July 6, 2005 Another Delay

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David here.

We're planning to pour the concrete tomorrow morning. When the inspector came to the site today he approved the formwork and embedments as they are now. However, when we told him about the second sill plate that we were planning to install, in order to provide a smooth bearing surface, he immediately became concerned because it wasn't on the plans and he thought it wouldn't be structurally sound. We tried to explain to him that because the shear panel connection is at the primary sill plate anyway, the second sill plate does not compromise the structure. I will say it's an annoyance to not have had it in the plans, it was just a verbal reccomendation from the factory and we didn't anticipate a problem.

So the engineer faxed me a short letter explaining how the second sill plate works, and it's now up to me to convince the plan checker to approve it first thing in the morning.

The county inspector basically said that they had the authority to force us to pick up the modules and fix it if they didn't like our plan. Needless to say, it will be crucial to get their authorization tomorrow. All this and I have the flu.

Here's a picture of the form work and embedments. It's a mixed blessing because the foundation is finally ready for pouring but we have to solve this problem first.