MEDFORD ADDITION - DAY 6

View from the mountain (of dirt)

Work on the primary foundation is mostly complete.   Masons are busy today parging foundation and applying a tar coating on the portions of the wall that will be buried.    One glitch is that the Township building inspector is requiring a soil compaction test on the mountain of dirt I am standing on.  This involves laboratory testing of soil and then compaction of soil, if useable, under the supervision and constant testing of an engineer.    This will likely delay the project a few days while all the details of this requirement are coordinated.

We were able to start excavating for the mudroom/side entry foundation.  Obviously we would have liked to have done this in conjunction with the main foundation, however, it's location right adjacent to the driveway was a concern so we elected to do this separate, once the primary foundation was complete.

MEDFORD ADDITION - DAY 5

Work on concrete block foundation continues.

MEDFORD ADDITION - DAY 4

Snow Day.  Light Dusting of snow while we started building the concrete block foundation.  Wall is a combination of 12" block on the driveway side, and 8" block for the remainder of the foundation.

MEDFORD ADDITION - DAY 3

We had our first building inspection today - footing inspection.    Generally the inspectors will check the depth of the planned footings, the general layout, and the proper rebar installation according to plans.

Pouring footings - As close as we dared to go to edge with concrete truck.

MEDFORD ADDITION - DAY 2

Called due to rain.  A nor'easter hit today with cold heavy rain.  We had two pumps running to keep excavation from flooding.    A large tarp is an attempt to keep water off the steep excavated soil bank.

MEDFORD ADDITION - DAY 1

Work begins with excavation for footings and foundation.

Some surprises - soil was a soupy mess.  The original soil was a green marl that acts almost like a swimming pool liner, retaining the water above.    Water was pouring out of existing house foundation.   We ended up dumping 30 tons of gravel and compacting to improve the base.

Laying out for footings

HADDONFIELD BOOM JOB

Something we run into a fair amount, especially in towns with an abundance of older homes, like Haddonfield, NJ - larger sheet goods just won't fit up the steps.   This 80 year old house has plaster over lath walls so the original builder never had to contend with 4x8 pieces of sheetrock.   In this case , removing the sashes of a large window and having the sheetrock for the two second floor bathrooms boomed in through the window was really the only way to get it up there.   To confound things more, this corner lot had power lines on both street frontages.  The boom operator was especially skilled in avoiding the trees and wires and getting the product to where we needed.    This is a fairly normal service that is included with drywall deliveries from local building supply companies.  The same goes for roofing materials,..etc...   It bewilders me when I'm at a home center and I see builders picking up stacks of sheetrock - first loading them onto a cart, then pushing cart to a register, then pushing cart through parking lot to truck, then loading truck,  usually driving to job from home center dangerously overloaded,  then unloading material and carrying into house.........  

SNOW DAYS.....

Winter has been trying this year - many cold days and plenty of snow.  We've struggled onward and until today, have not canceled a days work.  Today's combination of rain, ice, and snow, occurring mostly during the middle of the work day resulted in us staying home.    

We usually use these tents to stay dry and keep working in rain, but they got their use plenty this winter for snow

WELCOME

I've been on blogger for a number of years with a blog related to one of my hobbies, model railroading. This blog will follow my professional life as a builder and renovator.  It is intended to showcase some of the work I do, but also talk about tools, techniques, and other carpentry and woodworking errata.  I'm going to try to update on a regular basis.

My son, and future partner, installing mahogany planks on a deck we built in Haddonfield, NJ as part of a larger interior and exterior renovation project.  He is using EB-TY hidden fasteners to secure the boards.   This system is not cheap, but the deck will look great with no visible fasteners.  EB-TYs are manufactured by Simpson.  They are basically a plastic biscuit with a stainless steel screw to secure them to the deck framing.  Slots are needed in the edges of the boards.  You can buy mahogany or composite decking pre-grooved, however, in this case, the grooves at the ends of the boards would be visible as we are overhanging the boards (to match other existing decking on house), so we are cutting the slots ourselves with a Freud biscuit jointer.  With decking we always overhang our boards during installation and cut ends later, in one continuous cut.  This is much easier than cutting each board individually and the final look of the edge is much nicer and straighter.