Day 1 - Wednesday, July 26, 2006
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Initial work begins
- Shed move
- Sewer line move
- Porch removal
Day 2 - Thursday, July 27, 2006
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Excavation complete with frost footing overdig
Day 3 (of work) - Monday, July 31, 2006
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Concrete work starts!! Day 3 - Footing Pictures
Staked out footings and wall placement.
Footings will be set tomorrow morning with the City's inspection around noon and the pour shortly afterward.
Walls will tentatively be poured Monday, August 7th.
The floor will be poured in the following two weeks allowing for plenty of cure time before we start framing on September 8th.
We also made the decision to go with 6' poured walls and a 4' poured wall on the south end. This saves a lot of money and allows us to set standard windows in the wood frame part of the wall.
Day 4 - Tuesday, August 1, 2006
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Day 5 - Sunday, August 13, 2006
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The first week of August brought three major thunderstorms, so the second week of August was allowing the ground to dry. With another impending storm forecast for Sunday evening, Saturday I purchased a 40x60 tarp, eight 15" anchor stakes, and 200 foot of rope. As soon as I started putting the tarp up, I realized I needed more rope and purchased 300 more feet.
Using garage hooks I secured the tarp to the house above the basement level and beneath the eaves where the porch was (where water was runnign into the dig). I cut up 2x4 chunks, drilled 1/2 inch holes in them, and placed them atop each of the rebar sticking out of the footings to keep the tarp form ripping on them.
After 5 1/2 hours I had the tarp up and secure, but decided some props were in order. I made three make-shift posts and clamped them to the ropes that support the tarp to keep them from falling over.
After all of that work, we only got a little rain, but it was dry under the tarp.
Day 6 - Monday, August 14, 2006
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Monday morning storm rolls in...
Tuesday I checked with the concrete man, and work was to begin Wednesday morning.
Day 7 - Wednesday, August 16, 2006
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Setting the concrete forms really starts to bring things into focus.
Pouring the walls...finally.
Day 8 - Thursday, August 17, 2006
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The excavators get right back on it.
Interesting Development - Saturday, August 19th
During the pouring of the walls, Mr. Pomeroy (owner of PGL Crook-crete) mumbled something about charging me the same price for 6 and 4 foot walls as he would for 9 foot walls. I knew then that something was amiss. I ran in the house and began looking for the bid, and realized quickly from my notes that the only bid I had from him was verbal. I made a note that he commented that the estimate did not include grading labor, because he was the only person that said anything about it. (NOTE: I found out later PGL always overcharges for grading labor. The guys that did the floor said that the grading - done by Zenk - was better than normal.)
The original bid was $7645 for 9 foot walls with 3 windows in the walls, a pump truck (~$500) to get the concrete into the taller walls, and a retaining wall under the existing structure (we were going to dig down to keep the upper levels at the same height). In an effort to cut costs, I opted to keep the floor level with the existing basement (no retaining wall) and poured 6 foot walls and one 4 foot wall. Considerably less concrete and about the same amount of form setting, no retaining wall (far less labor), and on top of all of that, I let them use exact form widths to make it easier on them (which we have to make up for in our framing). He mentioned that all I really saved was the cost of the pump truck...
Saturday, August 19th, I received an invoice for the walls, not including the floor. The invoice was for $4639!!! I was so frustrated that I waited until Monday to call and confront him. After a brief, heated discussion on the phone, he was headed up to sign the lein waiver and get his check. Since I had gotten no written quote, I was not aware that he billed in "phases" so that he doesn't get stuck waiting for someone to finish their work. He then argues that the pump truck and windows were not included in the bid, and that the bid was for 8 foot walls (which he has single form sections for). He thinks that since I saved $880 I should be happy.
Ironically, all of my other WRITTEN bids are for the same work; all inclusive. After speaking to several other people, I discovered that this is commonplace for PGL to over-charge for arbitrary items when ever possible. It appears that the walls I got, UNfinished (he did not vibrate or beat the forms to release air) should have cost around $2500-$3000. But, since I don't have a written bid (let alone the time to pursue fighting it), I opted not to bother arguing, and paid the man. Tad Pomeroy should be prosecuted for practicing such unscrupulous business tactics. He will never see another dime of my money!
Day 9 - Friday, September 1, 2006
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After a few hours on the phone, I managed to get things back on schedule at the last minute. Craig Zenk rearranged his schedule to get my backfill done so that we could pour Saturday morning. (SPECIAL THANKS to Zenk Excavation!!! They kept me on-schedule more than once!) My target for the floor and walls to be done was September 1st, and we finished it on the 2nd! Everyone tells me how amazing it is to be on-schedule with a construction project, so I am pretty happy with everything so far.
Day 10 - Saturday, September 2, 2006
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Pouring the floor.
Menard's also brought the first load of materials - the lumber.
Day 11 - Thursday, September 7, 2006
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Delivery Day.
Week 1 of Construction - Friday, September 8 through Friday, September 15, 2006
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Construction begins! Eight days of 10-14 hours of work. We'll be setting trusses tomorrow on the new addition. Pending rain on Sunday, we'll be tearing off the old roof on Monday and setting those trusses Monday afternoon or Tuesday.
I haven't had time to continue to the theme of the page, so I threw together this slide show of what we've accomplished so far. I'll get it all into the same format as soon as I have time.
Roofing
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Roofing took some time. John was here for the weekend, but I was recovering from being sick all week, and the roofing got rained out before noon with only the west side of the old house shingled. We installed my garage doors and openers since it rained and got cold. I did the other half of the old house on Tuesday night; I was home by 4 and on the roof by 4:15, finishing around 8:15 pm using halogen work lights.
The following weekend Mark came and helped me finish the roof. In two days we were able to get everything on the addition flashed and shingled with the exception of the ridge vent. I installed the roof vent Monday night "under the lights".
Jump to a Day
Day 1 - Shed move, porch removal, sewer line move
Day 2 - Excavation complete
Day 3 - Digging footings
Day 4 - Footings poured
Day 5 - Tarp pictures
Day 6 - Storm
Day 7 - Setting forms and pouring the walls
Day 8 - Completed walls
Day 9 - Backfill
Day 10 - Pouring the floor and the first material delivery
Day 11 - Trusses, material handler, and roll off dumpster
Week 1 - Framing construction begins
Week 2 - Framing construction nears completion
Roofing - The roof has shingles!
Photos with Measurements
Dig Height
Back Wall
Blueprints and Drawings
Garage and Basement level
Footings
Upstairs
Proposed Cabinet Layout
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