Stay in San Francisco Bay Area

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I have been working in a community built around a golf course called 'The Masters' (it is probably a chain of communities, but I am at the one in Vallejo, CA, also called Hiddenbrook). Greystone Homes is building about 150 homes in this community and is just finishing the last ten or so. It is a dry hilly area (as you can see). The lots are pretty small, but the houses are pretty large. They seem to have designated over half the land as wildlife preserves with jack rabbits (big fast ones) and birds. Pretty clever. The owners get the benefit of the land (like a huge backyard) without the taxes (it is public land). I wonder what they will do if they get real wild life like coyotes, bobcats, and wolves. Hah! If the current patchwork of preserves works, they may decide that they don't like real wild life and want densely developed areas; those are better for people (transportation) and wild life.
These houses run from $500,000 to $600,000 which is pretty steep by most standards, but the San Francisco Bay area has steep housing prices. Their housing market is booming with the low interest rates while rental rates are declining with the high unemployment. All these houses have slab foundations like the one shown here, just poured with laborers finishing the surface. However, unlike most slabs, these foundations don't have rebars, but instead steel cables in green plastic sleeves. After they are poured, the cables are put under high tension to keep the foundation in tact in case of an earthquake. That is probably why they don't have basements or pier and beam foundations.
Here is the same house a few days later after the framers had spent a day putting up the frame. The day before that there had been a couple of guys positioning the lumber and such. This picture was taken just after sun rise and before I really started work at 7AM. They poured the foundation for two houses on the same day and started work on the frame of both houses on the same day. So, the other house was about as far along.
At this site they always use the composite beams or manufactured lumber like I noticed in the Portland area. They use real tiles for the roof and cover the walls with tar paper and wire mesh. Here they are almost ready to apply cement stucco.
When they apply the stucco, they use a combination cement mixer and compressor. Two guys feed this machinery while they are applying stucco. I made a five second video (about 120K, 40 seconds to download) of them feeding cement into the mixer.
Here they are actually applying the stucco. There is one guy who sprays on the stucco and about three other guys who even it out. I made a five second video (about 120K, 40 seconds to download) of them applying the stucco. It seems they are using real stucco in this development and I don't see how there could be any problem of it not adhering when applied this way. The result had a solid feel unlike the pseudo-stucco I saw in the Portland arae.
Here is what it looks like after they apply the stucco. They spray on the cement mixture under high pressure. I was hoping to get a picture of them spraying (maybe even a video), but they weren't working during my lunch. Drats. Maybe I will get so me when they do another house in the next couple of days. Anyway, after this they put up styrofoam as the ledges and such on the outside and cover the styrofoam with cement. The general contractors, Greystone Homes, insures that all the sub-contractors clean up their own messes so I mostly pick up stray trash and sweep the streets. It seems that the inspectors are really hot on stuff not washing down the storm sewers.
Here is what it looks like with fake stone at the base of the walls and the stucco all nicely textured and painted. The interiors are very nicely done with fake wood floors (plywood instead of solid wood) and such. Not what you normally see with slab foundations. The only thing left here is the grass for the front lawn. Here you can see the waddle (or straw filled net tubes) that they put along any areas which are not yet landscape to limit silt getting into the street.

This page was last updated on August 29, 2004