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Jealous Cow posted:What are we looking at there? You're looking down a line of this stuff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silt_fence For erosion control and stream protection, you need to have silt fences and, depending on additional state and local requirements, hay/sod/berms. That way, once the lot is taken down to earth and graded, you don't have tons of dirt and clay washing off of the lot until everything is finished and grass or sod is planted again. Choking streams and small waterways with silt is no good.
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Nov 2, 2016 19:26
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to watch.
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It's a silt fence. They put them around construction sites so dirt doesn't get washed away, potentially inundating nearby wetlands. It's the last regulatory hurdle before we can dig a giant hole.
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Nov 2, 2016 19:27
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That makes sense. 
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Nov 2, 2016 20:33
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I had imagined your property to be a bare, grassy hill... all the inspections make a little more sense now.
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Nov 3, 2016 00:22
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Yeah, that's a really pretty bit of woods. Are you keeping most of it?
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Nov 3, 2016 02:36
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Liquid Communism posted:Yeah, that's a really pretty bit of woods. Are you keeping most of it? Right now, the plan is to not cut down a single tree, but there's one or two poplars that might come down because they lean towards the house and it'd be safer long-term. The construction site is just an open field with brush on it more like this:  In the end, I'll own about an acre of woods, a half acre swamp, and a developed acre. Should be real nice. Also, getting rid of a few hundred square feet of Japanese knotwood, which is super-invasive around here.
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Nov 3, 2016 12:35
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Goddamn, that's a nice-looking site. Good luck burning out all the screaming buttweed.
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Nov 3, 2016 16:46
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Knotweed is a cast-iron bitch. Fire doesn't usually do it, and neither does ripping it out. We cut it to ~6" tall, glyphosate it, wait 10 days, then mow it weekly. Eventually, it burns up all the rhizome energy. If any shows up the next year, it's back to cut, poison, mow. It usually only takes 2-3 years to get rid of a patch that way. That doesn't help you if you want it gone in a hurry. http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/invasives/documents/japanese_knotweed_control.pdf This is pretty much it, except we mow it during the year.
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Nov 3, 2016 22:22
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Man, and I thought killing Creeping Charlie was a pain in the rear end.
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Nov 3, 2016 23:42
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Speaking of pain in the rear end, trees are nice, but keep in mind how much maintenance you're willing to put up with. We have a billion friggin trees in our yard and fall cleanup is a whore. Not saying cut them down, just hope your yard/build site is far enough away from super established trees so that your cleanup is minimal. Minimally, keep them away from the house so you don't have to worry about your gutters being filled constantly. My beautiful hell 
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Nov 4, 2016 12:43
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Assuming inspection went well on Saturday (waiting for town hall to open) we'll be digging @2:00pm today. Think it appropriate for me to bring a couple six packs for after work down to the site? Woulda done coffee if it had been early.
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Nov 7, 2016 13:05
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Perfectly appropriate in Australia, but America is weird. Looking forward to pics when work starts.
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Nov 7, 2016 13:27
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Coffee is always good. You could pass out beers to take home, I guess.
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Nov 7, 2016 13:44
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"It's cool to drink booze on my site!" Isn't the vibe I would establish. Bring some pizzas?
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Nov 7, 2016 14:09
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The Dave posted:"It's cool to drink booze on my site!" Isn't the vibe I would establish. Bring some pizzas? Good point, I'll just bring coffee another day.
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Nov 7, 2016 14:22
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Gounads posted:Also, getting rid of a few hundred square feet of Japanese knotwood, which is super-invasive around here. During the conservation hearing for our soon-to-be neighbors I tried to convince them to help with our knotweed while taking care of theirs. That poo poo is absolutely brutal and even knocking it down in the spring is a great way accelerate your mower blade sharpening regimen. If you go the glyphosate route Tractor Supply tends to put their generic concentrate on sale fairly frequently. It's fun to see this from the other side of the process. I even had to do some rough e-stalking to make sure you aren't one of my future neighbors, looks like we're on mostly opposite ends of the state. I did feel bad being the only abutter at the conservation hearing, I was just there to see the plans and ensure they weren't going to have any runoff going towards our already overloaded street drain. Once the hackles were down when they realized I was only observing, their site engineer even gave me an extra copy of the layout plans.
