Framing begins

Finally some above ground work is underway at the semi detached project.  We lost a week due to some extremely cold weather but our framers are now on site and capping the main subfloor.  

It often seems at this stage of the project such a significant passage of time and effort has taken place that we are at the end, rather than the very beginning of a job.  Many of the next series of tasks is predictable and efficient compared to the launch of a new house project where weather and heavy equipment schedules need coordinated.

We will have enough lumber supplies delivered this week to get us through the holiday season and hopefully a framed house in another four weeks. 

The framers hard at work on a sunny winter afternoon  

Rowhouse comment period - now until Dec 22 2016

The planning department dropped off the placards at our 33 St. location advertising an open  period for submitting comments by email to the lead planner on the file.

Given the nasty cold conditions the frosty flip board may not be legible.  If a person would like to submit comments they can to jarred.friedman@calgary.ca.  Another option is to contact me via my comment page on this website, phone or email is also welcome.

There will be additional opportunity to comment beyond this initial phase.  I expect the development permitting phase to take a number of months, usually at least four, and there is not likely to be much progress until the holiday season is over.

Affordable smart devices

The relentless technological progress in the building industry creates some great products.  A classic example is the evolution of the thermostat over the past few years.  The first really good one to hit the market was the Nest, and this company was later bought by Google.  This disrupted the industry and all the other manufacturers are now competing with web enabled, easy to use smart thermostats.

Thanks to some damage by one of the kids, I had the chance to swap out my old style $25 on/off thermostat that runs my infloor heating system in the basement with a new smart thermostat by Honeywell, called the Lyric 5.  This was half the cost of buying another Nest unit.  I will compare this unit and see if I prefer it to the Nest for use in my upcoming houses, and see how well it deals with the slow to react slab heat system vs a furnace.  The cost of web enabled devices is certainly getting more attractive, and the benefit of being able to check on your house via a phone in winter when on vacation is major plus.

One area of cost that has not come down very much is the 'structured wiring' work for smart home features.  We recently had some shocking quotes for work on our upcoming houses.  There is no way that smart home wiring should cost 1/4 or more of the value of a complete new house electrical system install with panels, underground services, dimmer switches, finished light package labour, and dozens of pot lights.  Needless to say we wont be spending thousands on wires behind the wall when you can get some of the new wifi smart gadgets for less than $200, and more future smart devices will be introduced not even require wiring.

Another example is security system wiring. The wiring cost could be used for purchasing the equipment for a wireless system that does not require a home phone connection and comes complete with motion sensors and a door sensor plus low cost monitoring.  We will be trying this new wireless home security system on our next show home to see how well it would work for our future clients.

Here is a shot of our new and old thermostats.  Looks great and can save energy/add comfort to the house.  

Looks good and is easy to set up once installed.  Install, while DIY friendly, required a call to the manufacturer and resulted in a painful process of running a third wire to the old thermostat location to power the new unit.  If this had failed we would have been calling one of our heating guys to come and help out.  Once powered up the unit quickly configured itself to the home network and iPhone app.  

Backfill - foundation construction phase is now complete.

Despite the extreme cold, our excavator had the heavy machinery back on site this morning.  The backfill wraps up the foundation stage of our project.  

The underground phase of a project has a certain element of risk and unpredictability. Contractor selection is essential here and we were fortunate to have picked all excellent operators. We appear to be right on budget as we move into the framing stage of our project.

Underground and utility or basement work may be the stage of building where the most money is spent yet the least amount of progress is visible. To date we have incurred significant cost to demolish, survey, dig, connect sewer, pour and prep the basement for backfill. Cost of work to date on site plus the design and permitting fees likely exceeds $75k at this point of the process. We will describe the costs of infill building in a future post. 

Here is what we have to show for our $75k. 

All the work done to date is now covered up.  The framing starts next week and this is a fun time to watch the project really start to come together.  

Row-house DP ready to submit tomorrow

We just received the latest, edited version of the preliminary drawings for our three unit row house project from our design shop, inertia. The plans are now at the stage where we are satisfied that we have come up with the best possible creative solutions to the design brief I prepared months ago.

The design brief is a big picture set of guidance for my design team to understand what it is I am trying to achieve with a project.  I have found it extremely helpful to prepare a design brief not just for the design team, but also for myself to formalize my internal objectives.  When starting with a blank property, the options of what to do can be overwhelming.  The design brief focuses the design team effort so their time can be best spent making the first concept as close as possible to executing my project goals.

In the case of our 33 st row house project, my design brief included specific instruction on how I wanted the entrances to each unit to be set up, how many bedrooms and bathrooms were needed, and demographic information on the type of end user I expect to occupy the houses.  Given the many constraints on site, the setbacks, height allowances, parking requirements, fire code issues, and other rules at play, we quickly developed a workable concept.  

The next phase of the process is an initial review by the City planning staff, and eventual circulation to the various parties that will provide feedback.  Over the coming months we will navigate the permitting process, and eventually the outcome will be an approved project.  This is perhaps the most innovative and interesting project I have launched in my inner city building career.  It will transform a derelict corner in a great community into an urban row house.  I am extremely grateful that Calgary Mayor and Council has granted me the zoning to pursue this development in Killarney.

