At Home In The Woods

[2manyrocks]

It's important for these drains to be air and water tight. Just think of the smell you get just from having water evaporate from an unused water trap that allows septic gas to leak into the house.

 

[CurlyDave]

What's the point of pressure testing a drain line? Drain lines don't carry or hold pressure. I understand filling with water & checking for joint leaks before covering with crete. Pressure just seems like overkill.......

RD

The reason for conducting an air pressure test is that it is often easier to determine that a leak exists with air pressure than with water. Small leaks sometimes don't drip water because of capillary action (water surface tension).

While the initial reaction to this might be "if they don't drip why worry about them?" The problem is that once soap is introduced into the drain system it counteracts the water surface tension and the leaks drip.

Domestic drain lines always have soap in them from bathing, hand washing, and dish washing. None of these activities happen during construction.

Eddie is absolutely right about the tree roots. They do exactly what he says.

 

[Diamondpilot]

On a side note, I wanted to express to Obed that my critisism is meant to be helpful ,and hopefully I can offer ideas, or points of view, that you might not have considered.

I've read everyones replies, and it sort of seems like they might be ganging up on you, but it's just everyone being concerned and sharing what we're thinking. We're not there, we don't know your conditions or even your plan. While I can only speak for myself, I think the others would agree that it's very stressful to build a house, and having to hear a bunch of critisism during the process doesn't help with that stress level, but it's all intended to be helpful during this process.

I know that when I post a thread on a big project, I always appreciate what everyone has to say, and find allot of the comments to be very helpful. We never know enough, and if you get just one suggestion that solves a problem that you never thought of, then it's all worth it.

Eddie

Well said Eddie. We only want a good end product for him. He has waited this long and lived in a camper making sacrifices this whole time. He, his wife, and his new child only deserve the best.

Chris

 

[dave1949]

On a side note, I wanted to express to Obed that my critisism is meant to be helpful ,and hopefully I can offer ideas, or points of view, that you might not have considered.

I've read everyones replies, and it sort of seems like they might be ganging up on you, but it's just everyone being concerned and sharing what we're thinking. We're not there, we don't know your conditions or even your plan. While I can only speak for myself, I think the others would agree that it's very stressful to build a house, and having to hear a bunch of critisism during the process doesn't help with that stress level, but it's all intended to be helpful during this process.

I know that when I post a thread on a big project, I always appreciate what everyone has to say, and find allot of the comments to be very helpful. We never know enough, and if you get just one suggestion that solves a problem that you never thought of, then it's all worth it.

Eddie

Thanks for saying this Eddie.
Dave.

 

[Pops15]

Thanks for saying this Eddie.
Dave.

Ditto.

 

[Cat_Driver]

I have to agree with someone earlier who suggested some sort of construction manager . GC / Adviser etc.

I understand none of us are there but taking care of problem by running to the internet to solve those problems is not efficient for everyone concerned, owner or plumber.

With as many great people who are out of work one would think there would be a guy to hire with experience ad a job foreman of over seer.

It's the little things that cab turn into huge problems down the road. The couple of things I've read here with the back fill, compaction and drain leak or not leak are things hat could be either foreseen or settled issues before they got to the point of frustration.

There are going to be hundreds if not thousands of these kinds of things pop up and none can slip by.

Sub contractors have many, many more ways to skim money from you than you can even think of because they have been doing what they do for years and know the tricks of the trade, a good guy will protect your investment.

One thing I may not have read. Did anyone test the concrete for strength when it hit the job site? How about adding fibers to the concrete, out here it was inexpensive .......

Harde steel fibers mixed will increase flexural and bending strength by 1.5 to 3 times that of standard reinforced concrete. Steel fibers reinforce in three dimensions throughout the entire matrix. They restrain micro-cracking by acting as tiny reinforcing bars. The earlier a crack is intercepted and its growth inhibited the less chance it will develop into a visual crack or problem.

Engineering News at NC State

Personally Since I learned about fibers in concrete I have never poured a wheelbarrow full of concrete without fibers.

This is just one example a good manager would talk to you about.

 

[EddieWalker]

With as many great people who are out of work one would think there would be a guy to hire with experience ad a job foreman of over seer.

I've seen comments like this fairly often, and wanted to comment on it. While I can't speak for the rest of the country, I do have some knowledge of what's going on in my area. Here, things have slown down, but there is still work going on. More remodeling then new construction. Of the new construction, it's more custom homes then anything else. The spec home market is just about dead, but there are those who are still doing a few of them. Rental homes, duplexes and apartment buildings are also in demand, as it's getting harder to borrow money, more people are renting.

