Week 1
Site Prep & Demolition (see previous update and photos)
Week 2
Some more demo - Porch, concrete, windows, plumbing, electrical
Elevation Cut
Rain - No Activity
Elevation Cut
Rain - No Activity
Week 3
Lots more Rain - No Activity
Several days of drying out
Week 4
This was more of an eventful week. In addition to the items worked on listed below, the builder wanted to meet me on site about a problem that had some options to resolve that I needed to make a decision about (I figured this meant that he needed me to spend more money.. :).
Turns out, there were three problems. First, the home had no subfloor. Thats right, the hardwood flooring that you see in the photos is directly on top of the floor joists. It's no wonder the floor was bouncy in some spots.. Normally, the flooring material is on top of a plywood subfloor which is on top of the floor joists. You can see what i'm talking about here:
The second issue was that the existing floor was not level enough. He ran a laser down the floor and showed me how it was roughly 1.5" off as you moved further down the house. In fact the home did have an addition at some point. You can see where the original house was (roughly the rear 1/2 of the home) and where the transition of the addition occured (the front half of the home). When you run a laser down it, it slopes down to the center of the house, then back up to the front. Also from left to right when facing the rear it slopes down. This needed to be corrected else these problems will simply translate to the 2nd story.
To correct these two problems basically is going to cost me around $8k where $1500 of it is in materials and the rest is labor. They plan to tear up the hardwood and put in a subfloor, after they level the various joists and whatnot. My first real surprise.
The last issue was that the wood siding issue came up again. I want hardieplank due to it's resiliency. The town wants the style of siding to stay the same which doesn't work with the hardieplank since there is a minor difference in appearance. The original wood siding sits such that one piece sits on top of the next in a small channel. Hardieplank isn't sold in that kind of version. Instead, one piece overlaps the next slightly. The frustrating part is that the average laymen wouldn't notice the difference but because the home was built before 1940, the rule is that I need to stick to the original style. This despite the fact that virtually nothing about the house is staying all that historic (note different gable roof style, new porch that wraps around with craftsmen style posts, 2nd story, etc). So I need to find a way to address this else I be forced to install/leave the wood siding.
Work done this week (see photos):
Remove concrete debris
Layout the footings
Turns out, there were three problems. First, the home had no subfloor. Thats right, the hardwood flooring that you see in the photos is directly on top of the floor joists. It's no wonder the floor was bouncy in some spots.. Normally, the flooring material is on top of a plywood subfloor which is on top of the floor joists. You can see what i'm talking about here:
The second issue was that the existing floor was not level enough. He ran a laser down the floor and showed me how it was roughly 1.5" off as you moved further down the house. In fact the home did have an addition at some point. You can see where the original house was (roughly the rear 1/2 of the home) and where the transition of the addition occured (the front half of the home). When you run a laser down it, it slopes down to the center of the house, then back up to the front. Also from left to right when facing the rear it slopes down. This needed to be corrected else these problems will simply translate to the 2nd story.
To correct these two problems basically is going to cost me around $8k where $1500 of it is in materials and the rest is labor. They plan to tear up the hardwood and put in a subfloor, after they level the various joists and whatnot. My first real surprise.
The last issue was that the wood siding issue came up again. I want hardieplank due to it's resiliency. The town wants the style of siding to stay the same which doesn't work with the hardieplank since there is a minor difference in appearance. The original wood siding sits such that one piece sits on top of the next in a small channel. Hardieplank isn't sold in that kind of version. Instead, one piece overlaps the next slightly. The frustrating part is that the average laymen wouldn't notice the difference but because the home was built before 1940, the rule is that I need to stick to the original style. This despite the fact that virtually nothing about the house is staying all that historic (note different gable roof style, new porch that wraps around with craftsmen style posts, 2nd story, etc). So I need to find a way to address this else I be forced to install/leave the wood siding.
Work done this week (see photos):
Remove concrete debris
Layout the footings
Dig the foundation
Start forming