Transit oriented development (TOD) is a walkable, mixed-use form of area development typically focused within a 600m radius of a transit station

Can We Stay on Schedule?

When it comes to the construction schedule, I believe it is possible to stay on schedule, even during the winter.  The weather at this time of year does conspire against the builder.  Cold, dark, snow and holidays play a major role to disrupt the momentum of progress on site.  I have put together a schedule, as I always do, up to the pre-board inspection phase.  This assists me with timing deliveries, booking the upcoming trades, and overall coordination of the many moving pieces that go into the inner city project.

Just last we we counted over 25 different tradespeople attending the site to do a variety of tasks, from sewer install, trucking concrete, all the way to spraying on foundation damp-proofing. This week, given the extreme deep freeze, we have a much less ambitious schedule.  We have just completed the weeping tile and gravel around the foundation, and passed the pre-backfill inspection. From here we will be actually backfilling, getting the temporary power pole set up and running some conduit for later use as connecting the house and garage with underground power.  Next week, if all goes well, we can begin the framing.

Here is a sample of the construction schedule.  I like to have a Gantt style chart to make it easy to avoid booking jobs before the site is ready.   This is far better than a spreadsheet because it allows the builder to navigate multiple tasks at the same time, and it has a good phone app.  Without this type of schedule software the likelihood of making a costly mistake is increased.  

The schedule software allows tasks to be arranged in such a way that a single lost day won't cause a domino effect on the rest of the schedule.  Without this the site can become very chaotic.

Asbestos roulette - how much will we lose this time?

The occupant of the 33 st property we bought, rezoned to multi-family, and are about to submit a three unit row house project for recently vacated.  Seems to be a great time to get the demolition sorted out.  Step one was get the demo permit paperwork and service disconnects submitted at City hall.

Step two is the asbestos sampling.  This is where luck plays a major role.  The sampling crew stopped by and we had a good look at the house.  Good news is the attic only had a layer of sawdust covered with pink insulation.  No problem there.  Most of the flooring was wood or newer linoleum, again that is harmless for disposal.  The lab work will now determine what is actually going to have to be remediated.  The usual culprit is drywall compound, and this leads to quite a nasty remediation bill.  We will know in a week or so the outcome of the survey.

Many samples were taken during the asbestos survey.  The lab analysis will determine the cost of remediation (if any).

Foundation damp-proofing

Once again the speed of our cribbers pays off in terms of staying just ahead of the weather allowing us to schedule and complete work that needs mild conditions to proceed.  Earlier delays cost us a few weeks of good weather, but the production of our crews has got us back on track, and with -20 C weather likely in the forecast we finished the spray on damp proofing just in time

The first step of the damp proofing involves caulking the tie holes that bind the forms together.  This is a nasty black goo that is squeezed out of a gun and into each tie.  

Each of the tie holes is filled first with the black compound.  It remain flexible over time and prevents water from penetrating the basement walls.

This is a two man crew, the first does the tie hole filling, the second does the spray work

With the tie holes all filled, the spray applicator gets on his suit and face mask and fires up the compressor in the cube van.  Spraying the entire basement will not take very long.

The first pass is at the joint between the footing and wall.  This is a key area and gets a generous coat

Our operator has 25 years of experience damp proofing foundations.  Here he is coating the walls in 6-8 inch passes.

Note the orange spray mark near the top of the wall.  Grades have been marked  on all corners by yours truly. Staying one step ahead of the guys is a constant challenge for the active site manager.

And the shiny black coat goes on and the job is done.  The spray work can't be done in very cold conditions, fortunately we have been blessed with a very mild early winter.  We have a few jobs left to do and we can backfill this basemen and start working above the ground.

Unsung heroes of construction - the form strippers

From strippers are some of the hardest working and most under appreciated labourers in the construction business today.  Of all the unpleasantness that goes into building a house, form stripping is among the nastiest, hardest, most repetitive and overall toughest jobs a person can have.  

A typical suburban bred, desk dwelling softie would be unlikely to survive a single shift of form stripping.  For this reason alone, we should salute the form strippers, without them the foundation business would not be the efficient machine it is today.  Keep in mind we started from an empty hole in the ground on tuesday, and by saturday all the forms were peeled off and stacked back on the trailer.  

The job is remarkably simple.  Strip the bracing and forms off a newly poured basement, haul the heavy, moisture laden, filthy 9 ft sheets of plywood out of the excavated area up a slippery ramp and drop on the trailer. Do this 100 more times inside and out of the basement and the job is done.  Drive on to the next basement and do it all over again.  Thanks again form strippers for getting our basement done on a saturday morning.  Here is a series of photos showing the essence of form stripping.

Cribbing part 2 - the rebar, bracing and pour - busy week in review

Our cribbers finished the job quickly and were already finished by lunch, as they are racing the weather and trying to get another couple jobs done.  Our project engineer arrived to site at 8:30 in the morning and had the inspection complete, giving the go ahead for pouring later that afternoon.

