All Forum Posts by: Bernie Neyer

The actual construction is of SIPs, Structural Insulated Panels. Normal stick built construction, you frame up the walls, stand them up, put OSB (oriented strand board), set the trusses, OSB the roof. The rest of the process in finishing out the framing.

With SIPs, they are manufactured at the manufacturer's building an trucked to the job site. You can see the size of the panels from the pictures. When I went to work they were unloading some of the panels and I thought I'd skip out of work about break time an see how they were progressing, but a fellow worker who came by the job site about 9:30, told me they were 75% done. The first picture was what I found when I got there.

Keep in mind that there were only two framers and a crane doing this work. When I did construction there probably would have been 4 to 6 workers on this site.

You can see how they used the crane to lift the panels into place. 

When I worked construction years ago, we actually poured a pad this large and moved the concrete by hand. The sub contractor used a pumper. The concrete was thinned with a chemical agent instead of hydraulic (water). The effect was a better concrete that if thinned with water. 

The pour took less than two hours and then all they had to do was let the chemical cook off some to finish the pad. 

Here the slab is ready to be poured. They needed to have shot the grade before they did the footings and really needed to level the lot, but they were trying to beat the rain. When it rains here, it can take a while for it to dry out. However, you don't need to worry about compaction.

Here they are digging the footings.

The first picture was the empty lot. Before I get too far ahead of myself, I'll post the floor plan.

I sort of began this in another forum, but didn't find the category about new builds until later and felt it really belonged here. As they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words." I will be posting pictures as the build proceeds.

Chanute, KS is a small town in SEK with a population of ~9,000 people. I've lived here now for nearly 40 years. I began investing in rentals about 20 years ago, with most of that locally. I did have some investments in towns near by, but problems with finding managers or tenants I liquidated the holdings and changed my external focus to Wichita, KS. 

 Chanute is where I live and we needed some up to date rental housing. I wanted to build a unique structure, but the city prevented me from doing so, so I decided to build a duplex on a lot I had. I started late due in part to the Corona shut down and the sub contractors had to be released for other projects. We have not been able to smoothly schedule them, but the build should be done by August 1st. 

Well that's the cheapest cabinets they make. It would actually cost me a grand more to get them white. I'd prefer white cabinets with a dark counter top. The builders won't use HD or Lowe's cabinets because they've had so many problems with them. The builders tell me they've used knotty alder almost exclusively on all the houses they've built recently. 

I'm in Kansas, there are no Floor and Decors here.

The pump charges so much an hour and then so much a yard for pumping the concrete. There was a 3 hour charge due to the delay and the pad took ~45 cubic yards of concrete. I can't tell you what the charges were as that was arranged by the sub. 

The concrete though ran $109 a yard and usually the pumper adds about 50% to that cost. However, you save the costs of your crew. Anyone that has ever worked concrete will tell you that you can never have too much help. 

i assumed that you wanted to know what it cost to pump the mud and not the price of the truck itself. The owner told me a new one like that would cost upwards of $750K. He purchased that 30 old one for $95K.

I've heard of it, but in Chanute it may be overkill. I'll check into it though, thanks.