Plumbing, Plumbing, Everywhere!

It's very exciting to see the drainage pipes being laid out across the lot. It's like the floorplan is coming to life! I hope to post some pictures soon. When you look at the locations of everything, it doesn't look like the house will be that big. But I know it will eventually look fine. I've read that it always looks smaller than you envisioned as you poor the slab and start framing.

So the plumbers started on Monday. They did most of the master bath, the utility room, and maybe started on the powder room. I don't think they worked Tuesday, because I went out there around 3PM and it looked pretty much the same as it did on Monday around the same time. They did work yesterday (Wednesday). I stopped by and they had done the extensions to the kitchen. They should be working today.

He said they should be finished and inspected by Friday. After the inspection, the slab guys can come back out and dig the chain walls. My electrician friend also said he will come down on Monday and help me with the electrical components that go under the slab. This includes the floor outlet in the living room, running the line to the kitchen island, and running a conduit from the house slab to the garage slab. I'm going to try to get my plumber to dig the trench for my electrical service line while they have their trench digger at the site. With this done, I could lay the line from the utility pole to the house now. If the plumber can't/won't do it, then a rental would be about $380.

I'm also waiting for the results of the survey they will be doing now that the slab forms are up. That was scheduled for last week, but apparently they didn't get to it. I'm checking with them today.

Sand Spread Inside Slab Area

On Monday (Jan. 21), I had the sand delivered to fill in the space under the slab. It took 144 cubic yards and $1,800, but I should now have enough! I had the same bulldozer man that I used for filling in the whole lot and sand from the same company.

At first, the bulldozer wouldn't start. Probably because it was the coldest day so far this winter. I had asked him to be there for 7 AM. The sand didn't start coming until around 7:40, but he didn't get the dozer started until 8:00. By then, the first two loads were on-site. The sand didn't come as quick as I would like. I had to call and ask for a second truck to help. They sent the second truck twice, but afterward they went back to one truck. The last of the 12 loads was delivered at 12:40. The dozer guy still had some leveling work to do, and it took him until around 2 PM. After the last load of sand was spread, I had about 1/4 to 1/2 a load left over.

Also in the morning, the slab guys came out to move the rear garage form 4 inches closer to the front. They also removed a 2x12 from the back of the house so that the dump truck and dozer could get back there. All their work took about half an hour.

That afternoon, I went across the lake to see some Alenco windows from a place that gave me a quote. I'm reconsidering vinyl windows. For some reason, I had convinced myself that they wouldn't be good enough to satisfy me, and that I really wanted fiberglass frames instead because of their sturdiness and thermal insulation qualities. The only place I've found that has fiberglass is Pella, and their prices are way high. I'll continue to look for other suppliers of fiberglass windows, but I'm comfortable with the vinyl after getting a good look at them.

On Tuesday, I let the surveyor know that I'm ready for them to survey with the slab forms in place. The ETA is sometime late this week. I also called the plumber to let him know I'm ready for him to start. He said it would be a few days before he could begin. I asked him to call me and let me know when he'd be out there.

Plans Complete!

This is one of those times when pieces just seem to come together at once. I picked up my final plans from the designer today. But leading up to that, some things just fell in line.

I had been waiting about a month since the last time I heard from him. Then he had another revision ready, and for the very first time I got to see things other than the basic floorplan: lighting plan, slab plan, piling plan, etc. He said that I should review and get back to him quickly so he could wrap my project up by Friday. If I was to go over a week, then he expected me to pay him at least half of what I still owed him. I See. So, it's okay for him to take weeks to do his part, but I need to give him a quick turnaround and wrap everything up because it's convenient for him?

For the floorplan, we went through about 5 revision cycles. Now, I'm certainly ready to move ahead on this, but I wasn't about to rush through everything else without thinking it through or at least understanding the notes and diagrams for the new parts of the plan. I turns out that it really wasn't a rush.

Well, one of my biggest questions centered around the elevation of the slab. There's a local regulation that your slab needs to be the higher of the base flood elevation or three feet above the crest of the street. The plans had been drawn up with a total slab height (slab + footings/chain wall) of 2 ft. I didn't understand if the designer made assumptions about the present elevation of the lot or what. How did he know I didn't need three feet to build high enough?

