I think all those Yelp reviews are related to daily trash pickups or bins inside HOAs or apartments for their main trash pickup services. The biggest problem is they have an 800 nbr for dumpster rentals. The people at that nbr do not have any answers and cannot deal with Construction businesses. They have to ‘forward’ the request to local field reps, who never get back to me, or everything gets lost. I’m still trying to figure out who orders large dumpsters besides construction and companies??? Why would they even bother to have some central phone nbr for dumpster rentals if they cannot schedule the dang dumpsters??
The local rep finally gave me her phone nbr after 3 consecutive screw ups. I’m never calling the main nbr again.
Re: real wood flooring. We have the same situation here in this house. Beautiful, high quality, solid oak floor under the carpet upstairs but it is all trashed by nailing things to it and cutting holes in it (why?) - the house is an early eighties child. The damage was done by the coneheads who inherited it. Why?!!! Total waste. I know how you feel about that.
We are trenching everywhere under the house for new piers and a 22’ long new stem wall under the house, and another 12’ long stem wall. Meanwhile, we found a really old stem wall running across the house. This is what we have figured out:
1940 - small beach bungalow probably 1 bed / 1 bath.
1980 - addition to front house adding another bedroom and laundry room on back of house (this is why there is a really old stem wall running across crawlspace for old back of the house). Then they split the water lines and built new back house which is a 3bd/1 ba. This is when new ABS plumbing was installed under the house but then connected to an old cast iron sewer line running behind the house to alley in back. We are assuming this is shared with back house because it runs under the back house.
We have hit every possible obstacle known to man trying to trench and form for new stem walls and piers, both outside the house and under the house
Back Addition stem walls and piers:
Gas lines and water lines running towards back alley (back house). We carefully tested one of the gas lines and discovered it is abandoned. There is another steel water pipe that is abandoned also. But!!! biggest issue is that there is a rogue gas (possibly really old steel water line) at the bottom of one of our pier holes. This is a big problem. You don’t want the weight of the pier holding up the house compressing a gas line. SDGE refused to come out and identify. So, I am waiting for a private utility tracing company to come tell us if this is a live gas line, water line or abandoned for lots of $$$.
Under the House
We have to trench and form a new concrete stem wall running under the center wall. Then a giant 40" wide by 18" deep pier (which holds a post which will hold a major beam across living/dining area) under a corner inside the house and turn for another 12’ run of stem wall. Guess what!!! The main water line that goes from meter in front street to the back house is directly under this stem wall. And, the sewer lines are dangerously close. So, now we have to rip out all the water lines under the house, turn off water to back house and connect up to a new water line. We have to move all the sewer lines.
Needless to say, this is pushing us way back on schedule and over budget. Meanwhile, City is still not finishing their review of our permits!!
Owners still have a big trailer stuck in driveway. But at least it’s a long driveway so we can get dumpsters in and out.
Good news!! The fancy utility tracing company followed the black pipe under our new pier hole and determined it is an abandoned steel water pipe. This means we can just cut it out of the hole and move on. We do not have to dig up the entire backyard and move the main gas line. We suspected but wanted to make absolutely sure.
And I made a mistake yesterday. I marked the new giant 40x40 pier under the house wrong. We haven’t been able to tear down the old walls in the house and I was mistakenly following an old wall off to the side, instead of where new wall is going to be and giant post we have to set.
Luckily we were only 2 hrs into digging before I said “Let’s go look at the plans again to double check everything. One of the guys caught it when we were double checking!!
Speaking of selecting vanities. Yesterday wife owner frantically texted me while she was in Home Depot. Fire alarms on sale and she wants to buy them. What the hey?? That’s 6 months down the line. One of the last things installed. I missed the text and replied back 15 minutes too late. On top of everything else, she bought wrong ones. We have to have hardwired alarms for bldg code and she bought a giant box of battery operated alarms so she could save a total of $42. I told her she has to take them back.
Last thing I need over here is a giant box of fire alarms with no place to store them.
And meanwhile she is ignoring my list of items she needs to select and purchase right now; tankless water heater and the gas direct vent fireplace. I sent her a list of ones to chose from.
I feel for you! About to spend my dollar in the meantime–I’ll find another one.
I wouldn’t send a list of over two things (3 at most)–pick what you think is appropriate (maybe 2) and find something more expensive to choose from then she’ll pick your choice. And if she does find a suitable replacement at cheaper price then great! I wouldn’t normally advocate that approach but some people really don’t have a clue and decision making is a real problem for them. Maybe you already do that but sounds like you need to rein her in–the more certain you are then the more confidence she may have in your decisions.