We will show a series of photos below describing the final stages of the cribbing project.  Note that we were able to get our pour done in above freezing conditions.  The sand and water components of the mix are heated at the plant, so the mix arrives able to set up properly in cooler weather.  There is a large cost to the winter heat included in the price of the concrete, but it is worth the investment ensure a good pour.

This week activity has been constant on site.  We went from basically an empty, surveyed hole in the ground to having the sewer installed, the basement cribbed, inspected and poured, and tomorrow we will have the forms stripped and the walls damp proofed.  During the week we also successfully applied for a demolition permit for our next project, set up all the service disconnets so the house can be demolished, arranged an asbestos test for the weekend, reviewed the plans for our three unit townhouse and sent feedback to the design team, and salvaged/sold some appliances from the old house on site.  We also arranged a deal to swap out our construction truck for a new model, trained a novice builder friend how to get a demolition permit for his first project, and attended parent teacher interviews for both kids.  We spent a significant portion of our construction budget, approximately $40,000 of invoices will be paid based on the work week. We will provide an update on expenditures to date in a future post.  That is all for now.      

Here the bottom two rows of rebar are shown installed on top of the bottom row of ties, and near the centre of wall.  This provides significant strength advantages to the wall  

At this point, the cribbing is complete.  The walls are braced and the forms approved for concrete placement.  

The pump truck is positioned and set up, and the first mixing truck has arrived.  The capacity of the pump is enormous and it can fill the forms for these two homes in an hour, provided enough trucks are on site to keep the hopper full.  

At this point the concrete is placed and the walls are drying.  These are 8 ft forms, generally we use 9 ft forms, but given the height constraints on site we dropped the basement ceiling to 8 ft. Fortunately the weather is above freezing so the walls can properly set up.

Cribbing Part 1

The crew started yesterday cribbing the basement walls. They put the insides up first, pass ties through the slits in the boards, and build a wood box around the top called the ladders.  

A series of rows of rebar are added to the walls, then the outside walls are raised.  Finally vertical rebar is added and the walls are braced for the pour.  

This is a fast and hardworking crew. They can get a basement set up in a day or two. They ordered the pour already and the engineer has stopped by to give his ok. We will visit the site later today and take a few shots of the cribbing.  Here is a view from yesterday afternoon.  

Interior walls, ladders and ties are installed.  

How to efficiently get a demolition permit - update 1

UPDATE 2022 - this process described below is quite outdated, thanks in large part to the CICBA and internal city procedures are improved. Not much point in reviewing this post as shown below, despite this post attracting repeated web traffic.

UPDATE 2018 July - this post is now out of date, the City has created an online permit application system for the demolition permit.  While much of the process of collecting signatures for the utility shut offs remains the same, most of the work can now be done without going to City Hall.  This is a major improvement and saves the builder a lot of time and money!

We recently posted a lengthy entry on how to get a demo permit in Calgary. One of the key findings was that three trips to City hall and the endless paperwork seems to be a little too much effort just to get permission to bulldoze your own property.  There must be a better way to get a demo permit in Calgary.  We have explored various techniques to reduce the effort necessary to get the permit, and the commentary below is the outcome of our journey.

Since I applied for a demo permit just a few weeks ago, the lengthy process is quite fresh in my memory. I improved the process somewhat to eliminate one of the two preliminary City hall visits for my new demo application. What you have to do is email the water department to get a service kill quote before you take any other action. Since the service kill quote is always $4250 the staff is quick to reply with your quote. I did this Monday night before midnight and had a reply at 7 am Tuesday.  Why you need to get a service kill quote when the estimate is always the same $4250 is just another peculiarity of dealing with City hall.  Even more frustrating is it does not cost $4250 to do a service kill.  I am waiting for the day when I get a service kill quote for $4250, and then get a quote to do the kill for $4251.  Under that scenario I won't do the service kill and let the City deal with it themselves.  

Back to my new and improved demo permit strategy.  With the service kill quote and cheque prepared and in your back pocket, the applicant then can proceed to the 3rd floor application counter with the actual demo permit paperwork. This includes the demo fee, asbestos  document (completely pointless because you don't need asbestos clearance until later), tree report, colour photos, and two copies of the survey (rpr works great here), and the name of your demo contractor (if you don't have a contractor, don't let this stop you, just make up a name and use that, and change it later. The key with this demo permit process is to keep it moving, not get bogged down in the detail). 

Upon successful submission of the demo permit paperwork, the service disconnect worksheet is printed at the permit counter and given to you.  You can now pay the $4250 (different payment window - no logic here for another line and payment window because you just paid for the demo permit on your credit card at the permit counter, this is yet another peculiarity of dealing with City hall).

Having completed the paperwork stage, you can now call 311 and request a water meter removal appointment. This will go into the system as soon as the $4250 is processed. The City will call you in a couple days to arrange an appointment to shut off the water.  Most time the response of 'the City will call you to book an appointment' is a frightening concept to the home builder.  Possibly the City may not decide to call you for months.  Rest assured this department is pretty quick to call you, generally we only wait 2 business days max for the appointment to be arranged.

