July 12, 2010
We hired Gary Carter Excavating to take down the old house and excavate the basement.
In hindsight, I wish i would have taken down the trees that we needed removed with a chainsaw. The excavator ripped them to shreds. It was also costly to have some of them hauled away.
Another lesson learned is to ask how much hauling charges are- or what a ball park figure would be. I was rather surprised when we got the bill.
But all--in-all, the demolition and excavation was fairly straightforward.
I was a bit nervous about how deep [or rather, shallow,] they would find the sewer line. This ultimately sets how deep the basement slab can be, as well, you-know- poop flows downhill, and you need a slope to to the sewer pipe to create the proper flow. It turned out, the sewer was higher than anticipated, so this in turn bumps up the rest of the house.
You mentioned needing to get a variance for the building height - did lifting the house to accommodate the sewer have an impact that you had to worry about?
ReplyDeleteYes, it does have an impact- as the city is allowing us only a certain amount of height above the average site grade. So, we will have to adjust the heights of the floors to compensate. I won't know this exactly until we have the basement plumbing roughed in, as that will set the basement slab elevation!
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