Septic tank and field drains all connected up

The field drain and the septic tank are now connected and sand has been put between the black cartridges.
There are also 4 cpvc turquoise pipes that come up from the 4 corners of the drain field for overflow. Seems as much overkill as the 800 cubic yards of sand that filled the hole.

septic tank delivered

Hole isn't big enough so it is sitting on the ground next to the hole. And the driver of the delivery truck was worried about delivering on the slope! Clearly he has never really lived out side of NJ if he thinks this is a slope!

hole dug for septic tank, chambers in a row

Rain cleared up and so progress could be made on septic system. The black chambers were put into the field drain hole and then a hole was dug for the septic tank itself. The septic tank hole is placed where the center island of the driveway should be.

Inspection by the county is next up and then we can move on to footings for the addition

Many loads of sand later ...

The bull dozer cleans up around the field drain. Also, note how the ice house is sitting pretty.

passed inspection for field drain hole

We having rain again and around the hole is nothing but mud. So, the Gloucester County Health Inspector slogged thru the mud and declared it fine. This means the contractor can begin to fill the hole with the sand and various gravels that constitute a septic drain field. If the rain stops, that is.

ice house moved successfully, photo mural arrived

So, I managed to damage my iphone so the pictures of the move of the ice house are lost. Boo Hoo. It was a stressful 4 hour job. So much harder to get something back on a real foundation especially as the structure is over a hundred years old. The roof got hung up on a black walnut tree branch one and the corner of the ice house went off the girder but was caught by a corner of the foundation. But it was finally safely down and we celebrated with champagne.

Later the tiles of the photo mural arrived. They look fantastic. The variations in color of the sky is just amazingly wonderful. Unfortunately, one of the tiles is damaged and will need to be replaced. It chipped in shipping. Anyway, if you want to know about photo murals, check out www.custom-tiles.com.

3 steps forward, 1 back

Passed two inspections in one today -- the ice house foundation, its parging, tar, and sill plate. Then they remeasured and had to take the sill plate off and put on another course of block for the foundation. The problem is that the ice house is set off from the house and addition via a breezeway and so it is difficult to make sure everything is coming out at the same level. It will be easy when they do the addition part because it will be right next to the existing house and they will have exposed the foundation and floor.

The rat slab (2 inches of concrete) got poured into the ice house foundation and they mostly backfilled too.

The South Jersey Gas people showed up and installed the meter and new line from the street. I was surprised that it is actually a plastic rather than steel pipe. Made it easier to run under the existing lawn though.

inspection postponed because of thunderstorm; work continues

Work carries on despite unexpected heavy thunderstorm this morning. Rayray was running back and forth from his truck to patch the parging he had started while the rain tried to wash it off. Parging is the technique of covering the blocks with a thin coat of mortar.

Just about the time the inspector was to be here to okay the block foundation with its bolts, parging, and tar, he cancelled because of the rain. Well, it stopped and the work carried on.

The photos show the center support being created and the tar on top of the parging.

wall up; field drain started

Solved problem of how many courses of block for foundation and you can see where the entrance to the crawl space will be. Also, had to reshape field drain for septic to stay 25 feet away from ice house foundation. This impacts space for curving driveway by taking away room for the island in its center, which is the classy part of the driveway. Needless to say, I am not pleased.

adding mural to bathroom above tub

bathroom being created where existing kitchen is being set up to be friendly for children and mobile invalids (walkers, wheel chairs). I originally wanted a soaker or claw foot tub but on discussion realized that the high sides make it difficult to bath toddlers or for older (ahem) folks to get in and out of tub. So I hit on this idea to make a photo mural out of glass tiles and frame it out with composite wood like a window above the tub. mural will be 40 inches wide and 24 high with the photo etched onto the back of the 8 inch glass tiles. Sound be like sitting in a hot tub and looking out to the Avalon Fishing pier but more private and a whole lot less sand.

Four corners of ice house foundation built

Rain cleared away in the afternoon and the corners of the ice house foundation could be built up.

rain continues ....

The foundations/concrete/septic subcontractor came by to deliver sand and blocks despite the rain. He used the back hoe to dig out to release water from the ice house foundation hole. He hopes to work tomorrow if the water drains off. This is all squeezed because of the Tuesdays only inspections.

Rain, rain, go away back to Seattle!

despite never ceasing rain, crawl space dug out

I seem to have brought the rain from Seattle and Seattle has gotten the heat but that's another story. The subcontractor brought in a full size backhoe to dig out the crawl space for the ice house foundation in preparation for better weather on the weekend. By then the footings should have cured sufficiently for building the foundation up with mortar and blocks.

footings poured, bare wire included

passed rebar inspection BUT

Inspector was supposed to show up between 11 am and noon but finally showed at 1:25pm. Rebar matched plans so gave his okay. Then, he threw in a curve about having a separate electric box on the outside of the ice house and thus adding a grounding strap to the rebar that comes up to meet the electric. The general contractor went off to Colucci's in Malaga to get bare wire and a special clamp for attaching it to the rebar.

My job is to watch for the concrete truck to pour the footings.

rebar in and ready for first inspection

rebar
Inspections by the borough official are only done one day a week on Tuesdays. This complicates scheduling of the work and means every inspection is critical to getting the construction done in a timely fashion. So, today the general contractor had to get on the subcontractor to make sure the rebar got in to be ready for tomorrow. The workmen showed up five minutes before 5pm and finished up by 6:30pm