The next call you can make is to Enmax to request a permanent electrical disconnect.  As with any abandoned house you will have to create an electrical account in order to cancel the service.  

(side note 1 - given the strong likelihood that your tenant abandoned ship without paying the utilities, the electricity is likely now shut off by enmax.  Once you take over the account the power will turn on, and this may light up the entire house in the middle of the night, and cause the neighbour to call the police to say that someone is breaking into the house.  You will have to go to the house turn down the furnace - currently set at full blast, close the fridge doors and turn off all the lights, hopefully you have a functional key or this will be a fruitless exercise.  Yes this happened to us and no we did not have a key that opened the door.)

(Side note 2 - when you buy a house with suspect provenance, you should try the key you are provided with to determine that it works.  We have bought multiple houses without the proper key being provided.  Since you are unlikely to collect any rent from the tenants anyway, you may want to have vacant possession an condition of sale).  

Creation of an Enmax account can be a lengthy process unto itself, possibly requiring a cash deposit upfront (no doubt Enmax is constantly being scammed, so it is wary of initiating new accounts to suspicious characters like home builders).  This is typically a lengthy process but there is a workaround.  I always keep an Enmax business account current because the process is way faster if you are in the business stream (shorter hold times) rather than the residential retail stream on the phone system.  If you have a business account, Enmax will create an new electicity account for you right away, and also put in place the process to cancel the account you just created.  This may not sound sensible to you, but this will save considerable time when pursuing the electrical disconnect by being a business customer.  The business customer also can opt into a variable rate bill.

(Side note 3 - Enmax has changed its account offering to no longer offer a residential customer a variable rate electricity bill.  Why have they done this?  Well, the variable rate is about 1.5 c/kWh, whereas the residential fixed rate is 3-4x higher.  Go with the variable rate every time by being a business customer).

On the way back from City hall you can drive to the far northwest and visit atco to do the gas meter removal application. This application is  seemingly impossible to do on line (I did try once and failed, the best practice is to drive up north and take the last exit before the ring road to the atco office and get the form at the front desk). Atco is a private enterprise, so it has an entirely unique process for service disconnection.  None of this information is important to you, just get the paper filled out and handed in and you are in good shape for the gas disconnect.  Remember, the gas disconnect involves digging up the alley and exposing the high pressure gas main, not something that can be screwed around with by anyone except Atco trained crews.

(Side note 4 - Atco is building a massive new office complex near Currie Barracks on Crowchild and Glenmore.  This office will be within cycling distance - next time we need a gas disconnect we will attempt to bike to the office and will report back on how easy this can be done).

This demo permit application technique gets all the paperwork done in one intensive morning of minimized effort and aggravation. Now you can wait for all the issuing authorities to make the appointments for disconnect and do your asbestos sampling during this interim period.  The asbestos removal racket is likely the subject of an entirely long blog diatribe.  You would be safe to assume I have some opinions on the asbestos game that is played in Calgary. Here is one interesting piece of asbestos removal racket trivia - what days of the week do provincial asbestos inspectors work, and what days (i.e. Saturday/Sunday) are asbestos inspectors off duty?

The permit issuance phase - If you are lucky there will be no asbestos and you can return to city hall with the signed off disconnect sheet and pick up the demo permit. Keep in mind atco is taking five weeks to remove gas connections so you must do this well in advance of when you want to start the demo job. 

Hopefully this improved set of instructions saves someone the headache of repetitive trips to City hall that don't accomplish much.  We don't have another demolition permit to do for another year at least. Time to focus on building again rather than demolition. 

(Side note 5 - more than likely your neighbours are going to be pleased that the house is going to be demolished - try and use this goodwill to buffer you against the turmoil created by the eventual reconstruction of the new housing you will be building).

Concrete Pour Technology - New Equipment

Our new supplier, Tanas Concrete, brought its latest and brand new piece of equipment to site.  The machine finally resolves the eternal problem of ordering large amounts of concrete, that is how to get the volume ordered precisely right.

Ordering too little is a major headache, especially if a continuous pour is specified in a job like a basement.  Ordering too much leaves a disposal problem, as nobody wants a giant dump of concrete left on their front yard.  

The new Tanas truck mixes the sand/water/gravel components on site, this means they can shut the mixer off when the job is done and drive away with all the dry ingredients ready for use at the next job.  The idea behind this truck seems to be that it can rove around the various pours and finish the last bit of pouring at each job.  This means there will never need to be a half empty truck hauling back an unneeded wet load of wasted concrete back to the plant.  Over time, having the exact right amount of material delivered to every job is quite likely a huge money saver. We have a cellphone video of the truck in action, however this website only allows still photos and youtube videos.  Here are some shots of the truck in action

This is the control panel for the truck, have not seen a digital display on a concrete mixer before today

While this isn't the clearest image, you can see the sand and gravel are on a conveyer belt, these are combined at the end of the truck with water which is then sent to the pump truck for placing in the forms.  This truck eliminates any human labour from the arduous task of mixing concrete.  Unfortunately this type of machine is only to be found on bigger jobs.  Fence and deck builders will still have to mix their own batch.

