At Home In The Woods

[Mundy]

Around here sanatary sewer lines are air tested. I don't know the specifics but they are charged with a couple pounds (4PSI comes to mind) and they have to hold that for certain time.

The water test your people described and air bubbles gurlgling out sounds fishy. For the trapped air to be moved out it seems the water would need to be flowing or at least moving to move the air. Without some water movement the air pockets would just sit.

 

[Obed]

Today the inspector passed the basement drain lines and site for pouring concrete. The construction manager told him about having to add water to the pipe and the inspector still passed it. Even though the inspector passed the drains, it hasn't passed my approval yet. Tomorrow the plumber will arrive about 10:30 AM to install a vent for the floor drains and perform an air pressure test. I made sure he understood that I would meet him there and that I wanted to be there when the air pressure test is performed.

Saturday night we are going to have a hard freeze (24 degrees F). We will drain the water from all the lines and put potable antifreeze in the traps.

 

[Obed]

Eddie,
The gravel is #57. Someone earlier in this post described what #57 gravel is if you want details on it. Sand does sound like a better fill material around the pipes. I called a friend who is a general contractor in a town about an hour from here. He said that while sand is better, it's common practice in this area to put gravel around drain pipes under the slab and that I shouldn't have any problems as long as there are no big rocks mixed in with it. If we were starting from scratch, I would specify sand.

Thanks for the input.
Obed

 

[2manyrocks]

My concern at this point is that if you are having to oversee this construction manager to this level to make sure that your drains lines aren't leaking, what else are you in for down the road? This is basic stuff, but important stuff.

Nobody wants a septic drain line with whatever yuck stinking up their house later because somebody ran a loader over the lines, broke them, and then wanted to cover up their mistake and move on. There are reasons the drain lines are supposed to be air and water tight.

 

[dave1949]

My concern at this point is that if you are having to oversee this construction manager to this level to make sure that your drains lines aren't leaking, what else are you in for down the road? This is basic stuff, but important stuff.

Ditto.
Dave.

 

[CurlyDave]

To me, the foundation is the most important and the least forgiving part of a house. Errors under concrete are very expensive to correct.

Errors in framing are much more easily repaired during the process of building.

OTOH, if it were my project, I would be looking for a new construction manager. Pay this guy off for what he has done and get someone else.

The reason would be "incompetence". Once you discover and fix the sewer leak he was willing to gloss over, you have absolute proof that he is not competent and can fire him at will, no matter what the contract might say.

Of course if you keep him on after knowing about the leak and not firing him, you may lose your ability to fire him at will. Spend an hour with an attorney.

 

[Pops15]

I agree with Eddie, 2manyrocks, dave1949 and CurlyDave.

 

[tommu56]

I anit no plumber but have a lot of common scene.

To the pressure test would be ok, but I would cap the low point and put risers on all the stubs up about 12" above the concrete level and fill with water and mark every risers water level then watch level if it doesn't go down.

take cap off low point and drain lines, blow out the traps put RV antifreeze in the traps.

tom

 

[Obed]

I met the plumber at the property today. He put a guage on the septic drains, pressurized it with air. We waited 30 minutes and the guage didn't move. He then cut the cap off the end of the septic drain as I watched the guage go down. It looks like there is not a leak. The plumber is in his late 60's and semi-retired. I had never met him before today. Talking to him, he seems to know what he's doing. He's been doing plumbing for a long time.

He drained all the lines and put antifreeze in the traps. It's going to be in the low 20's F tonight.

 

[Obed]

Tomorrow's a big day! We are moving our camper and storage trailer onto the property. It will be wonderful to get onto the property. Plus, with our house located in the woods out of sight of neighbors, we want to live on the property for security reasons. I'm sure we'd get stolen blind during construction if we weren't onsite.

We've been dreading moving day. There's a really steep hill on the street that runs up to the top of the ridgeline. We have hired someone to pull our trailers. I've had some transmission repairs on my truck and don't really want to stress it by pulling the heavy trailers up that hill. We told the trailer mover about the steep hill and suggested he might want to look at it before taking the job but he said he would be fine.

I really hope tomorrow goes without any major hitches.