Beam Lifts

Two beam lifts will be delivered this morning from Cresco Rentals - hopefully around 8am. This should be a quick drop-off, but may cause a bit of street blockage during the process. Thanks as always for patience.

The Coming Week

• We are expecting some steel beams to be delivered sometime tomorrow or Tuesday (9.27). This could cause a bit of street blockage while they are dropped off and moved on site. We'll make sure they're quick.

• A cement pour, for now, is scheduled for Wednesday. We will be pouring the garage slab as well as another slab elsewhere in the house. This will involve two trucks at most, should take roughly 1/2 a day and will begin first thing in the morning.

We're definitely progressing!!

Cement Pour Tuesday

We will be having a rather short cement pour - at most two trucks, probably one - tomorrow, Tuesday, starting at around 11am. As we've done in the past we will ensure that there is adequate room for cars to pass freely by. The whole thing should only last a couple of hours.

This extra inconvenience is actually courtesy of our neighbor at 1 Dos Posos, Alan Bott, who elected to oppose a small, inconsequential change we made to the footprint of the house and then make himself unavailable for several weeks while the city attempted to meet with him to discuss it - only to, in the end, admit that he really had no grounds for opposition. Feel free to give him a honk on the way by!

Thanks for your patience on these busy days!

Wood/Material Delivery

We are also expecting a wood delivery today from Dolan's in the early afternoon - not sure exactly what time. This should be a relatively quick drop-off but may require that some material be jutting out into the street for a bit until it is moved on to the site by hand.

There could be some delay in passing by via car while the truck maneuvers into position to drop the wood. Any patience would be greatly appreciated.

Delivery/Pick-Up

Tomorrow, Tuesday, we will have, first, a drop-off of a load of drainage rock (basically small gravel) from a dump-truck style vehicle. The "dump-truck" will then hang around as we will load scrap and trash into it for a haul-away. The truck will be at the top of the driveway and/or partially on the street there for several hours starting at around 8am.

We will, of course, ensure that ample room is allowed for easy passage of vehicles.

Things are moving along!!

Tuesday Cement Pour

As indicated in last Wednesday's post, we will be pouring cement Tuesday (tomorrow). There will be approximately six cement trucks coming one after the other - roughly every 1/2 hour to 40 minutes apart. The pumper truck will arrive early - at around 7:30am to set up - and the first truck will arrive around 8 or 8:30.

We will do our absolute best to minimize the traffic congestion, but patience will be greatly appreciated as the trucks maneuver in to place to park and, when empty, pull out to depart.

Another Cement Pour Update

Our cement pour has now been pushed from tomorrow (Thursday) to Monday. However, to avoid giving the trash/recycling folks any other reason to not do the Dos Posos run, we've decided to push the somewhat traffic-unfriendly cement pour to next Tuesday instead. We'll keep you posted on the details and, will, as always, make sure there is enough room for cars to comfortably pass by without delay - it's the big trucks that could have trouble.

Cement Pour Update

After leaving one side of the wooden forms open for the rebar install, we are now in the process of putting that other side in place. This could take another couple of days. Plus inspections, etc. So...

The cement pour looks as though it will be pushed to Thursday of this week. Again, will keep you updated when we know the specifics (number of trucks, timing of the first truck, etc.)

Hope everyone had a nice weekend. Go Lance!! (in the Tour De France)

PG&E Gas Work

Surprise, surprise... PG&E has now rather unexpectedly shown up to cap off our gas line for the remainder of the construction project. This was supposed to occur long ago - and we were waiting for our 24-hour notice call that never came - and just when we had given up on it ever happening in the near future, here they are!

They will be working on digging up the existing gas line on the 5 Dos Posos property and adjacent street - all to "cap off the line". We are told this will take a good portion of the day.

Truly sorry for the late notice - but had no idea it was happening today!!

Rebar Install Finish/Cement Pour

After a significant delay, we are now planning on finishing the grade beam rebar install today (Wednesday) - hence the rebar truck atop the driveway this morning with an emergency delivery of steel. Then it will all be inspected, then we will pour cement. So my guess is that cement pour #2 will occur early next week. Probably Tuesday. I will keep you posted on the details of the pour as the date approaches.

