All Forum Posts by: Sean Kollee

I have a threeplex with some rental suites to build next, and another duplex.  I may post more information on these two projects as they proceed.  The rental project is really interesting because building new to rent is almost impossible given land value.  New product is just not earning enough rents to cover the high cost of everything from city fees to inflation in plumbing supplies.  I have a model that I think will work, if I can pull it off...

LOL I adjusted my labour rates downward because I have watched too many american based HGTV flipping shows where they redo an entire house for 30k and it looks amazing.

I forgot to consider restructuring old or damaged framing, insulation and even floor damage.  If the new tub isn't exactly the same or larger than the old tub, be ready to redo the bathroom floor too... it is endless what this could cost.  And yes you could talk yourself into gutting the place and starting over because how can you stop at half a bathroom. 

It isn't just the tear out you need, it is also the plumbing, likely new rough in valve, trim kit, tile, wall prep, etc.  Is the drain old galvanized material, or is it ABS?  Are you going to use a handyman type that can do the entire job start to finish or multiple trades, like a demo labourer to scrap all the old stuff, plumber to do the tub and piping, and a tile guy to patch and finish whatever the aftermath is.  I think the scope needs to be flushed out here.  I'd wager you are at $1000 in a blink of an eye.  I would guess my plumber would bill me 450 in labour, plus the tub and fixture and supplies.  I would have a hard time believing you can find someone to do the tile for less than a minimum rate such as $150, just for the small amount of work you need done.    

We have arrived after a tiring journey of over six months to the end.  here are some final photographs taken by a real photographer.

Thanks for reading.  It was a fun project, many more are planned just like it.

I am going to move ahead a little into the finishing work, this discussion is getting very long and possibly tedious.  I have skipped ahead a few weeks to get to hardwood.

Post 48 - hardwood

It seemed like the entire city was in a rush to get some last minute work done before basically everything shuts down for the weekend. We have hardwood install ready after the break, so they delivered today. In theory the material can acclimatize to its new home, I think this is pretty much nonsense because the boxes are individually wrapped. Undoubtedly the wood is arriving from a super dry warehouse somewhere in SE Calgary, not exactly a climate controlled environment.

We have some interesting details planned for the install. I have used this shop before, and found their sales, service and install to be very good. I've given them a challenging install and we are going to see what they can do next week.

Covering the treads and risers in hardwood is a significant use of our finishing budget. The work is labour intensive and consumes a lot of material. The outcome is worth the expense in my view. My installer is working by himself, unfortunately he's a one man team. I like the end result however. Here is a shot of the first few treads going in.

A frequent visitor is giving thumbs up to the hardwood

Post 49 - garage progress

At this point the garage is ready for shingles and siding. We've got the garage doors and openers installed now, and the electrical meter bases installed on the sides of the garage are inspected and approved. Inside the garage we need to fire rate the middle party wall, which consists basically of insulating the stud spaces and hanging type x drywall on either side. With this work planned for tomorrow we can recall the inspector and wrap up the project. This is just in time as we need to landscape the rear of the yard, and we don't want to landscape until the garage is completely finished.

Post 50 - landscaping progress

The moment has definitely arrived to finish the exterior on this project. Landscaping is one of the final tasks. Our crew is back with loam and gravel so the front yard is prepped for sod and the sideyard are finished with crushed stone.

With the garage only lacking siding, soffit, fascia and trough, the rear yard is not quite ready for landscaping. We will push on and get the garage completely done in the next week or so. The remainder of the week will be a continuation of interior finishing with hardwood and railings on the schedule.

Post 51 - carpet

Experienced trades are pretty quick at what they do. This is shown by the productivity of the carpet crew. Three guys were able to finish off almost two houses in one day. With carpet complete we can move along with greater confidence to finalizing the rest of the interior. 

Post 52 - Spindle railing

We've got an even split between glass and spindle railing on the project. The spindle job is nicely progressing. Because of the stiffer spindle structure compared to the glass we can skip a middle post. It makes for a nice look.

Post 53 - vertical motion doors

The kitchen design features some really nice Blum hardware. After some delays and part number confusion we've got the material installed. Looks good.

Post 54 - barn doors

Barn doors are always a nice show piece in a new house. They often save space too when entering a smaller room such as a walk in closet. The semi detached project has benefitted from a couple barn doors and finally we were able to hang them (needed carpet and finishers to come back).

