Moving Right Along...

Drainpipe Installed Around Foundation

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here with the weather co-operating at times only to strike later with a vengeance...   I guess I should've been more careful when asking for rain.  After the foundation was sealed it was time to start installing drainage pipe around the foundation as well as the vertical pipes that the gutters would empty into.  Dan came out and we walked the perimeter of the house marking where we thought the gutters would be least distracting.  We are considering a couple of rain chains as well so we had to consider where they would hang down from the gutters and how they'd disappear into the ground.  On the last monday of November, another crew came out to start installing the vertical pipes that the gutters and rainchains would drain into as well as laying drainage tubing and rock around the perimter of the foundation for any water that  collects in the area.  The pipes all come together and empty into a drainage sump that will collect any debris coming down through the gutters; the water passes through the sump and continues through a pipe under the driveway and finally empties into a drainage ditch.  Because of the amount of rain we get and also being on a hillside, we have some serious potential for water pooling in a few different areas, Neil has been extremely helpful in dealing with all the water but it seems we just get one area draining and flowing to where we want it and then a completely different area starts to form pools when the rain is heavy.  Perhaps the one benefit of building in this weather is that we can effectively deal with these problems now instead of having unforseen problems crop up in the future.

Sump Tank Ready To Be Buried

The weather stayed cool and overcast most of the time while the drainage was being taken care of and it actually turned sunny midweek which was a great time to dig the trench for the services to the house.   Our well is located on the side of the driveway about halfway between the road and the new house.  From the well head, the water is pumped back down the driveway to the pumphouse and from there it will be pumped to the house... I know it sounds ass-backwards, but that's how it works.   The power comes from the street to the pumphouse where a breaker panel is located... we decided to bury the power to the house and it will originate from the panel in the pumphouse.  The services that were to be buried include the power cable, the waterline, a 2" conduit that telephone lines would be fed through, and a second power cable that would be used for a future standby generator.  Because the pump for our water is located in the pumphouse and the standby generator will be located at the house, we needed to run the second cable so that in the case of a power outage, we'd still be able to have running water.

Water Pooling At Pumphouse

Trench For Power & Water Lines

On wednesday Neil started digging the trench from the pumphouse up to the house and because the weather was decent, it went off without a hitch.  We should have taken time to enjoy the success of the day because overnight the rain started and by morning the next day, water was flowing down the trench and pooling at the pumphouse.  This was worriesome because we were going to be partially excavating under the pumphouse to expose some preinstalled tubes that the water line and power cable would pass through to be fed up through the pumphouse foundation, and into the pumphouse.  With all the water flowing through the area around the pumphouse, there was the risk of the concrete slab cracking.  Calvin, who was installing the conduit and cables,  provided a pump to try and drain the water around the pumphouse but because the rains were so heavy the pump was ineffective and Neil had to dig a drainage trench down the side of the pumphouse to drain the pool into a ditch...  This quickly solved the problem.  The following day the weather was dry enough to excavate under the pumphouse and expose the conduit... things went quite smoothly and the water line and power cables were shoved through the conduit and up into the pumphouse.  We were lucky that whoever had installed the pumphouse (before we bought the property) had run four extra conduits for future considerations... this saved us from having to cut through the concrete and repairing it after. 

Power Lines Coming Into Pumphouse

Neil began to back fill the trench later that day.  This involved first laying some crushed rock on top of the lines and then some yellow marking ribbon on the rock and finally filling the trench with dirt.  The marking tape is used as a warning to anyone digging in the area in the future.  If an excavator operator pulls up the yellow tape, they know that if they dig any deeper, they will be hitting a power cable next.  The backfilling itself went smoothly but we had run into a small hitch;  the larger of the two power cables was about eight feet too short to reach the area inside the house where the breaker panel would be located.  The cable ran in a straight line up the driveway to the house and then made a 90degree left turn at the front of the house and another 90degree right turn into the house.  By eliminating the two 90degree turns and cutting the corner we were able to get back about ten feet of cable which effectively solved the problem.

Services Coming Into House

The last step before the framing could start was to backfill the foundation and fill the basement and carport area with crushed gravel.  Friday turned out sunny and Neil started bright and early.  Because a line for the septic system still needs to be installed and we still aren't sure how the front yard will be shaped, we decided to back fill the left side and backside of the foundation as well as a portion of the front of the house.   While Neil was backfilling, a few loads of crushed rock was delivered which Neil then moved into the basement.  Everything was looking good for the framers to get started the following week.

Foundation Backfilled, Spreading Gravel In Foundation