Forms Arrive

Rock Concrete crane dropped their forms off today.  With a little help from Mother Nature, we'll have our walls done and stripped and ready for backfill by the weekend!

Footings Repinned

A lot of builders don't bother getting the "footings repinned".  

Normally, the surveyors mark out the locations of the corners of the house using pins or stakes, then the footings are poured and you hope that either the footings are in the exact correct location, or that the pins are sticking out high enough to show above the concrete of the footings AND they haven't moved at all.  

What's the big deal?  Well, if the "as built" survey showing the actual wall location is off by as much as an inch, it can be a serious problem.  At best, the site can be shut down and we visit Committee of Adjustment - at worst?  Let's not think about that.  

So I always have the surveyors come and set new pins in the solid concrete footings for the exact location of the walls - a simple, cost effective step that can prevent a lot of headaches!

Fooings Poured

Now, we start building!  The footings were poured today, with the generous help of our neighbours to the South (thank you guys!).... more specifically, their front lawn which we'll fixing up once the boys with their big machines are done with our site.

Footings framed

Miguel arrived bright and early to frame the footings and help shore up the neighbours fence.  With such tight setbacks on new builds on this street (as little as 90cm!), excavation can sometimes mean we are literally digging from neighbour wall to neighbour wall.  Luckily, the owner next door is a builder so he's ok with some temporary discomfort in exchange for some long term gain!

Footings Marked

The guys from Land Survey Group were in today to locate and mark the exact location of the footings.  We're all set to have the footings framed and hopefully we can pour them this week.

Meanwhile, we have the temporary power pole now installed and set up and we're waiting for Toronto Hydro and ESA to get the service set up.

Excavation complete

While we are busy prepping the footing material to get onsite, the guys have finished off the excavation.  Now we wait until tomorrow for the surveyors to mark the footings and we're ready to frame the footings.

Survey and Excavation

Land Survey Group was in today, but not giving us a specific time, George agreed to "ballpark" the cut and begin excavation.  When they showed up midday, they let George continue working, which showed a nice professional courtesy.  Therefore, we managed to get quite a bit done today - we are close to complete on the excavation... a few hours of touch up work on Tuesday and we're good to go to the next stage!

Excavation

While we wait for Land Survey Group to come and outline the "cut" for the excavation, George has rough marked the location of the new house and has begun excavation.  There's just one bit of wall left from the old house.... and not for long.

Down to Masonry

The "garbage" has mostly been cleaned up, and George is down to the masonry items (blocks, bricks, cement, asphalt, interlock etc).  By the end of the day today, we'll pretty much be ready for the surveyor. 

Demo day!

Demo day has finally arrived!  I have some pics and videos of the destruction below!

Getting Ready

While we wait for the permit to get issued (hopefully next week?), we had the temporary security fence and portable toilet installed on site today.