crossing and crashed into a nearby home (no one was hurt). The wrecked car was going to be a surprise present for the graduate.

Careful Driver

Syracuse, New York – In 1992, Philip S. Whaley, Sr.,was captured and charged with grand larceny and other crimes after a twenty-eight-minute chase involving numerous route changes. For all twenty-eight minutes, Whaley signaled every turn that he made. Said an officer. “We knew exactly where he was going.”

Missing Pieces

Grapevine, Texas – In 1993, 24-year-old David Bridges stole a television set so he could watch the Dallas Cowboys. He was arrested when he went back a second time, to get the remote control.

To Tell the Tooth

A toothless man has been arrested for stealing toothbrushes. According to the O Dia newspaper, 32-year-old Ednor Rodrigues was filmed taking seven toothbrushes from a supermarket in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil. When he was approached by the police, he tried to deny the robbery – even showing the officers his toothless mouth. He finally admitted to the crime: “I don’t know why I did it. I know it was stupid. I have no teeth, what was I thinking?”

I’ll Be Right Over, Officer

Panama City, Florida – Brandon Lamont Dawson, 20, was captured after police found a pager he’d left in his car following a homicide, traced it to Dawson, called him on the phone, and asked him to come and retrieve the device. He was arrested when he walked into the Panama City police station.