Rebar Install

Today, and for the next several days, we will have additional folks on site to install the rebar within the grade beam forms/trenches. It appears that this morning there is a fairly large rebar-oriented truck parked atop the driveway - I will see if this is going to be here all day and/or if it will also need to be present every other day that this crew is on site.

After the rebar install is finished we will be moving ahead with cement pour #2. At this point, it looks like this will be taking place early/mid next week. I'd say Wednesday if pressed.

Form Building Continues

The foundation form building will continue this week, which will include the delivery and arrival of rebar with a rebar crew to install it - this will undoubtedly include a truck that will be parked at the top of the driveway. We will be sure to allow enough room for cars to pass. This will most likely occur Tuesday or Wednesday and will take probably one or two days in total.

Also, early in the week (hard to tell despite our efforts), we will have PG&E here to trench up our gas line and cap it at the street for the remainder of the project.

The cement pour for the forms will probably be early next week - we'll keep you posted.

Thanks, as always, for your patience as we move forward.

Grade Beam Layout

The first cement pour was completed as planned on Friday afternoon.

For the next several days, we will be laying out the grade beams and building the forms that will house the cement for these beams. This should provide some temporary relief and quiet from the relative chaos of the pier drilling and cement pour.

We will give appropriate notice when the cement pour for the grade beams will occur. Thanks for your cooperation and patience!!

Cement Pour #1

There will be a very large cement pour tomorrow (Friday, 6/19) starting late morning. We are told that the first cement truck will arrive between 11am and 12 noon - and that trucks will continue to arrive from that point on for several hours. This could be a significant inconvenience to cars that need to pass by in an expedited manner during this time period - although we will do our absolute best to keep a lane open even when there is a truck parked and pumping.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience. Any patience when waiting for us to resolve a traffic issue would be hugely appreciated!!

Good news is, we're moving along at a good pace and should be through the very logistically difficult foundation phase soon.

Drilling Continues

The pier drilling will continue tomorrow, 6/17, in earnest. We realistically hope to be done with the drilling by the end of the day.

Please note -- the large flatbed trailer parked along the street edge WILL ONLY BE HERE FOR THE ONE NIGHT (Tonight, 6/16) and will be used to haul away the drilling rig tomorrow afternoon. Sorry for the inconvenience, especially given our already skinny street with one sided access.

New Drilling Date

We have now confirmed, after a delay due to equipment problems, that the drilling will now begin on Tuesday, 6/16. The rig will be worked on tomorrow and should be up and running by then.

Also, the second half of the pier cage (rebar) delivery should occur tomorrow. The truck parks at the top of the 5DP driveway to unload so there may be some minimal street blockage - I'll make certain that there's no problem with the passage of the trash/recycling trucks.

Drilling/Cage Delivery/Trash Pick-up

An "all in one" post to cover the changes in plans:

1) The drilling of the piers will now, we are told, begin tomorrow (Thursday) morning. This will involve another larger excavator being dropped off to perform the work. Undoubtedly this will block the street for several minutes as it is unloaded and cause a considerable amount of noise for the next few days as the piers are drilled.

2) The pier cages themsevles - 40 or so 15ft rebar circular cages - will be dropped off either tomorrow (Thursday) or Friday and will be stored off the street on the 5 Dos Posos driveway. As with any large delivery, there could be some time where the street is blocked - at least partially.

3) The trash pick-up should occur on the same day that the excavator for the drilling is dropped off - hopefully that will be tomorrow.

Thanks for your patience. Always hard to keep schedules from changing but we're doing our best to keep things under control.

Trash Pick-Up

We will have a pretty quick trash pick-up to clear the site of debri from the grubbing phase - this will be either today or tomorrow and will involve a rather large dump truck parked atop the 5DP driveway. It won't block the street but will undoubtedly cause some slow-down when passing by.

