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After setting the propane tank, I called for our first County inspection since April. The County said it had issued a stop work order back in May when the USFS squawked about the easement encroachment. Oops.
And near panic. But I had settled up with the USFS, and had paid the ransom (excuse me “mitigation contribution”). So, a bunch of phone calls and faxes plus a pro active building inspector (thankfully) and things were back on track. We passed inspection.
“Oh, by the way your building permit is expired” was his departing comment. Geesh.
I didn’t pay much attention to the storm water engineer report until the called for dry wells showed up. 8’ tall and buried in a 10’ deep hole with yards and yards of drain rock. And I need two of them! All this to catch storm water from a earth roof and a driveway made with pervious concrete. But the code doesn’t recognize a roof that retains water. And pervious driveways are counted as impervious surfaces. So I expect the wells will stay dry.
My motley crew is plugging away. We interviewed (begged) three different contractors to borrow extra crew. No commitments yet, but hopefully . . .
Steve
Debbie, her dad, and young son Will helped remove shoring from the wall pour. We are all feeling the time constraints.
The septic drain field install only encountered one difficult rock. Bigger then a VW Bug. Heavier then a Hummer. We just dug it a bigger hole out of the way and rolled it with the aid of gravity.
The science of drain fields is way beyond the ol’ perc test. In this pressurized dose system, we actually measure the height of the liquid squirt before rotating the pipes to spray into the rocks. Wow.
I ordered a 1,000 gallon propane tank. What was I thinking? 16 feet long, but all underground.
Trying to find some more workers to speed things up. Cross your fingers for us.
Steve
Pour days are always tenser and more chaotic then any other day. There is so much time spent in anticipation and preparation. Then we have to schedule the special inspector, the pump truck and the concrete deliveries. So much is out of our control. And in the end, right or wrong, concrete is permanent.
We got off to a bad start. the special inspector was not aware of the need to inspect the rebar. Then our designated pump truck was delayed because the job it was doing earlier was delayed because of problems with a concrete supplier out of Cle Elum. Pump trucks are not a dime a dozen.
With the crew focused on pouring, it is hard to repurpose the guys onto other projects while waiting. So we wait. A half hour rolls into a full hour. The first hour rolls into the second. Pretty soon we are looking at the effect on the end of the day.
So we cancelled the pour. Then a pump truck came available. So we hurriedly qued it all back up. But now it had to go perfect to get five truck loads done by 5.
Perfection was not in the cards. Two blowouts and a mostly fault pump kept everybody hopping like mad. And left quite a clean up job at the end of a long day.
But we got it done. And so this week we start up again. One more partial wall pour. Three roof pours. And a driveway pour. With winter looming.
Steve
Or should I say braced scaffolding, independent scaffolding and scissor lifts. Turns out the scissor lift is pretty heavy. About 2,700 pounds. And with a small footprint, that makes about 300 pounds per square foot. Even though the suspended floors are concrete with reinforced rebar ibeams, the rating is merely 40 pounds per square foot. Oops.
So we quickly removed the scissor lifts from the floor they should have fallen through and just as quickly started cobbling together scaffolding to preserve the appointment with the concrete guys.
But wait (should I say weight). I weigh 200 pounds. My feet are about 12” long and less then 6” wide. Doesn’t that mean I am applying 200 pounds per square foot? Am I too fat for my own house?
Of course, nothing is easy. And point loads, live loads and dead loads are confusing enough before factoring in wheel loads, bending moments, mid spans, allowable spans, and so on.
On further review, the scissor lift can probably be safely used along the edges of the walls.
With walls growing to 17’, the great advantage of the scissor lift is combining the up/down with the forward/backward. Turns out, the up disables the horizontal movement. Thankfully the limit switches, safety locks and interlocks are clearly marked and easy to, ahem, adjust.
So the pour is still scheduled for the 22nd. Our first wall pour since LAST November!
Steve
The wall bracing comes with scaffolding built in. but that means the wall bracing is susceptible to movement while the scaffolding is weighted down with two or three guys pouring the concrete. The convenience of the built in scaffolding balances against the desire for straight walls.
Renting additional scaffolding that would stand independent of the bracing costs $3,000 per month. That puts money into the balance of straight walls. But wait, since the floor is already poured, why not rent a scissor lift for $500/month and just drive around the walls as we pour?
Friday is our scheduled pour day – 52 yards. I’ll know better then how the scissor lift balanced out!
Taking advantage of the concrete walls, I mounted steel brackets in front of the kid bedrooms so I can easily build benches after the walls get faced with stone. The benches will appear suspended over the deck.
We also started, finally, on the stone facing project. Here you can see some progress on the bottom level.
As big as the house is, it is blending into the landscape pretty much as I had hoped.
We are feeling the pressure of summer ending. Will we get the roof up before snow flies????
Steve
In stick frame houses, windows are framed in. No big deal. A window opening might increase the material cost by a couple of dollars for a header. In concrete homes, windows, and doors, have to be ‘bucked’. That is to say an opening has to be formed before the concrete gets poured. But, because it is concrete, the material used to buck has to be approved for wet contact. Standard framing material just won’t do.
One company has tried a vinyl material that is approved for concrete contact. (www.vbuck.com) We used it on the lower levels. It does not like to stay straight and it poses challenges at the end of the project for the finish carpenters.
The alternative is pressure treated wood. The standard width is 12”, which is really just 10 3/4”. Either way, it is not wide enough to form across the 13” foam block. So, each piece of 2x12 has to be ripped down and then fastened to 2x4 on either side. A 4x4 window thus consumes 16 lineal feet of 2x12 and 32 lineal feet of 2x4.
Pressure treated wood is prone to splitting and warping. It is also expensive. 2x12 costs $1.61 per lineal foot. 2x4 costs $0.52 per lineal foot. That means it is costing $2.63 per lineal foot to buck the windows. That’s enough to make one say buck no!
My main guy assures me the savings is in the end when the finish carpenters get to work with a squarer, flatter wood surface. We’ll see who gets what in the end!
I am pleased to have reused the fish templates in the middle level deck beam. I think I will leave it as photographed. The indent will reflect light and shadows different from the flat surface. Over time, it will weather differently. I like it.
Steve
Overall, a good week or progress. Yes, that’s me pictured in the aftermath of grinding a vertical deck beam from a ladder. The devil is in the details.
Our original plan placed the pantry behind the kitchen, so no kitchen window. Our ‘as-built’ plan scrunched the pantry into a corner and plopped a big window behind the sink. Architects and engineers can only see so much in their crystal balls’ it helps to be on site and ready to make changes as warranted.
Next week’s goal is to have the walls ready to pour up to the height of 7’. I think we’ll get there.
Steve
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