At Home In The Woods

[dcyrilc]

The only thing I might add to this is to let subs know up front (written in the contract) that if they cause another sub to redo work, that they will be responsible for the costs. IE: if a plumber cuts out floor joists that the framer has to come back and repair, the plumber will be responsible for the cost of the repairs and that the cost for the repairs will be deducted from any monies due to the plumber.

 

[Obed]

Pops, thanks for a very thoughtful reply. I'm taking your comments to heart.

It bothers me that your concrete guy expected the footings to settle any amount, let alone 1-2"...

I may have not described the foundation guy's comment very well. I asked him if one side of the garage door could settle 1 or 2 inches differently than the other side. I'm thinking he said that that could happen, not necessarilly that he thought it to be very likely.

Find out EXACTLY what each sub has included in their bid. More importantly find out what isn't included ...
Pops

I had to learn this lesson the hard way. I got a written estimate from the excavator for excavating the house. He asked me if I only wanted him to dig the basement. In context, I thought he was asking if backfilling the foundation walls would be part of the quote and I told him "No, just the basement." Come to find out, his estimate didn't include digging the retaining walls. He knew good and well that the basement would have 2 full "walk-out" walls. How could a "basement only" estimate not include the retaining walls? So we ended up paying at least another grand for digging the retaining walls above the "basement only" estimate. I let him know that I was very unhappy that he did not specify that the retaining walls were not included. That episode and another like it caused me to look elsewhere for backfilling and moving of all the extra dirt. He had worked very well with us for a year clearing, building the road, septic, and assisting with electrical and natural gas lines. Unfortunately, with the very slow construction business, I think he was getting low on funds, had some bills to pay, and may have started milking the job.

 

[mcd176]

As others have stated be sure to get everything in writing and read over it twice, there is always some fine print somewhere, Good luck on your new homestead.

 

[Obed]

Insurance. You need to make sure all the subs you hire have workman's comp and liability. Ask for certificates. ...

We have a subcontractor's agreement that we are asking the subs to sign. The form states that they carry workman's comp and liability.

 

[Obed]

Wow! GC for the first time, pregnant wife, winter coming on, living in the RV....Aaaahhhhh!

Jay, yes we have lots going on right now. I'll be soooo glad when all the concrete has been poured. I'm stressing a little at this point because concrete is forever. If other things in the house aren't done right, they can be fixed. It's just very hard and expensive to fix concrete and things like plumbing in the concrete.

 

[Obed]

Thanks for the water well posts, I used to be in that business. Just curious on why you had to use steel casing?

Goose, steel casing is the standard in this part. While I'm no expert, it may have something to do with all the rock the casing must go through. When our well driller inserted the steel casing, he had trouble getting it to go down the hole. They had to pound the casing to get it in the ground. PVC could never have withstood such treatment. Of course, maybe PVC would have flexed more and made it easier to get down the hole to start with.

Obed

 

[Obed]

The weekend of 11/14/2009, I worked on prepping the area where we will locate the camper and the storage trailer. I used to consider the backhoe mainly a toy because in the past I used the box blade much more than the backhoe. However, recently the backhoe has come in very handy. I used it to take down 5 trees. Then I put on the box blade and graded the area. I was able to get a nice level pad for the RV. A lot of the dirt is topsoil. However, after we got some rain, the soil packed down pretty hard, hard enough that it should support the camper. Unfortunately, before the ground got packed, the cement trucks turned around in the area and created some pretty big ruts. I have since fixed the ruts that went through the RV pad but haven't completely fixed the spot where the storage trailer will sit.

 

[Obed]

The pregnant wife built an insulated house for the well. This house is temporary until we can put a pressure tank in the basement. My wife is very capable. In addition, she is also a great cook. How'd I ever get so fortunate? Her only drawback is sometimes she wants to drive my tractor.

 

[Obed]

The foundation contractor started finished putting up forms for the poured concrete walls on Nov 16, 2009. We decided to use poured concrete walls instead of block because I'm paranoid about leaks, mustiness and mildew in the basement. They placed styrofoam in the walls create the brick ledges.

 

[Obed]

The foundation crew keeps a microwave in the truck that they pull out on-site for heating lunch.