Saying that, I have found that those who are working, are the ones with the better reputation with the better skills then those who are not working. While it's not 100%, the slowdown has had a cleansing effect that is getting rid of those who do shoddy work and have burned their bridges. The bigger companies are busy and looking for workers, but have become very selective in hiring the better workers. There are allot of guys looking for work, but nobody wants to hire them because they have a history of problems, and/or cannot produce any sort of history of what they have done. I've been looking for help for half a year now. It's not something that I have to have, but I have enough work lined up that a quality helper would speed things up and allow me to take on more projects. Since my reputation and quality of service is what keeps me busy, I've been hesitant on hiring anybody. Of the guys I've talked to, none are what I'd want to represent me to my clients.

If you hire somebody, and they are not currently working, I'd be concerned why they are not working. While you sometimes get lucky, the odds are very strong that the reason he's not working is that nobody else wants to hire him. The odds are also very strong that there's a reason for this. Having worked with all sorts of people in the trades, those reputations are usually well deserved. When they are hungry, they can be very convincing, but once the job gets going and they've made a buck or two, the reason for those issues becomes pretty evident.

Eddie

 

[2manyrocks]

There is a certain level of efficiency in presenting issues on TBN because the OP has already received many good suggestions from people who have been there and done it already.

As has already been said, now is the time to make sure these foundation and drains are correct. Once they are covered with cement and a house is sitting on top of them, not so easy to fix.

I just had some block laid to enclose a garage, and I felt lucky to get my blocklayer because he is so busy. The reason he is busy is because he is dependable and does good work at a good price. I had one smart aleck who wouldn't even price the job just because he didn't want to take the time to cut out the block to make overlapping mortar joints.

I thought about the OP's decision to lay a footer under his garage doors because at least I had a footer under my garage door opening and that made it possible for me to go ahead and lay block to close mine up. The OP was wise to go ahead and do a footer in that area, but it also made me wonder what was going on with his job that the contractors didn't put a footer there to start with. So the OP and his wife then had to do the work themselves that should have been done in the first place.

I personally appreciate Eddie's posts in particular because he gives us a contractor's view of the situation. You aren't going to hear some of the things he is saying come out of the mouth of very many contractors in person because they'd just as soon you didn't know.

 

[charlz]

I am wondering with the water test... could the weight of the water in the pipes have caused some settling in the pipes and air _did_ shift around later e.g. overnight? Just a thought.

 

[Pops15]

I've seen comments like this fairly often, and wanted to comment on it. While I can't speak for the rest of the country, I do have some knowledge of what's going on in my area. Here, things have slown down, but there is still work going on. More remodeling then new construction. Of the new construction, it's more custom homes then anything else. The spec home market is just about dead, but there are those who are still doing a few of them. Rental homes, duplexes and apartment buildings are also in demand, as it's getting harder to borrow money, more people are renting.

Saying that, I have found that those who are working, are the ones with the better reputation with the better skills then those who are not working. While it's not 100%, the slowdown has had a cleansing effect that is getting rid of those who do shoddy work and have burned their bridges. The bigger companies are busy and looking for workers, but have become very selective in hiring the better workers. There are allot of guys looking for work, but nobody wants to hire them because they have a history of problems, and/or cannot produce any sort of history of what they have done. I've been looking for help for half a year now. It's not something that I have to have, but I have enough work lined up that a quality helper would speed things up and allow me to take on more projects. Since my reputation and quality of service is what keeps me busy, I've been hesitant on hiring anybody. Of the guys I've talked to, none are what I'd want to represent me to my clients.

If you hire somebody, and they are not currently working, I'd be concerned why they are not working. While you sometimes get lucky, the odds are very strong that the reason he's not working is that nobody else wants to hire him. The odds are also very strong that there's a reason for this. Having worked with all sorts of people in the trades, those reputations are usually well deserved. When they are hungry, they can be very convincing, but once the job gets going and they've made a buck or two, the reason for those issues becomes pretty evident.

Eddie

Eddie,
What you describe in your area is what it was like here 2 years ago. Last year things really starting going downhill. This year things are terrible. There were 350-some houses built in one nearby town last year...a down year. This year there was one new house built in that town. Numbers for all towns and counties around here are similar.

A friend on mine's son is a developer. He usually builds 50-60 high end houses a year. In mid to late 2008 he laid everyone off and stopped all work on everything he had going that wasn't sold. He'll resume operations when there's a reason to. Right now there is NO market for new homes around here.

Its not just the housing market. My brother-in-law works for a commercial construction. They have onging contracts with a local hospital which is one of the major employers in the area. Late last year they cut him to 3-4 days a week. He's been off as much this year as he's worked. He's a foreman and has been with the same company 20+ years. Unless something changes drastically he expects to be out of a job by spring.

I'm glad things are still decent where you are. Its a different world up here.