This is the site mixing truck in action. Note the water supply vessel behind the cab.  This truck looks pretty similar to what you would find at a large batch plant at any commercial scale mixing location, just compressed enough to fit on a truck body.  This must have been a significant investment by Tanas, but saves a lot of wasted concrete and eliminates the human error factor from poorly measured loads.

Basement Development - The key components of a successful basement project

Developing an inner city basement has a number of elements that must be carefully orchestrated into the finished product; 

• the hole has to get dug in the right spot, so the surveyor is essential before work begins  
• the excavator must get the hole level and at the proper depth at the bottom of the footing
• the engineer must take the sample for soil bearing and sulphate content of the soil, this will impact concrete selection later (the mix is variable depending on the project requirements)
• the engineer must already have developed plans for the footing rebar detail and thickness, and wall rebar pattern. This is variable based on soil bearing, depth of backfill, and the weight of the structure above
• the lumber yard supplies the package necessary for the work, usually lumber, stakes, weeping tile and rebar
• the cribbing crew sets the footing forms in place 
• concrete placing crew, pump truck and mix trucks are now called upon to pour the footing
• the cribbing crew arrives back on site to set the forms and rebar
• the engineer usually requires a site visit at this point to inspect the foundation wall detail
• the same concrete placing crew returns to pour the basement
• a form stripping crew is usually brought in to peel off the forms and load the trailer
• waterproofing is applied to the basement walls
• gravel and weeping tile is delivered to site and installed 
• the city is called in for a pre-back fill inspection
• the excavator returns to backfill the basement
• to add another step, at some point the sewer and water lines can be brought in, in our opinion the sooner the better for this specialized task.  

Our semi detached project is currently midway through the process, with the footing having been poured today. Let's hope our cribbing crew can get the walls up right away.  Here are some photos of the footing stage of the basement project with captions to provide further detail on what is happening.

This is the centre form that divides the two buildings, it is both wider, at 30 inches, and deeper, at 10 inches than the typical perimeter forms.  The middle footing also receives five rows of 10 mm rebar. the perimeter footing will receive only three rows.

The cribbing crew is beginning the rebar install in the footing forms.  

the rebar is hung approximately in the centre of the form, it must be at 2 inches from the edge of the concrete, this offers some protection of the rebar from rust

The pump truck and placing crew arrives, and less than an hour later the concrete is poured.  This job used about 10 cubic metres of concrete.

Inner City Sewer Install - What does a potential homeowner or builder need to know

Sewer install is quite literally one of the most important features of a new home and should be a great comfort to the new owner than they will be getting a brand new system connected to an existing 50-70 year old piece of City infrastructure.  A terrifying mess will be a guaranteed outcome if this work is done poorly.  

Due to the sensitive nature of the work, involving shutting down streets and digging up the City owned roads and sidewalks, only indemnified contractors can do this work.  The work is a real technical specialty, and the handful of indemnified crews have all the big toys to go along with this massive and time sensitive undertaking.

This brand new excavator was recently purchased by the owners at Precision Underground, at a cost of $190,000.  This purchase was motivated by the failed $10,000 turbo unit in the old machine, and the pressure to install 170 sewer systems per season means down time is not acceptable.

In addition to the costly gear, the indemnified crews have a certain amount of pricing power over any client that needs the work done.  During a 'boom' year, expect to pay a significant premium for this work.  We have had the pleasure of hiring Precision Underground Services for the last few jobs we have done, one of the best indemnified crews doing this work in Canada.  

To complete the job, a significant amount of work needs to be done in advance by the builder.  This all comes at great cost as you will soon see.  

1.  Get a grade slip and hire the crew - the grade slip is provided once a DP is submitted to the city.  The grade slip provides the information that is used to quote the job (depth of sewer).  You can do some advance scouting here but basically you are at the mercy here of what the grade slip says.  The job can be quoted now, this time we did not bother getting multiple bids (will explain why later).

2. Pay the asphalt degradation fee - this will cost between $1900 and $6000.  We got off lucky this time because we are digging in an old road that hasn't been repaved recently.   Our next job we are not so lucky...

3.  Pay the $4250 water shutoff fee. This is the good news, you can get this back by doing the service kill, (which we have now done today - great for us to get that deposit back because we have another to pay soon).

4.  Demolish the site and dig the basement.  Pouring the basement and building the house may be necessary here if the indemnified crew can't get to you right away (often these crews have a multi month backlog).  

5.  We chose to go ahead with the install before pouring our basement because the winter season is upon us and sewer work largely shuts down.  Cutting through frost is very difficult as well as properly repairing the road.  This proved to be extremely beneficial.  By opening up the street we found that the sewer was just deep enough to allow us to gravity drain the basement plumbing, saving $2500 plus major aggravation on site.  Using the standard technique, the sewer would have been stubbed out to the property line and connected later, and lack of detailed measurements would have necessitated a higher pipe and lift stations.

6. Work is done following a similar methodology which is shown in the photos below

dig up the street and kill the old service for the sanitary water.  This was being done as we arrived to the job site.  Fortunately this crew starts work while builders are still in bed

Next the street is trenched for the new water lines to be run to the basement of the house.  The lines are 1 inch pex pipe and must be 2.3 M deep to avoid frost issue.  