I’m so impressed that you do these projects. I’ve got a friend who is great at decorating etc. but it’s a whole different ball game working with people who don’t necessarily have the same aesthetic (or money to match their dream).
We are just muddling along with non glamorous stuff. Still pulling drywall off the inside of the house and taking down walls. We have finished forming and rebar for the room addition foundation in the back and we continue to cancel all the electrical wiring out of the interior walls.
On about Oct 15 I gave them a list of critical items that needed to be selected and purchased because a) I need the specifications for framing or running plumbing and b) we need to keep moving. As stated above, I gave her too many choices!! On Saturday morning there was a 2 hour phone call going over everything about the fireplace and tankless water heater (in circles). I told them I needed the final selection on Monday. It’s now Thursday and she’s telling me they want to go visit a store. You need to go to a ‘store’ to select a tankless water heater??? This is not going well
For example, one of her long questions that she sent via email was she wanted to have the fireplace heat piped upstairs to the master bedroom and den to save energy costs. What the hey??? You cannot just punch holes in a metal firebox and start venting it around the house. In addition, it is not even a wood burning fireplace, it is just a gas direct vent with flames over some ceramic logs, vented to the outside wall. There isn’t even a chimney.
On Tuesday the husband sent the specs for a fireplace which wasn’t even on my list and seems to be about $1,000 over budget. On Wednesday I get an email from wife that ‘she doesn’t like the one her husband selected’. She wants to look at other ones.
Don’t even get me started on the million conversations about the tankless water heater. They specifically called out the tankless water heater on their plans. I sized it for them and sent a selection of Condensing (more energy efficient, higher cost) or Non Condensing. Now they don’t know what they want.
Oh my goodness!
Have you had inquiries for other jobs?
I’d be inclined to say, ‘If you do not have specifics by xx date, I will need to send my crew to another project. Once your decisions are made, we’ll get back to you as our schedule allows.’
I’m pretty sure @auntbea could use some help right now With her flooding repairs.
So far, it is not really impacting our work because we are slogging away getting the foundation work done. Still waiting for a permit. Our Structural Engineer has a bad attitude and just cannot reply to the City corrections in a civil manner. I have to rewrite all his responses into a neutral tone. We only have one review left, Structural. I got the revised plans and responses back into the City system on Tuesday and we are waiting for this final review. I predict 2 weeks until Approved, Final stamps on plans and invoice paid.
Once I get that permit approved, we can go to town removing the roof off the house and start framing. She wants the first floor ceiling raised to 9ft. We can remove all the walls (all walls are moving but one) but we cannot build any new walls because they are going to be higher than current ceiling. So, I have no choice but to tear off the roof, expose the house in order to building any walls.
Regarding tankless water heaters, I would not recommend Eemax. We got one in 2018, immediately it needed a new circuit board. I’ve called tech support repeatedly over intermittently not getting hot water, this time, we replaced all three heating elements as the hot water was really wanky, I had to get a micrometer and measure the Ohms, none were correct. Mind you it’s one two years old. Now, we have replaced the elements and still, at least twice, had a time where the water did not go hot. But it is so intermittent you doubt yourself or the reporting person, so it’s hard to know. I need to call them again to troubleshoot that!
Yes, raising ceiling to 9ft and then adding a 2nd story on top at 9ft, with rooftop deck in top of that in front portion of house
I have never heard of Eemax so that isn’t even on the list. But one issue I’ve had with tankless water heaters is low flow devices, Especially here in CA with strict water saving requirements. The tankless won’t even kick in until it detects a pull of water. Some faucets don’t even draw enough water to kick start the water heater. This can even happen with low flow shower heads
Definitely!! I would love it but, I’m not going to impose because you sound like you have your hands QUITE full!
We’ve had 4 contractors come out; no quotes from umpteen promises to get them to us 4 weeks ago!
I’m stuck with pieces of walls-dried out walls, closets, bathrooms and laundry area! We can’t order vanities and quartz tops because we don’t have a contractor. Vanity orders apparently are taking 8-12 weeks for our area!
No fun, but it’s livable and we’re trying to make it work, while we wait.
@“aunt bea” , you could start a flood remediation and remodel thread and we could all help you pick out faucets and light fixtures and paint colors, too!
We had a slab leak several years ago and ended up with a new kitchen. It took me over a year to pick out backsplash tile because I was so tired of making decisions.
