At Home In The Woods

[patrick_g]

About running a drain hose 4 ft in walk space... A Harbor freight demo hammer (small electric jack hammer) or equivalent after a couple passes with a diamond masonry blade will neatly chip out enough concrete to let you run a plastic drain pipe just below the surface into the nearest drain or drain of your choice. You can slope it gently downward and enter the drain below the surface. A little patching material and all is good, no trip hazard and you get the drain action you want and need.

I had to "dig" down into my great room floor slab to fix a punctured hydronic heat PEX tube a carpenter drilled into to secure a newel post.

The very idea of taking a jack hammer to my brand new floor bothered me but it went well and after the fact all is good.

Patrick

 

[charlz]

The front porch step and posts got installed. We had the stone guy install the step. He suggested that we cap the top of the step with stone. We liked the idea and went with it.

Are you back-filling up to the height of the cinder block or is there another step to be built there?

 

[Ranger Rick]

About the water heater drain pan. I would think twice about digging up the floor to put in a permanent drain for something that is not supposed to leak. I think I might put a short pipe to direct any water toward the floor drain. I would want to see the first signs of water leaking out of the water heater before it got two bad. This is also something that could wait as it will be a new water heater and should last a number of years.
The house is looking real good. Move in time is coming soon.
Rick

 

[Obed]

Are you back-filling up to the height of the cinder block or is there another step to be built there?

charlz,
I'll be back filling above the cinder block; there will be only one step. I intended to do more backfilling today but got rained out. So I spent this morning cleaning in the basement.

 

[Obed]

Yesterday the 45 days allowed for the " early on" electrical permit ran out. We aren't ready to get our occupancy permit inspection. A couple weeks ago I called the electrical inspector to ask a ground question. During the conversation, he made a point to tell me that our power could get turned off if we didn't make the deadline. He said we could ask for a new inspection and get an extension.

However, this week the inspector told us that we could have a couple more weeks. My wife thinks we can get our OP by then. That doesn't mean we'll move in as soon as we get the permit. It is possible to get the permit before the hw floors get sanded and finished.

 

[dstig1]

You got it - get the CO (OP you call it) to get everyone off your back. Then you can finish at your own pace. There are things you can do to move that up if you really need to. Around here, a big requirement is plumbing - one full functioning bath and a kitchen sink. Hard to get around just really finishing a bathroom, but if your countertops are not ready, slap a piece of plywood/OSB on there and cutout an opening for the sink. Plumb it in and away you go. Once you get the CO, rip it out until the countertops are in. But that is here - you probably have other local "hot buttons" so once you know what they are, get them "done" and get the CO. Then work on finishing up for real.

Getting close! :thumbsup:

 

[Obed]

My wife re-painted the feet for the claw-foot tub to match the color of the door knobs.

 

[doall]

You did good on that tub deal. Your wife did good on the feet. nice.

 

[jinman]

My wife re-painted the feet for the claw-foot tub to match the color of the door knobs.

I would probably never notice such a thing, but a woman who paints her toenails to match her outfit would surely see the unmatched feet first thing.

 

[shane]

But that is here - you probably have other local "hot buttons" so once you know what they are, get them "done" and get the CO. Then work on finishing up for real.

Getting close! :thumbsup:

From what I've seen around here, a couple of the big "hot buttons" are smoke detectors and anything that requires a hand rail.

 

[walleyed]

Yesterday the 45 days allowed for the " early on" electrical permit ran out. We aren't ready to get our occupancy permit inspection. A couple weeks ago I called the electrical inspector to ask a ground question. During the conversation, he made a point to tell me that our power could get turned off if we didn't make the deadline. He said we could ask for a new inspection and get an extension.

However, this week the inspector told us that we could have a couple more weeks. My wife thinks we can get our OP by then. That doesn't mean we'll move in as soon as we get the permit. It is possible to get the permit before the hw floors get sanded and finished.

Hi Obed,
I don't think they will bother you for flooring not finished. Dave is right on that there will be a few hot buttons. A hand rail is one here at stairs and decks. Outside stairs as well. Also need at least one working bath and kitchen sink.