Note the shoring boards are used to prevent cave ins while trenching.  The crew has a genius system where the bracing pipes are charged with compressed air and quickly create a safe work zone.  the lower of the two braces is removed once a bed of gravel is laid to bed the new lines.

Once the trench is prepared the water lines go in.  

The vertical pipes show the water shutoff valves.  These are barely visible at the back of the frame.  

More gravel is added and the sewer pipes are laid according to the proper slope of 3 inch per length of pipe.

At this point the City inspector will be called to make sure the work is going according to the many rules of how this job must be done.  Not surprisingly, the work is passed quickly.  

The trench can be partly backfilled at this point.  The trench must be compacted as it is filled, and of course the best tool for the job is the 'hoe pack'. The machine is so powerful the reverberations of the tool can be felt much like an earthquake for a wide area around the operator.  The machine is also able to span the trench to allow it to fill the trench and compact it quickly. The operator is highly skilled and crosses the trench repeatedly and can change tools at the end of the arm of the machine - hands free.

This excavator must carefully expose the City water and sewer mains, not damage them while doing so, and remove enough material that the remainder is easily hand dug.  The work is efficiently staged such that one pipe is being exposed while the other is being covered.  All of this is happening in a manner that makes it look easy, but we are pretty confidant this is not at all easy, particularly in the way it is done and the pace of completion.

At the far end of the trench the water lines, already bedded in much of the trench, are connected using a wet connect tap to the City main, that remains pressurized at all times.  

This tool is used to tap into the City water main.  After connecting the water lines, the service is now completely live, and can be covered.

The operator is using the hoe pack to compact the fill material and prepare the road for asphalt.  

This has been a brief overview of the install process.  There is much more detail to go over but this post is lengthy enough already.  This is about the least DIY friendly activity in construction today, but the site manager still has a role to play in making sure the work is done well and the outcome is what was agreed to in the contract.  The last role of the site manager is to hand over payment for the work.  The job tends to cost between $15,000 and $30,000 depending on the site condition and complexity of the install.  We got off pretty easy this time with a bill well under the $20,000 level.  Thanks again to Precision Underground for the fine job.  

Active Site Management = Serious Job Site Savings

The benefit of having an aware, motivated, and empowered manager on site during key moments of construction cannot be overstated.  My definition of an active site manager, is someone who knows what needs to be done, is empowered to react to opportunities, and is rewarded from best practices.

On my sites, this person, being me, is supremely aware of how easily mistakes happen and how costly these mistakes can be.  Maintaining a state of eternal readiness to act, while mentally tiring, can lead to major unexpected site savings, as today's case study will describe.

No More Sewer Lift Stations

Having identified the job site as a shallow service location, we budgeted an additional $2500, plus significant inconvenience factor for install of sewer lift stations.  What this means is the basement floor is lower than the City sewer main, so cannot drain by gravity.  The basement level, usually having a wet bar, bathroom and furnace floor drain can generate substantial waste water, this must be contained in a large sump basin, and pumped upward into the City sewer main.  Over time this a possible maintenance and failure point, wastes space, makes noise, needs professional plumbing skills to have done properly and costs a lot of money.  There is not a single beneficial feature of the sewer lift station compared to standard gravity drainage.

However, once our crew dug up the street and compared the height of the City sewer main to our surveyed top of footing mark, it became clear that, with standard slope, we could slide the sewer pipe just under our footing.  This is where having the boss on site made the difference. The contractor was hired to bring the sewer lines just to the edge of the excavation and cap them there.  The sewer would be brought into the house by coring a four inch hole through the concrete wall of the basement (which does not yet exist) where it would then be connected much later by the plumber to the lift station.  Having identified the potential to bring the sewer lines into the building itself, I was able to get the contractor to add a length of pipe to each of the drain lines by trenching through the hard ground of the bottom of our excavation, and then bed the pipes in a scoop of gravel.  All this material and machinery was on site, for no extra cost.  

In a more passively managed project, the absentee builder would have hired the crew to do the service work and showed up after the job was complete to pay the bill.  At this point the opportunity to extend the sewer beneath the footing would have been lost.  The builder would have spent little to no time on actually managing the project (this is what builders like) and the cost would have been to the client of a $2500 expense plus having to live permanently without gravity drainage of the basement plumbing, and future maintenance liability.  Passive management is how inner city construction tends to happen.  This is because the investment side of the building company is detached (does not attend sites often) from the site management staff.  The link between a motivated and rewarded site manager is lost as soon as the site manager is not in an ownership position.  In a passively managed build, the owner would not have been aware of the significant site saving opportunity that presented itself for just a brief (2-3 hour) window that could only have been capitalized on by an aware manager empowered to make an instant decision.    

Our next blog post will show the actual service installation and describe some of the cost involved for the typical inner city project.  

Buying Land - Everything you need to know (is not in the realtor listing)

A nice land prospect popped up on the MLS this morning.  At first glance, it all looked good, in fact it could be great.  According to the listing agent, the property located at 2220 26 Ave SW is unique based on the size and garage potential.

