June 2, 2005 Footings, Window Fiasco, a Cave-in and the Set Crew Rock-Star.

Editorial Rating:

Reader Rating: ( 0 votes)

Excavation

We finished excavating the footings yesterday at 8pm. David took the afternoon off to assist the excavator with a shovel and also so he could clean out the sides of the trenches.

I was able to help a little while my parents watched Walter. David worked inside the trench, shoveling and leveling the bottom while using pruners to clip the roots on the side. We thought we wouldn’t have a problem with roots since the building pad was relatively free of vegetation when we bought the property but we were wrong. I used a hoe and rake to clean the edges; there is a lot of dirt that gets piled over the natural grade when you use a backhoe. My other job was to spot David if there was a cave-in. We reasoned that if the edges were cleaned off, at least there would be a clean edge for escape or rescue. Fortunately, nothing like that happened yesterday.

We had several cracks during the excavation that we had to brace with 2x4s. There was one that started at the beginning of the day so David and John, the backhoe operator, went down the street to John’s house to get a skill saw and some wood to brace the edge. When they got back, it was too late and the edge had caved-in. It took some time to clean out the trench after that.

We were also slowed down by many numerous cracks throughout the day that needed to be braced. There weren’t any other cave-ins and according to John, the excavator we did pretty well considering the soil is composed mainly of silt and because our footings are 6 feet deep. We saved $3,000 by hiring the excavator ourselves and helping out with the excavation, so I feel it was definitely worth it. We are also proud that two stringy musicians like us endured so much physical labor without being entirely pooped. I think we will also have a great sense of pride in the years to come that we helped with the foundation in addition to the many other things.

Window Problem

The factory has completed the plumbing, electrical, in-floor heating and the windows. I called a few days ago to check on progress and they told me that there was an issue with the kitchen window that they had been dealing with for the last week. Apparently they didn’t want to bother me with it since they thought it was something they could resolve on their own.

While the electrician was finishing the wiring in the kitchen he noticed that there was a code violation. The sink sits in the middle of an 8 ft window that is flush with the countertop. The building code dictates that there should be an outlet on both sides of the sink within two feet. There wasn’t any room to fit the outlet on the backsplash since it’s absent on that wall. Basically we had to shrink the window to 6 feet and reconfigure it. I came up with a solution and rendered it with the rest of the house just to make sure it looked okay.

It is vexing that this problem wasn’t caught in the many stages of development and permitting (with two agencies). The factory will have to rip out the installed windows and reframe for a smaller opening and reinstall the new windows. At least the problem was caught before our final on-site inspection, which would have been an expensive and timely fix.

Set Crew

It is amazing how many last-minute expenses are popping up. One surprise was finding out that we needed a set crew. I have to thank Ami McElroy, here at LiveModern, for advising me about this. On a side note, I feel like I really learned a lot from her quasi-live house set that was hosted here at LiveModern. I was a little confused when the crane operator asked me about a “set crew,” which I assumed meant a “stitch crew.”

A set crew is a group of about 6 guys who help the crane operator accurately set the house to the foundation. I received a referral from the crane operator for a contractor who worked with them often. I left several messages after faxing our project to his office and never received a phone call. This is obviously a specialized job and I wanted to hang on longer to get his quote even if it was a hassle. If all else failed the factory told me that they could fly three guys down to L.A. to set the house. Anyway, I was fed-up with waiting so I asked the crane company if they had another referral. I called some guy in San Bernardino who within hours quoted me $1000 for the crew and $500 for jacking up the house to retrieve the rigging straps, for a total of $1500. The quote was from a very experienced modular set-crew manager who has works with the crane company often so I was glad the quote was reasonable.

I also found out that we needed to Jack up the house during its last few inches of setting to retrieve the rigging straps. From what I understand, cutting the rigging straps, as was done in Ami’s case, is not the most orthodox method. The rigging straps that the crane operator uses are rated for multi-use and are very expensive and thick so they definitely want to save them. (It seems to me that the one-time use method is most convenient for the homeowner).

A few hours after I got a quote from the guy in San Bernardino the set-crew rock star called and quoted us $6000. He explained that he and his crew would need to maneuver the modules on the jacks to get the placement just right the day after the set. I didn’t tell him we got another quote but what I didn’t understand was why we needed a crane in the first place if they were going to spend a whole day maneuvering the modules in order to get them just right. Isn’t it the crane operator and set crew’s job to get the module placement right from the beginning? I only mention this incident because it has made me realize how important it is to ask questions, especially when you are inexperienced. Thankfully, we have the factory on our side and they have been incredibly helpful while we’ve been sorting this out.