I asked him, and he said they made assumptions, but if it turned out I needed a taller slab they'd modify the plans. The survey would tell me if this would be enough. Thus the other piece that fell nicely in place: I had ordered the survey about 4-5 weeks prior, and I had been on the phone with them lately trying to get it done. On my way out the door to bring my last revisions to the designer, the survey company called. It was ready to be picked up. And it turns out that my lot is roughly one foot below the required slab height. That means the slab plan they came up with is fine. It'll be about a foot out of the ground, and the chain walls will be about a foot in the ground.

My other questions were answered by the designer and some research on the web. For example: 6x6 2.9/2.9 WWF is "wire welded fabric", or highway wire, the large chicken wire type stuff they put in concrete to reinforce it. So I got all my questions answered and revisions made, and today I picked up the final plans. I can still go back if I discover some final tweaks are needed by next week. Otherwise, I need to pay the designer the rest of what I owe him and take two copies to the engineer to have them stamped. Then I can go apply for the permit.

I'm going with the post-tension slab instead of traditional rebar reinforced concrete. It's a bit of a risk because none of my family knows much about this method. But I hear from friends and professionals that it's a solid concept and it's good to use in our area. I'm starting to see them used more and more around the area.

Finally, I also got a bid for my pilings. I need 54 of them, and the bid is cheaper than I expected. I braced myself for $10k-15k, but the bid is around $8,000 (~$165 per piling). I also know now that I need to put some more sand down where the house & garage will go. About another foot. So as soon as I can get over there to stake out roughly where the boundaries are, I'll schedule the delivery of the sand.

Selecting a Surveyor

So I'm still waiting on the final plans, but that works out okay because there's another thing I'm waiting on before I can apply for the building permit. And that's the survey.

I have a copy of a survey from 2004 when previous owners of the property had it subdivided into two lots. It shows the four corners that were marked with rods in the ground, along with length and angle measurements. It also shows the location of the old raggedy chain link fence that I had torn down when the trees were removed.

What I need now is a surveyor to give me what's called a "builder's package". This is a series of visits to the site that includes:

1. First trip - the survey and staking of the four property corners and the "construct benchmark" (Okay, I don't know what a construct benchmark means). I assume this is what I bring with me to get the permit.
2. Second trip - the forms or piers location and elevation
3. Third trip - slab location and elevation
4. Fourth trip - final fema and final improvement location which would be the sidewalks and driveway

As an aside, I also found out today that I get my street address number assigned when I apply for the permit.

So on with the surveyor selection news! I started with the same company that did the original survey. After all, their name is stamped right on the page! And I figured that because they already did the work before, it would make it easier for them to lookup details of the property in the parish records. This company said they would do it for $1,150 and that they're backed up for 4-6 weeks with work right now.

Then I tried my usual method of googling for local providors. I called about a dozen of them. Some handle only marine work (when I said I needed a survey of some property, one guy aksed, "Does it float?"). Some are so busy, they aren't accepting any new work right now. About three or four asked me to fax them the legal description of the property. That's the legalese wording on the act of sale that begins with "A certain piece or portion of ground..." Some of these companies gave the impressions of being larger companies, and others appeared to be small operations where the guy answering the phone is also the one doing the work. Everyone except the the company on the original survey quoted a price of $1,200, and they predicted timeframes anywhere from one to six weeks.

I faxed the information to all these companies. One called me back to ask for more details about where the lot is located. They wanted the street address & such. I had thought the legal description was how the property was described in public records. I have yet to get a response back from this company. Another guy e-mailed me to say that that he couldn't find the info he needed on the property either. I gave him the same details I had given the other company.

Over the next couple of days, I heard from no one. So I decided to sign up with the original surveyor. They'd been around for a while, and apparently they were able to locate the information on the lot that they needed once before. Once I paid by credit card, I e-mailed scans of the legal description and also the original survey. So I expect their first visit between August 13 and 27.

The guy who had e-mailed me earlier did reply again today saying he had found more information and that he would visit the lot to determine if he could do the job. He would charge $1,300. I wrote back to thank him and let him know I've gone with someone else.