“Attention all investors and developers. This huge lot of over 650 sq. m is designated M-CG zoning allows for a brand new 4 plex to be built which could be similar to the ones recently built across the street. What makes this property even more exciting is the ability for the new development to feature an 8 CAR GARAGE. Double tandem garages for each of the 4 new owners. With nearly 165 feet of depth on one side and 148 on the other, it will still allow for good sized yards for each of the lucky new owners once developed.”

— your trusted real estate professional

The realtor identified a unique feature of the site, it is over depth compared to virtually any other similar lot in the city.  This could offer the builder a much easier time dealing with the parking requirement for a four unit building.  It has a good zoning category, M-CG. We know this zone well, having built a recent project in this community under the same rules. The physical size of the land is a good bonus here at about 7000 sq ft vs a regular 50x120 lot at 6000 sq ft the builder has an extra 1000 sq ft to play with.  This could act as a sink for stormwater runoff if it is landscaped, meaning the civil engineering cost could be lessened for the project, or as the listing suggests, allow bigger garages (appealing to many buyers).

But wait.  If the lot is 50 ft longer than a regular lot, shouldn't it be 9000 sq ft in area?  Oh yes, the listing description fails mention the width is only 45 ft. The listing notes this elsewhere in the ad, to be fair, as 13.7m.   The M-CG parking requirement indicates 1.25 stalls are necessary per unit, so to get a four unit permit on the project you must offer 5 stalls.  45 ft would only allow 4 stalls, no visitor parking stall, and barely enough space for those 12 pesky recycling/garbage/compost bins.

This width constraint is a huge risk factor.  Should an eager builder offer up an unconditional $639,000 for this property?  Perhaps the City can be approached for a relaxation on that fifth parking stall, so four townhouse units could still be built on this sizeable property.  Maybe the City will even issue the DP as requested, and maybe the community association will overlook the parking requirement waiver, and will not appeal the permit to the appeals board.  Or maybe the DP will be appealed, go to the appeals board for a hearing, and the appellant will lose.  This is now a chain of unpredictable "maybes" that could prove very costly to the builder if even one of these decisions goes the wrong way.

What gets me bothered in all of this is not the buyer beware nature of land deals in the inner city, it is the role of the listing agent.  I wonder if they don't know what they are doing. Are they ignorant of key redevelopment facts? This lack of knowledge is not a great trait of the broker you hire to sell your property. However, if they do know, this is worse because they are then intentionally not disclosing critical info.  In this instance I would wager the listing agent is aware of this width constraint, because the agent knows enough to try and spin the possible negative (not enough room for bylaw required visitor stall), into a positive (room for 8 tandem garage stalls).  For this reason we may conclude the listing agent does know about the width constraint for permitting a four unit project on this site, and decided not to publish it.  The listing agent is solely representing the buyer in the transaction and only putting forth the most marketable information about the prospect of the land for development density.  Surely this is OK?

The problem though is the information they are putting forth is incorrect.  If this was a marketable security, such as stock, this oversight could have consequences for the sponsor. However, real estate transactions have a far lower hurdle for disclosure than say, a new tech stock IPO coming out with a price of $25.  But this is a property apparently worth $639,000, ideally suited for building four townhouses, just like they did across the road (on 50 ft lots), according to our listing agent.

At this point an interested builder can do even more diligence on the property. For example, lets look at the title. The property last sold in 2015 for $525,000.  I guess the purchaser then proceeded to do the rezoning from RC2 to MCG, or maybe it was already zoned MCG. I suspect not and looking into this would be way too much effort. This cost approximately $10,000.  Rather than go ahead and get a development permit on the site and prove the property's development potential (this would require real effort/time/money), the seller decides to collect an easy $100,000 or so, less after commission, and move on.  This is much easier than dealing with the City, and all those other steps we discussed that still need to be done to get a project permitted.

I have found most often the listing agent prices a property and describes it in the listing based on its theoretical development potential, rather than its actual development potential.  This listing is a classic case of this.  The listing agent makes the case that the property will offer exceptional parking amenities for the builder to take advantage of, but in fact, the property is so deficient in parking space for the necessary stall that can't be easily accommodated, the project could be in serious trouble before it even starts.  For this reason, I won't be a buyer of this property.  I'd council caution to any of my builder friends out there about this one, to ensure they jump in with their eyes open.  Project economics on this get really ugly if the City will not relax that parking issue, or some creative workaround proves impossible.

Any listing agents out there?  You can comment below if you think the listing agent is simply doing their job putting the best features forward about the property and letting the buyer figure it out themselves if the lot is a good development site.  Or, should the listing agent disclose such a significant deficiency with the property dimension and the zoning bylaw in the description.  Later on in the actual listing it does show the width of the building in metres, but the need for a visitor stall is a major oversight.  I can see both arguments here having merit regarding the role and responsibility of the listing agent.  I think the listing agent should not be allowed to make bold, forward looking statements on theoretical development potential in such in informal manner as a listing description. I think a listing agent should be responsible for the accuracy of what is written in the listing notes, and not make zoning bylaw interpretations of key clauses on behalf of a seller.  I would much prefer to see a listing agent avoid speculative comments on development potential when, so often, they get it so wrong.           