Post 55 - appliances

Appliance delivery is another nice progress milestone in the project. It also means a large load of recyclables to the depot. We need the plumber to finish installing all of these appliances, because I don't like to make water connections myself. For example, he must run the fridge water line and connect it to the fridge, add the dishwasher drain line and supply, and do the gas connection to the oven. All of this work is definitely in the realm of needing to know how to do it, which disqualifies this builder, particularly for the gas job. I get to put in the microwave and trim kit (didn't fit, needs kitchen guy back), and the range hood (can't finish until the mechanical final), so basically I can't do anything except recycle (and pay bills, my two main roles in this project).

Post 56 - glass shower

the glass crew is back with the custom shower install. These are always an impressive installation and finishes the bathroom off nicely.

Post 57 - dealing with the mess

The garage continues to act as a dumpster and we've now likely got a bin worth of junk accumulated. And growing. It is amazing how much waste is produced by the construction site, after the recyclables are removed. Carpet remains a major villain for lacking reuse options. We may have to find a recyclable or returnable carpet supplier next time. Packaging waste other than cardboard is also a tough waste stream to manage.

Post 58 - railing stain

the painters are back to stain the oak railings in the second house. We've had the shop prepare a stain match to the cabinets. The concept here is to make a nice contrast with the lighter floor.

We are well into finishing now, lets show some photos and move on.

post 37 - more finishing

On these smaller inner city jobs it makes a lot of sense to get the trim and door work done before the cabinets. Usually the only place large enough to set up the tools is where the kitchen island sits.

. The finishers double booked themselves so spent the weekend finishing my first house. The bulk of next week they need to be in Canmore working on a hotel. With my kitchen delivery and install starting the following Monday they stepped up and stayed late to do the work. Thanks Umar, Raj and 'uncle'.

post 38 - kitchen starts

The holiday Friday caught me by surprise but many of the construction crews are treating this day like a regular work day. The delivery of the first kitchen was done in the AM and the siding/eavestrough crew is also on site. Sounds like a busy easter weekend for the job site. Kitchen install is one of the most anticipated elements of a project. It represents another progress milestone.

Post 39 - stupid criminals

We had an encounter with stupid criminals yesterday. They decided to come to the job site and steal the power lines that run to my houses. They cut the lines near the power pole and for whatever reason left without taking the cables. I suspect these idiots were so dumb they didn't know the lines were aluminum. Aluminum has very low salvage value, so the morons just left after cutting the power and realizing their folly. It isn't good for me because the guys came to work this morning and didn't have power for the tools. I have to get the electrician to come back and repair the lines. This is going to cost me some money to deal with the vandalism. It would be nice to find a way to identify the stupid criminals and get some form of compensation. There is a new security system we can invest in for a future project that will collect video evidence. Seems like it could be worth the cost to prevent this kind of inconvenience

Post 40 - Kitchen install

The first kitchen install is progressing nicely. It shows why I don't like to have cabinets all the way to a 10 ft ceiling. It makes for super large stacks of cabinets that are neither necessary or practically useful. In a 9 ft ceiling, it is ok because you can purchase 9 ft long material and this minimizes unsightly joints.

In this kitchen, the 10 ft wall incorporates a window, and the light that comes in through this clerestory style window is very nice. With the kitchen finishing work very predictable, I can start to firm up some more previously scheduled items. Ideally I can get the second house finished in June and start to market it to sell. I now have a back log of 9 houses to build, so I need to take advantage of the summer construction season.

Ensuring the kitchen is 'just right' is an essential part of managing a successful project. What it actually means to design and build the kitchen properly isn't as clear as the absolute necessity to deliver a kitchen that exceeds the client expectation. You often hear from realtors involved that the buyer reaction to the kitchen is a make or break element to whether or not they purchase the house, or continue looking at any of the dozens of other options.

To me, the kitchen needs to start off with the space allocation. At the early design stage, the prints just show a placeholder for the kitchen. You can't actually tell if the kitchen that is generically drawn in to fill the space on the print is any good. This is one reason I try to not allow the DP to be filed without the kitchen being carefully analyzed. In the current project, the kitchen has a ceiling height change, a window, a set of stairs and a hallway to consider. All of this has to feed into the design otherwise a major error could result.

To distill this kitchen commentary down, the approach I take to the kitchen is generally as follows;

• allocate enough space to the kitchen
• incorporate the best possible arrangement of upper and lower wall cabinets into the space
• select the materials and finishes that best suit the audience and budget
• build and install the kitchen with a skilled crew
• finish the job with the appliances, tile, lights, counters, etc to create the complete kitchen.

