Start of something big.....

[wroughtn_harv]

Harvey,

With the new law going into effect last September, how has it been dealing with the inspectors for your foundation? At the CE class that I had to go to for my Contractors License, there was allot of confusion on the new regulations requiring all buildings in the state to be inspected. Most of the confusion was about the foundation design and who engineered it. In the end, the clarification was that it didn't have to have an engineers stamp, but did have to pass the code that the inspector you hire follows. Since there are different codes all over the state, it's mostly a localized standard.

I haven't hired any one for out of city limits inspections yet, so I don't have any knowledge of how it's working out. I've had some send me their cards and price lists for doing the inspections, but I'll cross that bridge when I have to.

Most of my jobs outside of city limits are under $10,000 which is under the limit for the new law requiring that all new buildings in the state of Texas pass three inspections.

Eddie

Eddie's right. We're seeing the Californication of Texas when it comes to construction. However, in this instance if an inspector came up and started asking questions I'm confident a couple of the county commissioners would be bringing the necessary rope to the party.

What I've done in the city when I have to do work that falls under the new regulations is have the homeowner be the owner-contractor and I'm providing contract labor or I figure out what I need to do the work. I take that amount along with the material estimate to a general contractor friend. He puts in what he needs and the homeowner pays the price or we walk.

Whatever the general gets is none of my business and I figure he earns every penny. My last job in Dallas was for a landscape contractor. After I started work they informed me I was responsible for the building permit for the hundred thousand dollar plus gazebo because I was the one setting the posts. Since the building permits hadn't came up in conversation I bit the bullet and took it on. It took about three days out of my life to get the permit. The clincher for me was having to get a lot plat from the county on one side of town so I could give it to the city inspector's office on the other. Dallas is a big town. Then the inspector pulls up the very same information I had paid to have printed out from the county on his computer. The stuff I had picked up went into the file along with the copy he printed up. The building permit ended up being six hundred dollars for what I had. That didn't apply to the what the electricians and plumbers had to pay off my permit for their work.

So I use a general and feel sorry for the homeowner. I also feel sorry for the general. The general couldn't do what I do. And I won't do what he does.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I have a question regarding the concrete forms - what is the purpose behind the flat 2x4 nailed on top of the form boards - is this to help keep them straight or for some other purpose? I don't spend much time around construction sites so maybe this is normal but the few jobs I have seen only had the vertical 2x form boards.

Thanks for sharing - am looking forward to following this project.

Like Eddie said it's for the sheet metal to go down past the level of the floor. We usually fill the cavities with foam to seal out the bugs etc.

Concrete guys call it a tin ledge. Some of the metal building guys in Oklahoma don't use two bys to make their tin ledge. Instead they lay two 1 1/2" square tubing side by side inside the form. The inside one is welded to the concrete steel. The outside one is removed with the forms. The inside one is used to secure the bottom of the siding.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I had thirty two weld plates to tie into the steel prior to the pouring of the concrete. There are six door twelve foot wide doors on the shed side along with a walk door. I also put in weld plates for the columns and the end walls.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

The pour went well. It was tough on me because I'm not good at watching people work. They got in and got after it The pour was a hundred and seven yards for forty eight hundred square feet.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Everyone always says you can learn anything from anyone. I've found that to be true. A classic example was on this job. The concrete crew just shook their heads when I told them I had done all the preparation by myself. They shook their heads again when I told them I was going to pull the forms and prepare the next pour also by myself.

A young hispanic on the crew told me that I needed a stake puller. When I asked him where I could buy one he told me had never seen one in a store. But he had once seen an old man with one on a job. When he described it I had to smile. I had built jacks like that for pulling pipe and t posts.

He was right. I needed a stake puller. So I made one yesterday morning. Then I pulled all the kickers. Most of the other stakes will be broken off at grade because they're encased in the concrete.

I left last week on Sunday afternoon. I got home about seven last night. I'll probably be going back, weather, Monday morning.

 

[rtdiggr]

Glad to see you start a new thread Harv. I will be watching with interest.

Shane

 

[PILOON]

RE SLIDING DOORS:
idea for consideration

We needed 4 12 X 12 doors; ie 8 6 X 12's for a barn build.
I had the truss factory make 6' wide by 12' high square trusses with 2x6's top and bottom.(for mounting track hardware)
The end cost was less than my cost for the 2by stock alone plus they installed the plates much better than I could.
Filled spaces with foam insulation board and skinned with siding stock.
Made for light and very strong doors!

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I'm going to make the sliding doors this way.

The framing will be two inch fourteen gauge square tubing. There will be two doors per opening which will be twelve feet by twelve feet. The reason for the double doors is I'll be running two tracks so the doors will all be able to be open at the same time.

The bottom frame member of the doors will be barn door track open side down. I will put in hoops made of half inch round rod into the concrete for each door. The ends of the bottom track frame members will have pins to restrict the doors over opening or over closing. This will also keep the doors from banging against each other or being able to be pulled out at the bottom for access.

This is very similar to the way I build horse stall doors. I see the keepers at the bottom of stall doors sticking out into the hall way and I cringe. It reflects a potential hazard for the horse in that if they step on that and it frogs them, well......

 

[rox]

Harv,
So far so good. The only thing I found kid of odd is that I didn't see any sewer pipes or anything, just smooth concrete. I guess they mus not ever foresee into the future that they might want to put water in theree one day and also drain out water. Or perhaps there is another way that is not immediatly evident. It just seems to me that if you are pouring a slab foundation it isn't that much work to stick one or two in and one day in the future if you ever want to bring in water underground you have made some openings in the slab during the pour. I know I liked having a drain in our 3 car garage in our ast house. Sure helped with the slush from snow and ice meting off the cars. Again maybe it is there and I just don't see it.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Rox this is an over built tractor shed. We're putting in the conduit for future electric when I make the next pour. The client already has a sixty by one hundred barn with an attic, an apartment, a machine shop, and a wood working shop. Next to it is another sixty by eighty barn that now houses equiptment like surplus woodworking and machining tools along with the backhoe, skip loader, and assorted farm tractors etc. This shed will hold the tractors and their attachments. We're also building a shelf around the inside perimeter for air drying lumber cut with his new Logmaster sawmill.

My friend/client is trying to take the saying "he who has the most toys at the end wins" to the limit.