Continuing with Home Demolition

Last week the home demolition continued. The structure was destroyed in a couple of hours and a pile of rubble was left. It took about a week to remove the debris and to continue with demolition of the foundation. Our excavator filled a huge dump truck with multiple trips to the dump; and because there was lead paint it had to go to a special landfill that took that type of material.

Salvaged brick from the home demolition

This Monday the remaining concrete from the foundation was removed and was taken to the normal dump, which made the trips quicker. They also worked on removing the tree stumps that were left over from the tree removal.

Just Another Bump in the Road

It seems like you can almost always expect the unexpected when doing home projects. The previous house was most likely a very high end home at the time it was built, as it had two boiler systems, multiple fireplaces and radiant floor heating. There was concern that there might be a buried oil tank somewhere in the yard, as there was a boiler inside that was used to heat the house. Sometimes the tank was a standing tank outside the house, and we were hoping that was the case, as at first look our excavator did not find any evidence of the oil tank.

The other option that we were hoping for was that the oil tank had already been removed. Well, neither of those options came to fruition, as he found the tank buried. Now we had to figure out what to do with it.

Fortunately, he made quick use of some contacts that he knew and was able to get someone out to look at it, and luckily they happened to have a lull in work. They have a big commercial job coming up, but weren’t busy currently so they were able to come right out and get it taken care of.

Large oil tank that was buried underground

Hopefully, everything goes smooth with the removal and there are no signs of leakage. If there is leakage, it could potentially be a huge problem. Our excavator said he did not see anything while he was digging around it, but he did not know what the bottom looked like.

Continuing to Prepare for Construction

I checked in on the construction permits and we had to pay a “Plan Review Fee” for the city to complete the permits. Seems like another way for the city to throw more fees at you, but we got that done and will hopefully have construction permits by the end of this week.

Also, this week the water company is supposed to move the water meter. One issue that came up earlier was that the location of our current water meter is where the new driveway is going to be. We had a couple options, but decided to move the water meter so it’s closer to the property line. We scheduled them to come out a couple of weeks ago and they are supposed to get it moved sometime this week.

Next up, continuing with excavation of the site. The surveyor is scheduled to come out next week; he will mark the property line and then set the pins for the boundary of where the house will be. Once that is done, rock will be imported and a pad will be created for the foundation. We will also have temporary electricity set up.

With each step in this process there have been small bumps in the road. When building a new home you can almost expect to have things come up. Luckily, we planned for the unknown, but hopefully won’t have many more.

Update: The oil  from the tank and the tank were removed yesterday. There were some small spots of oil in the soil, and it was sent off for testing. There is a certain parts per million of contamination that needs to be dealt with. If it is below the threshold we will be able to back fill the hole; if it is above than they will have to remove it. We’re crossing our fingers that it comes back clean and we don’t have to do anything further. We should know more by next week.

Hole where oil tank used to be