These instructions are somewhat detailed, but what I can't convey is the specifics. For example, I say 'allocate enough space' for your kitchen, but what does the mean? I have a general idea, such as I like to have the island about 9 ft long, so it can fit a dishwasher, sink cabinet, recycling area and a bank of drawers. But custom touches like how to arrange the cabinets, how high they sit on the wall, where the pantry unit is, etc, all has to be thought of in a holistic manner. There is no one correct answer, but there are many bad answers.

Also note I don't actually design anything or 'do' anything. I have a few kitchen designers I work with to prepare a concept. I have as hard a time looking at a blank room and coming up with a great kitchen layout as anyone else. As the project leader, what you must do is described below:

• Push the concept in a direction that will have the best outcome - so have a vision in mind for the project
• Know the space you have - bulkheads, windows, drop ceilings, etc will all add complexity and originality to your design, but also add some risk you make an error. You are in charge of the project so you have to make sure you won't have a fridge where the door bangs into a wall, or hits the dishwasher when it is open.
• Adjust the framing to make sure it is going to fit - the kitchen shop isn't going to frame your house properly, you need to do this yourself.
• Focus on the big picture - when you sign off on the kitchen plans, you are giving your personal guarantee to the client that this kitchen is going to work. Review your plan from multiple angles and devise scenarios to allow you to identify trouble spots, and fix them.

I am sure there are some good books out there on kitchen design, and even courses students take to gain certification in the industry. As a builder, I don't have this training, so I rely partly on an instinctive sense of what is going to work that I have gained through project experience, and partly on continuing to do the hard work to reduce the risk of a big mistake. And of course I hire some really good people (without whom none of this would ever happen). Plus I write a lot of big cheques to mobilize everything. Deposits to kitchen shops can be a frightening experience, but necessary for the shop to order the material.

Here is the final shop drawing that came out of multiple revisions, visits to the site to adjust dimension, and a lot of double checking on how to make it all work.

post 41 - scheduling

I find that up until the drywall taping, the scheduling is fairly straightforward. The finishing stages need more return visits, and steps partially complete before we can move ahead and come back to finish a stage. Painting is the best example of this. It does take some trick schedule work to fit all the moving pieces together. Adding in multiple houses and you are doubling the schedule work. This is the approach I like to take once the walls are primed.

• install interior doors, trim work (casing and baseboard), baseboards in carpet areas
• install all cabinetry
• template counters
• ---- this is where we are ---
• prep for trim and door paint (spray crew)
• spray interior trim and doors (spray crew)
• install counters (preferably right now is the time to do this but it can be later) (kitchen shop)
• taping crew returns to do the first touchup (a lot of damage on walls from carpentry, deliveries, tools, etc). (drywall contractor)
• first wall paint, closet and bathrooms can be painted twice (wall paint crew)
• tile all areas (tile contractor)
• do all finished electrical work, but reserve all the cover plates (note we try and paint the bathrooms with two coats so we can put wall lights on) (electricians)
• install plumbing fixtures (plumber)
• install flooring (hardwood and carpet)
• final railings
• glass work
• paint walls final coat (wall paint crew)
• lockout, doors, handles, hardware (finishers)
• appliances install including gas and water to fridge and stove (plumber)

So this is a general list of order of operations for the finishing work, looking at this list it is reasonable to say I am still at the very beginning of the finishing. Each bullet represents at least a work day, and possibly multiple work days (tiling is the largest job here by time). A list in a spreadsheet is a terrible way to schedule a job with all of these tasks, so I put it into my schedule program. Due to the large number of dates involved, and multiple people that need to agree to my dates, I don't want to have this all in my memory (which I will surely forget or confuse). Now that I have embedded dates all the way up to the plumber, I can refer to my cell phone at any time and remind myself who has committed to what date.

Having activity in each house every day is nearly impossible to orchestrate for a smaller builder. There just is not enough leverage over the crews compared to a production builder that has dozens of sequential jobs. We may have to tolerate some small gaps where no progress is made, but we can't allow work to stack up so tight such that one variable causes a cascade of failures like a domino effect. Overall the schedule is moving along nicely.

This is what the schedule looks like from this point forward.

post 41 - spraying

The spray crew began prep late last week and into the weekend. Not a very photogenic step of construction so we are going straight to the first coat of primer and the red bondo touchup they apply before sanding and spraying again. The trim work and doors will get another coat or two before the work is done. On the other house the kitchen installation is wrapping up, so we can start paint prep there as well.

The spray crew is finished with the first house. This is a much larger job than you'd think it would be, but if you add up the number of doors, shelves, window, baseboards, build ins, closets, etc there is a large area of woodwork that must be primed, touched up, and recoated. The painting of the house is a fairly costly process and involves a lot more labour than material cost. I am often surprised by how much the cost adds up to paint a complete house.

Fortunately the crew did a nice job and I was impressed with the product. The lacquer is a necessary evil to get a hard and durable white finish on smooth woodwork (no brush strokes). It is a toxic product before it is cured. I believe that once cured, the material doesn't continuously leach volatile compounds into the air, but I can't be certain of this. We don't want to be poisoning our new home owners with toxic substances in the house. Of everything that is used in construction today, the lacquer is for sure the worst. It would not surprise me at all if the government bans certain products from being sold for spray work in houses. I'd be willing to accept a poorer finish in exchange for less harmful chemicals in the process. I am not sure the home buyers today are aware of this possible trade off, so it would be best if everyone operated with the same rules. This may be a rare instance where government involvement in home building would be welcome. Generally I am of the view the government involvement makes a lot more trouble than it solves. Perhaps outlawing some of the chemical products would protect people from themselves in such a way they are unable to do so on their own.

post 42 - With the mud drying out a little we were able to catch a landscaping contractor before he gets too busy this summer. The first task is to start the fence. The fence also acts partly as a retaining wall to allow us to adjust the grades according to our city approved grade slip. We need to adjust the grades at the rear of the site to ensure drainage. After 50 years it seems like the old houses on this street have either sunk or the alley has lifted.

When building in the inner city you encounter some situations that are almost guaranteed to cause you grief, this is just part of the project so there is no point in getting stressed out. The problem is the shoddy practices of 50 years ago that have somehow lingered on until the present moment when you need to build your infill.

This manifests itself most often in grade issues. The 80 year old house beside you was just built wrong. It may have sunk in the mud or maybe the rest of the neighbourhood has grown up around it. The issue is the houses on either side of your property are going to be too low, possibly even negative slope from the alley. This suggests meltwater from the alley could flow toward, rather than away from the old house that is usually positioned in the middle of the lot.

When building new you won't be allowed by the city to have negative drainage. Nor would you want to because negative drainage is a practice that no sane builder would consider. The problem is you are building between two negatively draining properties and when you adjust your grades it will create the appearance, among the neighbours, that you are somehow committing some injustice against them. And, of course, you should deal with their problems and fix everything because for some reason you owe them this improvement to their property.

Your grades are going to need to be higher, likely at the rear of your foundation. You may need to grade your property at the border of your neighbour at 2 ft or more above where the neighbour is just so your water will drain toward the lane. This can create some conundrum in terms of how to have the elevation drop 2-3 ft at the border. The solution is often to retain the soil on your side and you have multiple options here. The best may be just to use the new fence you are building anyway as a retaining structure. This is what we have done on the 41st project. 

Post 43 - Quartz counter install

The kitchen shop was back on site installing the quartz countertop in the first house yesterday. This, in combination with the drywall touchup and first coat of paint puts us right on schedule for tile to begin next week.

Counter installation is a fairly expensive task. A person can spend $50/sq ft on this material, and it was not too long ago a house in calgary could be purchased for $100/ sq ft. It is hard to imagine how cheap housing was 20 years ago given the price just of one part of the project.

In addition to the stone, we need to install 7 undermount sinks in various locations. Each needs to be cut and polished, so this adds cost as well. In these inner city projects stone counters is basically a standard feature. I prefer to use quartz over granite, but you see that material being used as well.

When you hear about renovations where the kitchen cost is over $40k (and the kitchen isn't particularly impressive), I often wonder what the breakdown is on that cost. There is no way that I could spend that much on a kitchen in a project of this value, even for all the bathroom cabinets, appliances, counters, tile, lighting, flooring, etc combined. Renovation kitchens are obviously a lot more costly to tie in the new material to the old, but I'd still be hesitant for anyone to invest that much in a kitchen reno. The cost of renovations is another reason I prefer new construction over dealing with old housing. In the areas I work in old houses trade for land value so there is not much benefit to renovations (they will end up in the dumpster).

Post 44 - Paint

The lowest cost construction material (can of paint) seems to make the largest interior impact. Particularly compared to the countertop.

What happens is you become desensitized to the ugly primer colour and after a while sort of accepting of it. Then the walls are rolled all in one day and it transforms the open areas (in a good way).

