Living life in Vancity: Demo nearly done...getting set for lift off

So - a bunch of updates on various fronts as we move along.

1) Demolition & Hazmat:
The demolition is nearly complete. I spent all day yesterday over there and will go over again today to remove the final bits of debris. We've been using a social enterprise called Embers, who trains workers. While the company has been good, the scheduling of workers has been challenging because sometimes people don't show up, need to leave early, etc. They've generally been solid workers, though it's always difficult to know exactly how efficient without sitting there and overseeing them 24/7. Based on my own work-rates, I'm guessing I could work faster than they have been, but they did get a lot done, so I'm largely content with them despite a few hiccups.

Conversely, we've had a lot of issues from our hazmat removal company (Fleck Contracting). They originally quoted the work as $1900 for removal of asbestos-containing flooring, ducting tape and breeching cement + $5000 for the non-containing vermiculite. That then become + $1800 when we apparently "contaminated the whole house" (some of the grey, loose-fill insulation had fallen out from the ceiling - note that this was not the vermiculite). After they "finished", there was still tons of the grey, loose-fill insulation kicking around, AND I'm still finding vermiculite as well. On top of that, I've even found pieces of the asbestos-containing flooring to boot. While to their credit they came back and did "additional cleanup" including removing some additional tiling that we uncovered, there is still stuff left over after a repeat trip back here. So, needless to say, we haven't been impressed and there is more of a fight on this front to come.

Left-over loose fill grey insulation in the wall cavities (Taken Apr 27, 2012)

Left over mixed grey loose-fill, and golden vermiculite insulation (taken April 27, 2012)

Left over vermiculite insulation in ceiling (taken April 27, 2012)

2) Garbage: I massively underestimated the amount of garbage that would come out of the house. Originally I had thought it would be about 3-4 trailers worth (= ~20 m3). Instead, I've produced about double that, so in retrospect, I should have ordered a 30 m3 bin at the start and just been done with it all that way. It probably would have saved me a lot of hassle and a few hundred dollars. The double layer of siding, and all of the lath and plaster, plus multiple layers of carpets, etc. etc. has meant a fair bit of junk. I've done my best to deconstruct, but so much is just useless and has to go to landfill. On top of that, I've been battling street parking issues because we have no rear lane-way, which means I've been having to ensure that cars don't block access for picking up and dropping off the trailers. However, I think I'm nearly done with garbage removal at this point and will probably create a bit of a junk pile from here.

We started with the little yellow trailer....

...and quickly managed to fill this entire bin.

3) Sheathing: We've found out that the existing sheathing can at least be reused from the upper level. It is shiplapped fir and in good condition. The structural engineer has given us the green light to use the upper layer if re-nailed. The lower layer will be reclaimed and I'm debating about how to use it (shed? interior somewhere? something else?). The bummer is that I have to go back and remove about 10,000 nails that were attaching the cedar shingles...ugh...

4) Slab and foundation: On Friday, we finally started into "lift prep" and brought in the jackhammer to have at the slab. I'm not sure what to make of the news yet...the slab is thing - probably about 1.5-2" in thickness and can be broken with a sledgehammer, let alone a jackhammer. So it's easily removed which is probably a good thing...BUT...having gone through the slab and into the soils under neath, we've found out that the soil profile may be a problem. It's about 2.5' of rich, organic and MOIST soil, followed by a clay lens. When those things are added together, and you locate someone at the bottom of a hill...you get....water. Yep, we've got about 6" of standing water that's sitting on the clay lens, so I'm not sure at this point what's going to happen with that. We're bringing in the structural engineer early next week to advise on that, but it might require some modifications. The good news is that we're not on a peat bog, but the bad news is that we might have to do some additional things to the foundation and slab to ensure that water doesn't come up through the ground floor. More on that this week - which in turn will determine when the lift happens (hopefully end of this week).

5) Electrical and mechanical plans: We've updated the mechanical and electrical plans now. I think we're finally settled upon the two companies we'll use: for electrical, it's a connection of Brett's - Fitterer Electric, while for all other mechanical (plumbing, HVAC, sprinklers, etc.) we're going to use Westwood Mechanical (who are a green mechanical company).

For the electrical, we're going to do mostly pot lights, and have them be LED ready for the future. Most of the rest of the electrical is pretty standard with very few bells and whistles.

The mechanical system is more interesting and I think we finally settled upon a combi condensing gas boiler system which will deliver the heat to our hydronic radiant floor system, as well as on-demand domestic hot water. It's small, efficient, and while keeps us on natural gas (i.e., fossil fuels), it is a relatively elegant solution for a small space (especially because BC Hydro punishes you for going electric vs. gas). We're still debating between a Navien and Viessmann system, but aside from that, I think we're going to go with that. We also considered an air-to-liquid heat pump, but at an extra $14K, we couldn't justify the added expense. Perhaps we'll consider it at a later point when our combi system calls it quits.

I've got to get over to the place, so I'll quit there, but here are a few other shots of the place: