Ruminations and subs

Well, now we know what it means to be the general contractor on a small (homeowner) job. You are generally the smallest fish in the pool and the subs are beholden to the large contractors and builders. We're having trouble with the concrete subs we've interviewed. The first one came in higher than we anticipated (based on virtually no data), so we were waiting for a second. That one was just a bit less and the sub didn't sound so interested (steadier jobs on the horizon, we think). A third sub hasn't called back after two contacts and the forth guy (local expert) wasn't even interested.

One problem is that this foundation work is complicated, largely the result of our structural engineer's (M. Brostrom) zeal for Simpson fasteners; he likes to make sure nothing is ever going to move, even in a Cascadia M8-9 earthquake. Thus, there are many structural fasteners (tie down bars, multiple courses of rebar), and keyways in the footers that are not usually seen. So this isn't going to be an easy-forms up & concrete-in job. Also, because there is a full depth basement (a Denver thing), we'll need 4-5 pours, three of which will require overhead pumping (separater rig that comes from 50 miles away). The bottom line is looking like 90 yds of concrete at $90/yr, a ton or two of rebar, 50-60 foundation to subfloor Simpson ties, and 4 weeks on the job. That's twice as long as we expected and puts the framing part of the job off until early December (cool, wet). So it goes.

Also, we need to know more about the actually concrete pouring process and schedule to get a reasonable bid on the excavation work, which precedes the concrete (obviously). For example, I imagine that the basement should be excavated first, then after the footer, 8' walls, perimeter drain and waterproofing is done, they would backfill and then excavate the crawl space (4 ft deep) and garage pad. The two excavation bids so far have all the excavation done at once and one backfill. Its not going to be this simple. More later.

[update 10/13/08]:
So today we settled on the foundation proposal. Don McNees of K&D concrete is going to do the work. We went with him for three reasons: 1) he recently did a job that was spec'd out by our structural engineer, so he's familiar with the details involved; 2) he was the most willing to discuss details, pitfalls, and the process of the four guys we contacted, and 3) he has worked a lot with our probable framers. So, after taxes we obligated $40k for concrete. However, when the big one (EQ) hits, our basement will be like the WWII bunkers at Fort Warden.

Now I need to settle on an excavator and make sure they can start on the hole around Oct. 27th, after the lot is cleared. Stay tuned.