Post 45 - Tile waterproofing in shower

We are making steady progress on the tile for house 1. Unfortunately our tile contractor is busy and we are not getting the whole crew, just the one tilesetter is working and not full days. The trades inevitably do this when busy, they can't please everybody so instead they spread themselves thin. Still, we are seeing some forward progress and we hope later the entire crew will be available to tackle the complete project.

For tile in the shower, we want to make sure the walls are adequately waterproofed. We aren't tiling directly onto drywall either, we use the diamond back tile board for the walls, and we have a layer of roll on red seal on top of that to provide added water resistance.

Fortunately I arrived in time to see the tile being applied on the waterproofed walls. We never want any problems with tile, it is a nightmare to consider fixing tile problems after the house is occupied.

 Post 46 - construction screwups

There is a certain number of mistakes to expect to happen during a large project. What generally happens is the first trade does something to create a problem, and leaves it for the next trade, who somehow creates a worse situation. Eventually the builder notices and then it can be a really big headache to undo the mess. I like to feature my construction screw-ups so we can learn to avoid it next time. The only way to identify these early enough to catch the presumptively is to be on site a lot and know what to look for.

Often the mistake can be just a matter of inches, or even fractions of an inch. In a recent example the receptacle was installed just a little too high. Likely the electrician built in some margin of error so the receptacle definitely would not be installed to low (that would be even worse). Once I realized the situation he was able to correct, it so no harm done. This is a minor instance of a construction headache. We have had worse.

Post 47 - garage building

In the overall grand scheme of garage building we are still in the early stage, but we are moving along now nicely. The pad is largely prepped and rebar is tied. We have an engineer inspection date and a pour date. If all goes well we will immediately deliver the lumber and roof package, and the framers will be back. Here is some work done from today

With drywall complete, and the heat on, we can get some real work done on the inside.  This is big project milestone 

post 29 - drywall complete

The crew has been hard at work hanging the board, taping begins tomorrow. Hanging drywall in a 2000 sq ft house, plus basement, is a really tough job. It works a lot of muscles that don't tend to be used, especially when doing the ceiling. Having 10 ft ceilings makes it that much harder to do. A good drywall crew can hang a tremendous amount of board in a single day, but it wears out their bodies from the repetitive motions.

To do the two houses we have under construction has been about a nine day job for both. The taping will be orchestrated a little differently, because of drying time. The crew I am using is really fast when it comes to taping. I have always found taping to really transform the interior of a house from a hodge podge of small pieces into a continuous product.

post 30 interior selections

After significant hunting among my suppliers for the last few finishing details, I have been able to put it all together into a great design palette that will work very well for my duplex project. The trick here is to put it all together and try and stick with a budget. Tile in particular can be extravagantly pricey when you add the labour and setting materials.

This semi-detached project has some large tiled areas, so we are using some neutral light grey tile, and combined with an oak floor, darker walnut style cabinets, and white quartz counters makes for a timeless looking package that can suit many colours of paint and furnishings.

With the drywall project half done, it is time to really go back and take a hard look at the schedule. I have two unrelated jobs running now, the exterior work and the interior. The exterior needs to be tackled in such a way that I can get the garage done in time (can't start until frost is gone from the ground), landscaping, and all exterior material (stucco, siding) for the first owners to move in.

The interior work is moving along well, but I have yet to tie down a finishing package and the cabinetry production date. This should be organized no later than the end of the week. Once I redo my schedule I will post how it looks over the next month or so.

post 31 - taping 

I have many posts on taping on my website, a little too boring for here.  Lets just put up a photo and move on.

Jiggi is evenly spreading compound using the finishing trowel. Not sure what size he is using, could be 12 -14 inches. This is where the skilled hands show off their work. This task is a lot harder than it looks, and needs to be repeated countless times to fill every joint.

post 32 - dealing with city hall

In a recent post, I discussed how I was threatened with a $10-14k bill from the roads department at City hall regarding damage to the alley behind my project. While I could accept a minority of the blame here, based on bad judgement of my contractor driving down a soggy alley at a time they should have been more careful, the City over reaction is so typical of how it operates.

For example, the majority of heavy traffic in an alley is the City owned garage and recycling trucks, plus lighter traffic from residents. The alley was susceptible to rutting because the gas company has to dig a couple huge holes in the middle of it to expose the gas lines.

I had some heavy equipment in the alley, but this was when the street was solid with frost, so no damage was done (hauling out waste bins, etc). I won't have any more traffic in the alley until we put the garage in from here on - we have very few deliveries left that can't be from the front.