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Nov 7, 2016 18:32
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Slight miscommunication, they're starting in the morning. Just moved some equipment in today. Didn't stop us from having the ground-breaking: 
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Nov 7, 2016 20:45
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The Dave posted:"It's cool to drink booze on my site!" Isn't the vibe I would establish. Bring some pizzas? With a possible exception of 15 minutes before tools down on a stinking hot Friday.
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Nov 8, 2016 11:47
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I feel like I'm in some horrible card game because I just drew the "Excavator breaks +1 day" card.
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Nov 8, 2016 13:08
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poo poo dude wtc. Things can only... get better???
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Nov 8, 2016 14:22
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 Freshly excavated ground. This is standing by the road looking down and this is where the temporary driveway is going. Cement is ordered to be poured Monday, so 2 days to dig a hole and put in the forms.
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Nov 9, 2016 19:44
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Gounads posted:
 Do you know how long the cement has to rest (and cure, I presume?) after pouring before you can move on?
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Nov 10, 2016 00:15
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Hollow Talk posted:Do you know how long the cement has to rest (and cure, I presume?) after pouring before you can move on? 1 week gets you to 70% of it's full strength. 28 days is what is specified usually for full strength. He has a lot of site work with the grade. It's probably convenient to get site work done while concrete is curing.
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Nov 10, 2016 01:49
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xwing posted:1 week gets you to 70% of it's full strength. 28 days is what is specified usually for full strength. He has a lot of site work with the grade. It's probably convenient to get site work done while concrete is curing. 28 days is design strength on average. For most mixes that's about 75% and it continues to get stronger for years. Other mixes can be at 75%+ in a week - or a day.
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Nov 10, 2016 14:33
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Motronic posted:28 days is design strength on average. For most mixes that's about 75% and it continues to get stronger for years. I know... I'm an architect, but he wasn't asking about concrete types or design strengths. This is residential and the contractor has only engaged an engineer enough to get the required permits. There's no reason to believe they're using anything other than the standard.
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Nov 10, 2016 15:40
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xwing posted:I know... I'm an architect Then you should also know better than to continue spreading this 28 day thing that every concrete guy cringes when they hear. Literally the first google result for 28 day concrete: http://precast.org/2013/10/28-day-myth/
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Nov 10, 2016 17:08
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Motronic posted:Then you should also know better than to continue spreading this 28 day thing that every concrete guy cringes when they hear. And you should quit being pedantic. No one cringes at all, except maybe you. I was being kind and telling someone who doesn't know anything about concrete the every day usage. 28 days and 7 days is what is used in specifications. For all purposes it's the "full strength" that it's designed to. I know "full strength" is a bit nebulous and inaccurate... GUESS WHAT?!?! No one else cares. If it is stronger than that 2 years later, it doesn't matter to anyone. 28 days is not a myth... it's ASTM standards, it's specifications, concrete submittals quote 28-day strength, it's taught in structural classes, etc... You can walk on concrete on like day two without fear of gouging it. You shouldn't load it though until later which is why I said sitework would probably happen while the concrete "cures". You can never get all the framing and stuff done to load it anyway. It's mostly a non-issue. AND that link, SERIOUSLY?!? That link is a precast trade organisation. It marketing material to sell you on precast concrete. Precast is "cured" mechanically and ready to go when it's installed.
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Nov 10, 2016 17:41
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But what if the concrete is being used to anchor a motorcycle? Jeez you two. More pictures of earth movers and child labor!
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Nov 10, 2016 18:09
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H110Hawk posted:But what if the concrete is being used to anchor a motorcycle? You'd need 400lbs... and 28 days.
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Nov 10, 2016 19:24
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 From yesterday afternoon. With all the knotweed down, it really opens things up. This is from the top looking down again. Lot nicely cleared/flattened and about to start digging a hole. I'm relatively certain there will be more than 400 pounds of concrete, so I guess I can skip theft insurance.
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Nov 11, 2016 13:30
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That's going to be a really nice lot. Amazing how quick some dedicated earth movers can completely change the face of a parcel, isn't it.
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Nov 12, 2016 04:50
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Today's good news? Didn't hit any ledge. Pictures from down below looking up.  
