Ted, the welder I usually see two or three times a year, was in to weld all of the structural steel joints together and attach straps to all of the columns. We are now ready for the big three to start their rough-ins - HVAC, plumbing and electrical. The first two start Monday!
The team from BHM was in again today to do the garage, porch and back walkout stairs. It was a lot of heavy lifting, but luckily the weather has cooled down a bit.
BHM was in again today working on the forming for tomorrow's pour of the walkout steps, front porch and steps, and garage. It takes quite a bit of work and a fine attention to detail for this kind of work (ie you don't want to mess this up!) - that's why I rely on Tom for this work.
Tom's entire team was hard at work this morning, bombing the concrete into the basement and spreading it out. It's a tough job, but much better than laying brick on a sunny scaffold!
Meanwhile, Junior and his team were in to install the housewrap on the house. With the masonry still about four weeks away, it's always good to have a professional wrap the house and make it as tight as possible for any weather that might blow our way. Once the windows are in, we'll be pretty water tight.
In the afternoon, Tom and his brother worked on forming the porch and back walkout stairs, while the concrete dried enough to begin the "helicoptering" process (basically, smoothing!).
Unfortunately, Tom found out that their concrete supplier, a big local company, was shut down by Ministry of Labour late last night and we weren't able to get a substitute company in this morning. We've had to delay the concrete pour, and Tom and countless other crews around the city will be sitting twiddling their thumbs... too bad.
While Virgilio's crew finished the roof, the boys from BHM were in all day prepping the basement and garage slab for the pour tomorrow. I always love the care and attention that Tom and his crew take to doing a proper job with the slab - proper wire mesh placement, a good amount of gravel for drainage, vapour barrier and flashing, as well as using the laser to set up a perfect level line throughout the basement.
The roofers started today (Miguel was nice enough to lift all of the materials onto the roof, which saved a bunch of time for Virgillio and his team!). I don't expect them to finish, because, you guessed it - it's Euro Cup time and the Portuguese team is up against the wall. Tomorrow, we'll have the rest of our roof in place!
Miguel finished the finicky truss work early and was able to do the front gables and sheeting by the end of the day. Finally, we see (sans porch) what the front will look like, and I'm happy with it!
A productive day onsite again... Tony was onsite when Mohamed came to test the basement drains for code and slope. Pass!
Miguel, still working through a stomach flu, was baking in the sun on the top of the trusses all day. The sheeting should start late in the day so Virgilio can start either tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday morning. Nice!
Miguel was in today, working through bad stomach flu, to assemble and brace the truss system. If all goes well, we can get the shingles started on Monday or Tuesday.
Tony was in to start the basement drains today. We're roughing in a secondary kitchen and laundry unit, so the work is pretty extensive as far as basement drains go. We are on target to have the concrete slab in the basement poured next week.
The City contractor, Co X Co, was in today upgrading the sewer main and water service line to 1". This is one of the mandatory service requirements for a new build, and one in my opinion, that most people should do even in a major renovation. The old style drains were pretty bad, and the default 1/2" water line does not have sufficent water pressure by today's standards.
It was a messy job today - with the ground water being so high in the neighbourhood, the guys had a hard time. We had some neighbour unrest as well, which is never an easy situation, but I smoothed it over as best I could (so far my plumber has visited her twice and I have had guys attending to various small requests in order to keep her happy). Building is a very disruptive thing, so I'm making the best effort possible to keep things neat and orderly - but it's still construction.
The trusses arrived on schedule this morning and Miguel grabbed them and deftly maneuvered the zoom boom machine to drop them on top of the house. We should have the roof on and sheeted tomorrow.
We were able to sneak Tom's guys in today to bring the rear, half brick wall that is hidden by the roof, right up just above the roof level with 4" block. It was much easier to do it now, before the roof was sheeted... at that point, you either have a mason ripping off carpentry work to get access, or a very unhappy mason... and I don't want either.
We needed today to install the steel columns that support the steel beams on the 2nd floor floor. With a plan to add some masonry work tomorrow, it was imperative to get the support in place.
The guys completed the partitions and proceeded with the odds and ends throughout the house that needed to be completed. I did a short walkthrough that I'm sure will be dizzying and not very informative, but you can see a lot of wood framing :-)
The guys finished their layout late last night just as a thunderstorm struck - good timing! They made quick work this morning of getting the exterior walls up, and by end of day, had all of the interior walls framed in on the second floor. Tomorrow is more of a hodge podge day with final preparations before the trusses arrive next week.
The morning today was spent preparing all of the main support beams for the 2nd floor floor. There is a large steel beam going across the kitchen and great room to support the 2nd floor exterior brick wall which does not stick out as much as the first floor. Then there are the reinforced, engineered wood beams that need to be assembled and craned in to place for the other section of the floor.
We've completed the first floor walls... and by "we" I mean the royal WE. Miguel and his crew have worked fast and well. Of course the owners will have the initial shock of the perception that it's smaller than they thought when we walk through - pretty normal during framing stage. I'll make sure the inside expands as we go :-).
The slowest section of a new build, from the framing perspective, is to get the first floor "floor" complete. In order for the rest of the framing to progress quickly, this stage needs to be very accurate and well thought through, and that's the reason I choose Miguel and his crew if I can.
It was great to see Miguel's smiling face this morning! Finally, we have begun framing the house. In another week, the bones of this two storey home will be up and people in the neighbourhood will get a feel for the look of the house.
We also had Avanti come by to complete the as-built survey measurements. All was within the guidelines set out by the permit, so we are off to the races.