While the City cost to operate is so bizarrely inflated, it gives insight into how it functions. The City runs an operation with little regard to cost or value. It is a very blunt instrument. It seems like it will take any possible avenue to bill (exploit) as much as possible in an arbitrary way if they can find someone to blame, and bill. The best way to avoid this is to stay as far from any dealing with the City as possible. If the City would spend $14k to fix ruts in an alley (needing, graders, loaders, material, labourers, signage, street closures, managers, an engineering bill, etc), you wonder how much other routine City business must cost. No sane person would think fixing a few ruts in the spring time in an alley could cost that much.

One factor here is how crazy it is to blame someone for damage, but then not allow them to fix it. It is against the bylaw to operate on City property. The alley is a City owned property, so only specially certified contractors are allowed to work on it. So on the one hand the City is saying you need to fix the alley, yet at the same time the alley is not allowed to be fixed.

At this point we went ahead and fixed the alley despite concern that fixing it could be worse somehow. Maybe the City would come back and say the wrong type of crushed material was used and it needs removed (we used 25 mm road crush as we were told). Or the City will decide to come and fix it anyway, even though it is already dealt with.

A lot of this issue was created by the neighbours who like to complain about everything. If the complaints cease now that the alley is fixed, it is unlikely anyone from the City will make further trouble. Let's hope this is the end of the issue and we can move on with our work on the inside of the house.

The gravel truck departs and the alley is patched up looking better than it has in years. I am hopeful the nightmare of alley damage and restoration is over and my bill will be reasonable (delivery of road crush and bobcat time).

post 33 - ceiling texture

We have come to the end of the taping project, as far as what we can show in photos. The skim coat is complete and the walls are ready to get a final sand. The final sand will not be done until after the ceiling texture is complete (this can be a messy process, drips, overspray, etc).

The first side is getting textured today, the second side the day or two after the first. With this done and the sanding ready to go we can get the walls primed, then the interior door and trim package sent out (next week).

They drape the house with a masking roll and light poly. This keeps all the mess of overspray off the walls. The first step is to spray the ceiling with a priming paint. Next they will spray on a heavier texture material and trowel it down, thus the name 'knock down'. This replaced the old popcorn ceiling texture that has become very unfashionable.  

post 34 wall prime

The painters were in early today making best use of the sunny Calgary spring to prime the walls. They use a medium dark primer that best highlights drywall defects. After the finishers do the doors and trim work the walls can take a bit of a beating. We do the first Touchup after the finishing stage.

post 35 finishing begins

With the arrival of the material we can announce for certain that finishing is ready to begin. Since I have the schedule organized pretty tight we don't have many days to lose. The finishing trades can get busy quick and I know this is looking to be a busy year. I need to ensure my site is ready when the trades have space allocated.

post 36 - vagrancy issues

The state one of the properties I bought last year has finally gotten bad enough my neighbour is calling to request I clean it up. It looks like a trash heap that's for sure. I've got some time tomorrow to deal with it. My plan is to move all this crap into the garage. When the excavator comes he can haul it away. The inside of the house isn't much better. A cat was living there and someone was feeding it. Eventually the cat perished and it remains in the basement. This was ok during winter but I don't plan on going back inside again. Allowing people to salvage valuables from the house has been a real waste of my time. I need to get this place bulldozed soon.

I am skipping a lot of key material related to house building, but I guess anyone can check out my website for the full package.  Here are some more summary posts lets try and throw a few more in here and go 21 - 28 and start off with some more weather complaining

Post 21 - how cold is too cold

We know the answer to our question of how cold is too cold for construction (right now). We are going on about two weeks of miserable conditions and this has impacted the project in many ways.

Right now we need to wrap the building and complete the soffit, fascia and trough. We also need to spray foam our cantilever and joist end areas. All this needs to be done before we insulate otherwise we risk moisture getting in the walls and trapped being the vapour barrier. Given how cold it has been moisture in the walls hasn't been a real concern. It has been the debilitating cold that is preventing work. The spray foam truck can't operate in these conditions and neither can our siding crew. We can't turn the furnace on because we are waiting for the gas meter and we can't turn the furnace on until we seal the building anyway. Sneaking in the shingles was about the only exterior task that worked in my favour. At least when the snow accumulated during the last five storms melts next week, it will run off the roof, rather than inside the house.