Pier Cage delivery

We are expecting the rebar pier cages (thirty or so 15 foot long rebar structures) to be delivered on Thursday or Friday - this could be quite an extensive delivery and may cause a bit of street blockage when they're being unloaded. They will be stored on the 5 Dos Posos driveway so should be out of the way once they're on site. Will update on delivery time when we know more.

Pier Drilling

Tomorrow should be quiet as the mapping out of the pier locations continues.

However, we are now getting confirmation that the actual drilling of the piers will take place on Wednesday morning. This process will last all day and possibly continue on Thursday. We are drilling roughly thirty 15 foot piers so it could be quite a bit of work.

Clearing/Drilling

We will be continuing with the clearing/grubbing of the site today in preparation for the pier drilling that could begin as early as Wednesday or Thursday. We will keep you posted as the drilling could be fairly loud and will require a larger machine to be delivered to the site. We're moving along.

Machinery Delivery

We've just heard from our contractor that the excavator will be delivered today at 10:30 - a little over two hours from now. Hopefully this will happen.

Machinery Postponed

As things go, not suprisingly, the large excavator delivery has been delayed. It could be today, but my guess is probably early next week. Again, when it is delivered, the street will be blocked for around 10 minutes as it is unloaded on to the site. I'll try and be more specific about the arrival when I learn more. Sorry in advance for any inconvenience a sudden arrival may cause.

More Big Machinery

Tomorrow, 6/3, we will have another excavator delivered to do the grubbing/clearing of the site as well as the pier drilling - so it will be on site for a while. It should be delivered around 9am and will most likely, as the last one did, cause some traffic flow disruption on Dos Posos for around 10 minutes or so as it is unloaded and carefully moved on site (atop the plywood to protect the street from the treds).

Big Machinery

Apologies for the lack of warning - I've been out of town. There was some big confusion and discussion about what needed to be done with the remaining foundation. In the end, the engineer decided that most of it had to go (we were hoping to re-use almost all of it), hence the giant machinery arrived and was used while I was away. It will be leaving today (Tuesday).

However, our excavation, which will involve a similarly sized piece of machinery, will begin very soon - perhaps later this week or early next - so we will have to go through this exercise again.

Will keep you posted...

The Next Step

With the chimney now down and the saved wood taken away for future use in other projects, we are now truly done with the deconstruction phase. It should be very quiet for the next week or two as we review bids and work towards making our selection for the new foundation work.

Deconstruction Ended

The vast majority of the deconstruction phase has ended (on Tuesday afternoon). The chimney, however, somehow slipped through the cracks and still needs to be taken down and the wood that's been stacked and banded together will need to be picked up and taken away for future use in other projects - I'm trying to pin down when the wood will go but it involves a different "re-use" contractor so it's a little more complicated.

Also, some - but not all - of the existing concrete foundation may have to go but that's still up in the air at them moment.

Deconstruction ending

We were told the deconstruction folks would be finished by Monday, but my guess is - due to the rain - it may be pushed to Tuesday or Wednesday. Apologies again for the noise of the chipper. The only positive is that the unusable wood that's chipped gets recycled and reused in other applications instead of just taken to the dump - so try and think about that little fact as the sound is rattling your brain. That's what I do.

Deconstruction noise

Unfortunately, we anticipate the noise from the deconstruction - and the chipper - to continue for the next couple of days. This phase will be over soon however and things will quiet down in the coming weeks as prep for the foundation begins.

more deconstruction

Deconstruction will continue this next week - not to be finished until early the following week. As I mentioned it takes a bit longer to take a house apart piece by piece and save everything possible for other projects - please bear with us.

I have spoken to the crew about letting me know when the large dumpster will need to be taken away and/or brought back again as this causes a great deal of street congestion.

Thanks for your patience!

Deconstruction

Deconsruction - as opposed to demolition - will commence tomorrow, 4.21.09, in the morning. We are taking the house apart piece by piece to save as much reusable stuff as we can for Habitat for Humanity so it will take a bit longer - probably around two weeks - for the process to complete.

We will be doing our best to accomodate the extra vehicles but may need a bit of patience as we get the crew acclimated to our narrow street.

Thanks!