Electrical has to be done but that is a different inspector here. Can you just get the final electrical inspected?

Its looks like you would be ready with some more grading and fill. If you and the wife have gotten to know the building inspector they are usually pretty good to work with. He has seen steady progress and no corners cut. They will give you a CO with deficiencies to be fixed here as long as it isn't a big safety issue

 

[Obed]

Hi Obed,
I don't think they will bother you for flooring not finished. Dave is right on that there will be a few hot buttons. A hand rail is one here at stairs and decks. Outside stairs as well. Also need at least one working bath and kitchen sink.

Electrical has to be done but that is a different inspector here. Can you just get the final electrical inspected?

Its looks like you would be ready with some more grading and fill. If you and the wife have gotten to know the building inspector they are usually pretty good to work with. He has seen steady progress and no corners cut. They will give you a CO with deficiencies to be fixed here as long as it isn't a big safety issue

Finished flooring is not required here for the Occupancy Permit; we could move in with only subflooring if we wanted.

Here's what the county building commisioner told my wife is required for the Occupancy Permit:

Electrical is finished (including outlets and lights)
One working bathroom
Food prep area - a kitchen sink and with some counterspace around/beside the sink
Smoke detectors
Handrails on the stairs and porch/deck as required
Decks and porches finished with railing if >= 30 inches above grade
Septic certificate
Gutters and downspouts
Exterior drainage
Driveway inspection completed successfully

In addition, my wife asked the building commisisoner if we had to have garage doors installed for the OC and he said yes. I can't see why garage doors have to be installed. What if we didn't want garage doors at all? So what? How is that a safety issue or anything else that matters? We just found out that our 10 foot wide garage door will have to be ordered; it's not in stock locally so we may have a delay getting the OC because of it.

Obed

 

[dstig1]

Gutters are required? Must be one of those local things. Never heard of them being required...

Here is where you can get creative. Outlets need to be in and should be finished, but you can put in bare bulbs for light fixtures. They are 99 cents ea and no worries about damaging them as you finish up (or if you just haven't decided on fixtures yet or whatever). Missing Garage door? Heck no, that's a wall. Frame it in temporarily and cover with cheapo masonite siding. Or block it over with plywood if they'll let you. You can do a a few tricks to get past a missing detail or two. Push it too far, and the inspector might push back... But if all that is standing in the way is the one garage door, then find a way around it.

You could also just ask someone to show you the regs for a CO. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if he made that up on the spot when your wife asked about it...

Everything else sounds pretty reasonable, IMHO.

 

[Obed]

Thanks all for the great comments regarding the hot water heater and the filters. We bought a sediment filter today.

We will put a pan under the hot water heater. We have a floor drain near the hot water heater. Unfortunately, the original construction manager did not tell the concrete guys to slope the floor toward the drain even though we told him to slope it and even though it was on the plans. Fortunately, my wife caught the problem before the concrete was poured around the second floor drain near the basement bathroom/laundry and got the floor sloped there. We may run a flexible water hose from the pan over to the drain in the utility room. The downside is the hose will have to snake about 4 feet across the walking space to reach the drain.

We weren't sure what kind of water sediment filter we wanted. We haven't done any research so we got a cheap one from the big box store. We may replace the sediment filter sometime later with something better if it appears this one isn't good enough. We had the plumber put in some ball valves so we can replace or bypass the the filter if needed. The filter's plumbing lines are temporarilly propped up with a board. We will add some framing to support the filter.

We moved the water heater about six inches to the left after it was installed by the plumber. We wanted the water heater to be closer to the gas line shown to the left of the water heater. It turns out that the proximity of the floor drain to the water heater is not as bad as I thought. You can see the floor drain about a foot in front of the water heater. I can just run a plastic drain hose from the water heater pan to the floor drain without the hose getting too much in the walkspace.

 

[Obed]

I've been doing some backfilling and minimal grading to try to be ready for the Occupancy Permit inspection. The gradework is by no means where I want it. However, I'm just trying to get the grade to slope some away from the house so the county will let us move in.