The Monday forecast is looking great. Let's hope this is the end of the cold as we need to make some progress.

post 22 - subdividing costs

One of the unexpected costs a builder may encounter when working on a semi detached project is the fee to subdivide.

This is a fee structure largely controlled by the City, so it can charge whatever it deems appropriate. Thus far we were billed $1174 from the City to do whatever it must to to draw a line down the middle of a lot. we also got hit with a surface improvement to repair the old curb cut from the driveway. That was about $3650. So we are paying about $5k to the City plus our surveyor costs.

For the $1174 if you get the right person on the phone you can pay by credit card. This is the easy way. For the surface improvement, you must get a bank draft, then walk it over to the third floor cashier. This can be a half day wasting experience.

I have never understood why the City has so many payment requirements that occur at intervals over the life of the project. It can require many trips to City Hall, finding parking, lineups, etc, and even worse when you have to get a bank draft. What is wrong with a cheque? If it bounces, it isn't like the City won't get paid eventually because they control the subdivision. I've tweeted the mayor before about red tape for inner city builders. This would be an easy fix (take credit card or even better - online pay).

post 23 - kitchen planning

Once the interior and exterior wall framing is finished I like to take final measurements and meet with the kitchen designer to work on specific layout details. In the case of my current project, I had some ideas on how I wanted the layout to work and positioned the walls in such a way as to make my fridge and pantry unit fit properly.

Once the software comes into play I get a much better idea of the final look of the cabinets. Once I commit to a cabinet layout I select the various fixtures, generally starting with the flooring, then cabinet door material, countertop, and finally tile.

This is the current draft of my kitchen, showing the window location and where the ceiling height changes to 10ft. Overall this is a very practical and european style kitchen. I am pretty sure the eventual buyers of this home will be pleased with the selections

post 24 - exterior envelope 

Given that we've been able to start insulating and drywalling the semi detached project, I have a renewed sense of urgency to get the exterior envelope sealed up. I'm working with a new crew that comes highly recommended by a builder I have met working in the same part of town.

It has been too cold to begin the soffit, fascia and house wrap effectively, but the guys were out today as it was sunny and had warmed up somewhat (to -11C). With the balmy forecast some the crews who havent been working much may play a little catch up and get a lot of work done by putting in some long days. Even the seasonal time change is working in our favour.

Lined up for the work week (seems like it is already well underway as of Saturday night);

• Exterior metal work - this is the soffit, fascia and trough. Once we get into spring and it starts to rain this will give us some control over runoff and we need this work done before the stucco component anyway. Side benefit is the pigeons can't get in the attic and make a huge mess
• Exterior envelope - the tyvek will be sealed around the building, acting as the air barrier. This will really help seal the interior from wind and moisture penetration, as we can't afford to get any moisture in our insulated stud spaces any longer
• Plumbing - there is a small amount of plumbing to do that can be finished up prior to any drywall covering our pipes
• Electrical - we have a small electrical failure to remedy before we cover it up
• Spray foam - this is booked for Monday morning and is essential to be done before we can do soffit or drywall in many areas
• Drywall boarding - this may be done on one side in the next few days, likely beginning on the second side
• Gas meter install - this is quickly becoming a priority, fortunately I have got it booked (just don't know where we are in the priority lineup - hopefully near the top. The crew that installs meters can do a lot in one day, but they don't give you a time)
• Hardwood consult - we have one of my suppliers coming out for a site visit. This is going to play a key role in finishing the stairs so a site visit is always helpful (plus they measure)

I will be on site with some pre-arranged meetings and to take some progress photos. At this time it makes sense to revisit my schedule so I can remain a step ahead of site progress. I need to make a contract with the finisher and order the interior woodwork, and possibly finalize my decision on the painting contractor.

post 25 - drywall and insulation

Given the delays are all weather not labour, my drywall crew decided to start anyway. For example, the ceilings can start before the spray foam in our joists and cantilever areas.

With a heater rigged up they are hanging drywall in t shirts upstairs while the lower levels are freezing. Here is a shot of the insulated wall, sound barrier in party wall and the drywall going up.

As expected, the warmer forecast for the week has brought out all the crews. This makes for a tricky site to manage, with parking and access to the power pole at a premium. We had:

1. electrician making last minute repair 2. insulators putting in batt insulation in second house 3. spray foam operator prepping and starting in basement 4. drywall crew boarding upstairs in first house 5. central vac install finishing (to stay ahead of insulation).

As the project manager, it is best to stay away and let the job progress. There will be plenty of time later to deal wit the aftermath of that much work going on. Making sure the cleanup gets done and cheques get written seems to be the primary work of the builder right now. 

