Sunnyhill New Home

Six or more earth moving machines were
operating at the same time last week.

Taking advantage of the good weather, the past week has been a blur of activity. At times, more than half a dozen earth moving machines of varying types and sizes and several different trades were working at the same time. 

Eight inch green pipe will channel
rainwater to the collection unit. A
tamper carefully back fills along
the new basement wall.

Excavators dug trenches for plumbers who installed a pipe around the perimeter of the new addition that will channel the rain water from the roof to the storm-water containment unit in the rear. A French drain was also installed and the trench was back-filled to grade.

This maze of PVC pipes connects to the
original terracotta pipe using a Fernco
connector visible in the upper left

The floor in the old basement was demolished and ditches were dug in the new addition so that another team of plumbers could install a maze of new PVC sanitary sewer pipes for our three new bathrooms, the utility sink in the janitors closet, the water fountain and several floor drains. 

The orange circles show where the sanitary
sewer pipes will come through the wall.

The pipes in the new addition will connect to the new pipes in the basement through two holes that will be bored through the basement walls where the orange circles are painted, as you can see in the accompanying photo. It's interesting to note that all of the new high-strength plastic pipe connects to a single terracotta sanitary sewer line, which was installed under the floor when the house was built in 1920. The connection was made using a Fernco flexible coupling - like an uber radiator hose - specifically designed for the purpose. Before completing the project, our plumber will inspect the old line running under the house to ensure it is in good working order. Sunnyhill recently hired its own plumber to inspect the terracotta sanitary sewer that runs from the house to the street and found it to be in very good condition with very few roots. We expect the pipe running under the building to be in the same condition. 

Our oak tree would have been planted in the vicinity of the car
to the right in this 1920 photo taken from Sunnyhill's front door.

Our excavator, Jeff Helbig Construction, finished removing the stump of the oak tree and back filled the hole. A preliminary count of the rings of the section of trunk that we saved revealed that the tree is about 100 years old, not nearly as old as we thought given its large diameter. This, along with construction photographs and a 1920 drawing of the proposed landscaping, suggests that the tree was planted as part of the original Olmsted landscape design when the house was built. 

Geotextile and gravel have been
installed in the pit that will be used
to control storm water runoff.

Perforated tanks for the storm water
containment unit

Helbig Construction also continued work on the storm water containment unit by lining it with a water permeable geotextile and partially filling it with stone. To complete the unit, two tanks, an inflow pipe and an outflow pipe will be installed and covered with gravel. The gravel will be covered with more geotextile and topped off with two feet of soil. Once it is complete, the only visible evidence of the containment unit will be a maintenance hole cover.

The surface of this cement block has been
ground smooth.

Masons were also at work on our new home installing ground-face block on top of the foundation walls. This special eight-inch high block has a durable polished surface that will be visible between the soil and the stucco surface of the exterior walls of the new addition. The top of the block seen in the accompanying photo, indicates the height of the floor. Over the basement, a standard floor will be built using wooden floor joists and plywood. In the new addition, which is slab on grade, four inches of gravel will be topped with four inches of concrete.

The top of the concrete slab floor will be level with
the top of the cement block in the center of the photo.

Also noteworthy, two cuts were made through the footings for the HVAC duct, which is expected to arrive on Monday. This specialized HDPE product, trade-named Blueduct, is designed specifically to buried below grade. Excavation for the duct is scheduled for Tuesday and the duct will be installed immediately afterward. The goal is to have the duct in place and the gravel poured by the first week in December when the steel roof support members are due to arrive and be erected.