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Nov 12, 2016 21:51
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Builder called, footers being poured today. So.. this brings me around to another problem I haven't really mentioned much. Paying for this drat thing. The bank wouldn't accept the final application for a loan until we had all the permits. Since then, I've been shuffled around to 3 different loan processors over 2 weeks as they have some internal issues. My next payment due to the builder is when the foundation is in, and the floor deck is on. That could be next week. I imagine it's going to take at least a week to close on the loan. gently caress. I've got just enough cash to pay that bill and then I'm broke. It would represent about twice what I was planning on putting in by the end.
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Nov 14, 2016 18:39
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Gounads posted:Builder called, footers being poured today. In theory that should come back to you when the loan closes?
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Nov 14, 2016 19:17
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Gounads posted:Builder called, footers being poured today. Having worked for a GC for a few years, I can promise you that a good GC will continue work if they are reasonably confident that payment delays are temporary and valid. It happens. Explain the situation, offer to pay with your savings so they see you're dealing in good faith, and they will probably continue work until the bank issue clears up, without touching your personal funds.
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Nov 14, 2016 19:23
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H110Hawk posted:In theory that should come back to you when the loan closes? Yes. Just don't like being self-employed with no buffer. Slugworth posted:Having worked for a GC for a few years, I can promise you that a good GC will continue work if they are reasonably confident that payment delays are temporary and valid. It happens. Explain the situation, offer to pay with your savings so they see you're dealing in good faith, and they will probably continue work until the bank issue clears up, without touching your personal funds. Probably true, he's really easy-going. It's just scary that I theoretically don't have a way of paying right now. It's the one thing that's currently completely out of my control.
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Nov 14, 2016 20:11
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Gounads posted:It's just scary that I theoretically don't have a way of paying right now. It's the one thing that's currently completely out of my control. This always sucks. Best advice I can give you is, since it's completely out of your control, worrying about it doesn't really do you any good. You do what you can to expedite things on the bank side and to smooth things over on the work side, and beyond that, you just let whatever happens, happen. Not that I've usually had much success achieving that state of mind myself. It's more an aspirational goal than anything else.
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Nov 14, 2016 20:16
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I'd make sure it comes back to you, there are lots of rules for cash out. Our escrow company did pay us back for a few things (we bought appliances on our own, and they sent a check). But for instance if we wanted to change something up on the house and things would cost more, and we paid out of pocket, the final closing on the loan (i.e. switching from construction -> regular) would not pay us back for that, we would have had to re-close on the construction loan, I don't think all the loans are setup this way. Our construction loan didn't take very long to close, just had to get all the pieces in. Our biggest issue was that we needed insurance (and we got normal insurance with builders risk 'stamp'), so to do that we needed an address, but to get the address we needed all the permits filed, giant series of things that all needed to be satisfied. Our builder worked right with the escrow company, I just had to sign all the paperwork. Basically subcontractors would send him a bill, he'd add it to the monthly sheet, i'd sign it, escrow company would pay him. Good luck, it should work out but of course it's all stressful. Let me know if I can be of any help, just went through it a few months back.
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Nov 14, 2016 20:36
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For getting paid, we have a long list of what each piece of the job is worth. Like "foundation" is 4%, framing the house is 5% and rough electrical is 2% (or some numbers). Whenever I feel like it, I tell the bank "we did X, Y and Z - pay me". They send out an inspector to verify those are done. And then they directly deposit money into my account. I pay it out to the contractor. It costs me a few hundred every time the inspector goes out. The goal is ~5 payments over the course of construction. That scheme is great and simple, but has one problem. They only pay out when things are done. My contractor's payment schedule includes money up front to order major pieces at each stage and that'll be on me to buffer out. I have extensive spreadsheets to help me figure it all out and keep track. By the end, the loan won't get any bigger if we spend more, that'll be out of pocket. But I expect that and have some budgeted and held back for that. Builder agreed to pay for builder's risk insurance. I need to pick up fire/tornado sometime soon and full property insurance before we finish. Luckily there was an address before I bought the plot, so that's made it all a bit easier.
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Nov 14, 2016 21:40
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More than a hole! Driveway is getting closer to grade as well, but didn't have a good picture since it really started pouring.
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Nov 15, 2016 19:13
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