The type of spray foam we are using in the joist ends and cantilever areas is called a 2 pound foam. This is a closed cell type of foam that is impermeable, so can insulate a space without a poly barrier.

The foam does such a good job of tightly sealing hard to reach areas and the underside of plywood where you want to avoid a cold floor. There does not seem to be much other choice than to use a spray foam if you are trying to achieve a comfortable interior. In the example below we are even sealing in the warm air duct in the bedroom above the front entry.

post 26 - why builders are so secretive 

The inner city market is highly competitive, and every builder is looking for some kind of edge over the competition. At the retail level, the buyers only see the polished end product, and they could not possibly know who put together any given design concept.

The builders tend to need to do interior design work quickly, but this leads to some really awful interior selections. Perhaps a better way is to go view the show home of the most spectacular home you can find and 'imitate' the finish package?

I am certainly not innocent when it comes to this. I like to tour some of my favourite builder show homes so I can see what they are up to. Because the trends tend to trickle down from the most expensive neighbourhoods, it is easy to ensure any property is very up to date or even ahead of the trends by visiting a few million dollar show homes.

I was visiting today at my friend 'Paul's' project. He is a very prolific builder and plans to finish 12 houses this year. I couldn't help but notice the virtual knockoff of my prior townhouse project interior design. He used the same cabinets, counters, and the hardwood and tile were just a shade off. What happened is he liked my show suite so much he took photos and copied every element as closely as possible.

This works both ways, I have adopted a few of his trades as well as offering him some options for design that he hadn't used before. On at least one instance he has basically reneged on a land deal that had reached the legal phase, so I had a huge grudge against him after that. My position was that he scammed me out of a handshake level land deal and wasted some legal work. Hopefully Paul has some more trades I can use to improve my costs or procedures. I met his house cleaner today doing the prepossession cleaning job, and took his phone number. So in the end it is ok if Paul rips off a few of my design ideas. Eventually I will return the favour...

post 27 - gas meter service connection

The common theme of this project has been to get the underground utility service work done early. This means when construction progresses to inside work, I can provide the environment for all the trades to work effectively. The surest way to alienate your crew is to have them arrive to a jobsite that isn't ready, and from insulation onward some heat is essential.

Natural gas connection takes months to apply for, dig underground into the lane, and install the meter (the final step). The meter will not be released until the plumbing inspection is passed. So the gas connection can't be made to the furnace until house passes all the inspections required at the pre board phase, this is a huge amount of work.

The gas service provider may offer a temporary heat setup that allows access to gas early. I don't bother with this because I can get my furnace running soon enough to avoid the fees of a winter heat hookup. Thus far we've had a terrible winter but my site hasn't really needed heat until this week (it isn't possible to heat a house that is not insulated). We started this project in November (basement work), so it has taken until March to be ready for gas - and everything has gone smoothly except for weather delays. This is where the less experienced builder will run into trouble. It I hadn't already done the preliminary work to get gas, we could be weeks or months away.

A few small hurdles remain to have the furnace operate. We need power to our electrical panel (we are relying on the pole near the lane for power). The furnace is hard wired to the panel. It can't be connected to an extension cord without some effort. We have a plan for this and hopefully tomorrow it will be done (or the next day). The furnace condensate line needs connected into the floor drain, and a temporary thermostat supplied. If this isn't done the condensate will spill all over the basement floor in a large puddle. I've got the mechanical contractor booked to do this tomorrow.

The taping crew will be pleased to see heat inside - this will ensure they prioritize my job over other projects. Often the trades will preview a few sites and select the project that looks most ready. By being the most reliable contractor in terms of delivering these services, you can get to the top of the list. While I claim to be the person in charge of the schedule, the trades often prioritize their own business needs over the builder - so the most attractive site gets the best service.

So now that I have shared a few more secrets about inner city project management, we can look ahead to some warm and happy trades finishing my inside work. This is the stage of the process where a large amount of funds is needed to keep moving ahead. I have to pay the major part of the bills for the plumbing, electrical, exterior work, insulation, drywall, and deposits on finishing material. Over the next month the cash burn rate will exceed $100k.

post 28 - Heat

What a relief to turn on the furnace. The basement is far too cold to be insulating right now. With the furnace running I should be able to warm it right up and get it thawed out and dry so we can insulate.

Using the pipe wrench and turning on the gas for the first time is one of the most satisfying milestones in a project.