The Mechanicals

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The framing part has gone reasonably well with a few delays because of bad weather.  Now we enter the more mundane, but important phase of "the mechanicals."

Building a home requires soooo many decisions about plumbing and heating and electrical wiring and water systems.  Then they all get covered up.  You only get to see the outlets and the ceiling fans and recessed lighting and faucets.  All of the big stuff and many decisions are behind drywall or in the basement.

But this is when you can run into all sorts of problems if you are not careful... even if you are careful.

I called the township building inspector to ask what the requirements were for obtaining a certificate of occupancy... when could we move in?  As we talked, the conversation worked its way around to the foundation work and the fact that Pine Building was about to bring in the plumbing and heating systems and place them on a nice, expensive concrete pad they had poured in the Michigan basement for that very reason.

That's when the inspector nonchalantly said that before they could do that, there had to be another foot or so of gravel added because the house was on a "flood plain."  I called Pine Building and they were on it like white on rice.

The issue was that the inspector thought the floor was too low relative to the water table and in order to prevent damage to the heating and plumbing systems, the floor should be raised.  Wasn't that ever discussed, I questioned?  Nope.  Not even when the city-approved engineer designed the whole thing.  And when was the inspector going to mention the need to elevate the systems?  Oh, sometime.  Sometime after everything was installed.

I was on my way to the city hall to meet with the inspector, his supervisor, the mayor, and God to get this resolved in a reasonable way... and that didn't include a lot of needless expense to bring in tons of gravel. Then Zack Ostroff, the architect called to let me know that the inspector was willing to go with hanging the heating system from the first floor joists and raising the water treatment system up on a platform.  That would put everything above any level to which the water could seep in if the sump pump failed.  


Okay, that was reasonable.


Pine Building did everything by the book and there was still the sucker punch waiting to be thrown.  Watch out when you try this.

Now we wait for "the mechanicals."  Meanwhile, the shingles and siding will be put on as soon as the weather clears.