I probably won't have the retaining wall backfilled before the OP inspection. I hope they will let us slide on that. I need to have the tree to the left of the retaining wall removed so that I can lower the grade that runs along the retaining wall.

I dumped a few loads of dirt in front of the porch steps and packed it down with the tractor tires. Obviously this isn't the final grading but I hope it will get me past the inspection. I also dumped enough dirt at the high end of the front porch to try to get the grade within 30" of the porch so that porch railing is not required.

I had to use the backhoe to break up some hard ground that the FEL wouldn't cut through.

 

[Obed]

Before I did the backfilling around the front of the house, I tried to fill up the tractor with diesel. It was below freezing that morning and I couldn't unscrew the fuel cap from the tractor. Water had collected around the cap and frozen. I chipped off the ice and was able to fuel up the tractor. There went 45 minutes I hadn't foreseen. Unfortunately, when I lifted the plastic cover that covers the fuel cap, it broke off because of the frozen water. I have covered the fuel cap with a plastic bag to keep water and debris from collecting around the fuel cap.

There is a drain hose for draining liquids from around the fuel cap. It must have stopped up.

 

[Obed]

This past weekend I backfilled at the garage doors. As you can tell, we have plenty of dirt available for backfilling and grading.

 

[Obed]

Gutters are required? Must be one of those local things. Never heard of them being required...

Dave, that surprised me. Where we lived in eastern NC, most houses did not have gutters. But then, almost no houses there had basements and the terrain was very flat. Where we live now, the terrain is hilly and basements are common so gutters are much more needed than where we used to live.

Missing Garage door? Heck no, that's a wall. Frame it in temporarily and cover with cheapo masonite siding. Or block it over with plywood if they'll let you. You can do a a few tricks to get past a missing detail or two. Push it too far, and the inspector might push back... But if all that is standing in the way is the one garage door, then find a way around it

. That's what we did for the basement garage so we didn't have to finish it at this point.

You could also just ask someone to show you the regs for a CO. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if he made that up on the spot when your wife asked about it...

You may be right. However, it's probably best not to challenge them on this point lest they decide to get picky on other issues.

Obed

 

[dcyrilc]

Before I did the backfilling around the front of the house, I tried to fill up the tractor with diesel. It was below freezing that morning and I couldn't unscrew the fuel cap from the tractor. Water had collected around the cap and frozen. I chipped off the ice and was able to fuel up the tractor. There went 45 minutes I hadn't foreseen. Unfortunately, when I lifted the plastic cover that covers the fuel cap, it broke off because of the frozen water. I have covered the fuel cap with a plastic bag to keep water and debris from collecting around the fuel cap.

There is a drain hose for draining liquids from around the fuel cap. It must have stopped up.

You gotta love these new modern plastic tractors. NOT.

That sucks. The plasic parts aren't any cheaper in price either.

 

[ruralruss]

We weren't sure what kind of water sediment filter we wanted. We haven't done any research so we got a cheap one from the big box store. We may replace the sediment filter sometime later with something better if it appears this one isn't good enough. We had the plumber put in some ball valves so we can replace or bypass the the filter if needed. The filter's plumbing lines are temporarilly propped up with a board. We will add some framing to support the filter.

We moved the water heater about six inches to the left after it was installed by the plumber. We wanted the water heater to be closer to the gas line shown to the left of the water heater. It turns out that the proximity of the floor drain to the water heater is not as bad as I thought. You can see the floor drain about a foot in front of the water heater. I can just run a plastic drain hose from the water heater pan to the floor drain without the hose getting too much in the walkspace.

Obed,

Where we live in NW Georgia we have a lot of sediment in our water. For several years we used a sediment filter with pretty large cartridges. I finally got tired of changing them and we had a self back flushing sediment filter in. It is maintenance free and it does a great job. It basically uses a water softener tank and head but instead of the resin beads it has several layers of decreasing size aggregate in it. It back flushes about 80 to 100 gallons every 4th day. If you go that route I suggest you do not flush it through the septic.

Russ