 Thanks for reading my extremely lengthy comment on land buying.  Not sure anyone will make it this far, but if you do, your thoughts are welcome here.    

Footing stakeout

The survey crew was back to locate the precise building corners and the height of top of footing. This allows the foundation to not only get placed in the right spot, but also the right elevation.  Without extremely close tolerances here the main floor elevation, a regulated measurement of the  permit, could be off.  This could result in the building being over-height, and that would be a really difficult situation to deal with.

Past mistakes on job sites have led to builders' being forced to take extreme corrective measures, like cutting off the top of roof trusses to shorten the building.  The city can take a very defensive posture on approving any height overages after the framing is complete.

This makes having the footing height exactly right a fairly major task for any inner city project.  We look to be in good shape right now and while we have lost further days due to scheduling conflcts, we plan to have the basement done next week.

The top of footing is marked so that the footing crew can build its forms at the precise elevation

The key building corners are pinned as well.  This will ensure the side setbacks are exactly where they should be

Calgary property owners and second mortgage loans

I purchased a property from an individual in a very difficult position, both financially and due to his poor health.  The situation was made worse by a separated spouse who remained on the title, and the use of the secondary loan market to raise cash for covering living expenses.  All of this was further exacerbated by the Calgary recession.

The financial management of the property by the owner was basically a lesson in personal finance 'what not to do', and eventually created a no-win situation for the seller.  From this what I learned is that a property owner in Calgary is in a good position as long as he is employed, healthy, and staying out of debt, because he can quite often sell a property quickly and benefit from the equity in the event of hardship such as job loss.

What tends to happen however, is the owner does not want to move or change anything to save himself from unsecured credit card bill, loans and business cost so he tends to attempt to use the property as a savings account.  In order to do this he must generally refinance the first mortgage with a major bank.  Once this avenue is exhausted, he turns to the secondary market. Here he encounters much more unfavourable terms (bordering on predatory I would say), but the risk is heightened here for default, so you can expect some fairly awful terms.

The second mortgage usually comes at a heft price, 12% is a common rate, and the upfront fees take a good chunk of the equity.  As an example, a $50k second mortgage loan may cost $5k in fees, so the borrower only receives the proceeds as $45k, and immediately takes on a second payment on the full $50k loan.

The problem is often the first mortgage is unaffordable, so the second monthly payment just adds to the burden.  Some of the cash injection is used to pay off unsecured loans like a credit card or for business costs, so what was once unsecured credit now become a loan attached to the house title. The second loan money is drained quickly, and the monthly bills once again go unpaid.  Now the seller has no way out of the credit cycle, and the equity that was once his has been drained by the financial system.

At this point the seller really needs to sell, but lacks the equity to move on.  Selling months earlier would have been painful, but at least he would have walked away with something.  The second mortgage just delays the inevitable reckoning, and being in default with a second loan operation is far worse than with a mainstream bank.  

My advice to property owners out there is to avoid being in a scenario where you must sell, instead sell before you need to. Having time to extract a full market value offer (and close the deal) out of the market can take time and patience, not easy while living with a pile of unpaid bills.   Second mortgages are to be avoided, because likely this will just buy some extra time to stay in the house, but at a heavy price in equity that will be needed later.  

All of this advice will likely go unheeded, based on my experience with this seller.  In the end I purchased the property and allowed the seller to stay in the house for a six month period without cost as part of the deal.  Not all buyers will have this flexibility to offer a seller.  If forced to sell, with no job or equity left once the deal closes, the seller can be in a truly awful position.  All of this could have been avoided if the seller would have managed his affairs differently.

Using the home as a second mortgage instrument can lead to a dificult situation

Digging is complete

Our survey crew and excavator completed the digging project at our semi detached job site .  With the excavation all done, the surveyor must return to mark out the corners and height of our footings.  Unfortunately our cribbing crew is super busy at the moment and an earlier delay (from a previous excavation company that cancelled on us) resulted in the typical domino effect of one contractor being unable to complete on time, thus impacting the rest of our basement schedule.

A third contractor, who does our sewer install, is super reliable and has given a firm date.  This creates a peculiar situation where we are going to have a sewer installed prior to the basement walls.  As frustrating as this appears, it is just another construction aggravation we tend to encounter all too often.  What we have learned, especially when it comes to utilities and underground installation is that you, as the builder, must never be the cause of delays or not be ready for the crew.  If you do this, you will get pushed to the back of the line, with even worse consequences later.  For deep sewer/water install, that tends to not happen in winter without serious cost, we are happy to go ahead and get it done now, rather than wait until spring.

If we were to wait until spring, the outcome could be that our contractor will have a huge list of work and our job wouldn't be done quick enough.  Not having water on site is very in convenient for the finishing trades, and would prevent us from installing sidewalks and landscaping.  Better to have the street dug up, the mess all contained into a smaller window, and we can backfill the walls later.

A significant amount of dirt is removed from the building footprint, and hauled away, with a fair bit left over to use as fill later.