Placement of Shipping Containers

Things were delayed for another 8 days due to scheduling issues, but the big day(s) finally arrived!!  

It all began at 6:30 am when the last two 40ft containers arrived.

The crane didn't arrive until about 1:30.  James and his crew stayed busy making sure everything was ready to go when the crane arrived.

It was difficult to take pictures of the crane because it wouldn't fit in the frame. In Hendrik's word, it was humungous!!  

It takes awhile to set up the crane.  There are big legs and weights that need to be positioned for stability.

To move the containers, straps are hooked to the 4 corners.  It is amazing to me that straps are capable of carrying all that weight.  

The first container is finally set in place.  Once it is exactly where they want it, the straps are removed and hooked up to the next container.

The second downstairs container is put in place.

Then the upstairs containers are placed.  First one.

Then the other.

The third downstairs container is moved into place.  The gap between containers is where the entry, stairwell and pantry will be installed.  This is the only part, other than the garage, that is not made from containers.

That pretty much completed the work for the first day.  The crane moved on to another job and James and crew prepared for the following day.

Much of the work they did prior to the crane work was getting the moment frame ready.  The moment frame makes up the structure that the two 20 foot containers (for the ADU) will sit on.  The structure will be enclosed to form the garage.  

When the crane arrived, it was used to erect the moment frame. 

Once the frame was secured and leveled, the crane was used to put the containers in place.  This crane was large, but not as large as the one from the previous day.

After the containers were in place and the crane left, there was still a lot of work to be done.  The first thing they had to do was make sure everything was level.  James and Brett used jacks to raise the containers and insert shims where necessary.  Straps were used to pull the containers together as tight as possible.  When they were satisfied with the positioning,  Jon came along and welded everything in place.  They spent 3 more long days getting this done.

The end result is very exciting.  A big step has been completed.

But, obviously, there is a lot of work still to do.  James assures me that the rest will go much faster.
Time will tell...........................

Finally got the video done.  It isn't great, but will have to do.

https://youtu.be/2uFSr4LQmqg

Piles installed and passed inspection!

Well, folks, all the piles are finally installed and have passed inspection!!
And if things go as expected, my house will be put together next week:  
August 28th-29th crane work stacking boxes.
Stop by if you are in the neighborhood!!

These are the piles for the main house.  During this phase, plates were also welded onto some of the piles.

Here James and Brett are installing the final piles for the garage/ADU.

What was initially expected to take one day, or at the most 2-3 days, actually took a total of 9 days of drilling to physically install the piles and was dragged out over 7 weeks.  The main delay was waiting for the rest of the parts from Goliath Tech to arrive.  That took a full month.  Once all the parts were here, things still didn't move forward quickly due to scheduling, etc.  

It seemed like everything went wrong that could go wrong.  Remember the first day when the "expert" flew up from Irvine to help?  Well, as it turns out, it was his last day on the job, which is probably why he didn't seem to give a damn about how the piles were installed.  The lack of direction lead to a lot of confusion.  While some of the workers had experience installing helical piles, they were not given instructions on the requirements for this particular job.  Several of the piles were so poorly installed that they had to be redone.

The way to determine the strength of the inserted pile is to measure the torque on the hydraulic motor.  Well, the meter to measure the torque never worked, though it was assumed that the torque was sufficient because of the difficulty of inserting the piles to the specified depth of 14 feet.  

On the first day a larger tractor was rented to insert the piles because the smaller one was insufficient.  While we waited for the rest of the piles to arrive, that tractor was returned so as not to accrue an unnecessary rental fee.  When the rest of the piles finally arrived, another tractor was rented, but it soon became apparent that the hydraulics on it did not work, so it was back to the smaller tractor.

The second round of pile installation went much more slowly with the smaller tractor and because more care was taken to make sure the piles were correctly placed and plumb.  Removing piles for reinsertion was much more difficult than you might expect, so took more time, and some piles also had to be adjusted for depth.

One of the challenges of inserting the piles in a precise location is that the end of the pile going into the ground does not have a center point or tip.  In fact it hardly has a point at all.  Image trying to insert a screw without a point into a piece of wood in the spot you want it and then image that screw 1000 times bigger, dangling off the end of an arm.

 

I still like the idea of helical piles, but would do more research before choosing to use them again.   It would be worth comparing the various designs and the companies making them.  It would also be nice to have a better understanding of the engineering that goes into determining the diameter and depth of the piles.  The ones I've seen used on Youtube all have smaller diameters than mine and are usually inserted further into ground.  I would imagine that a pile with a larger diameter would not need to be inserted as far to reach the required torque as a pile with a smaller diameter.  But it might be easier to insert the smaller pile, even if it had to go farther into the ground.

With Noah's help I combined all my time lapse video for the pile installation.  It is a bit repetitious.  If you take the time to watch it, you will see the snails are still moving around the tanks.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuYCvZ6GdDE

During the pile installation, the first 3 containers arrived and were dropped on site.  It was very exciting seeing them come down the street.  Here is a short video of the box drop.

https://youtu.be/5UmZiM77EtQ

The upside to all the delays was it gave me a chance for a short getaway with my son and grandsons.  

We went to our campsite on the Stanislaus River that my family has been going to since 1928.

It was a wonderful chance to relax and spend time with family and nature.

We had some great campfires and, of course, the required roasted marshmallows and s'mores.  For some reason I'm missing pictures of Noah.  Maybe because he was off much of the time photographing birds.

Danny likes to brighten the camp with his jellyfish creations--brought to life (light) with solar powered Luci Lights.  They were enjoyed by the other campers, as well as us.

 I will end this post with a video of the jellyfish in motion:

https://youtu.be/3bj1MBn9T6c

Helical Pile Installation

Delivery of the Helical Piles

Progress on the house was on hold as we awaited the arrival of the helical piles from Goliath Tech.  After months of waiting, we were told that they would be delivered on Tuesday, then it was put off until Wednesday.  The crew from Hauser arrived that day to review and mark the pile placement and help with the unloading.  There was excitement in the air as we waited and waited for the truck to arrive.  

The truck finally showed up after 4pm.  It was a huge truck that had come all the way from Ontario Canada. 

Our load was the last delivery for this truck and was in the far back with no way to move it out.

Hauser had their bobcat with them and were able to use it to drag the pallets from the truck.  Here they are pulling out the motor that will be used to install the piles.  They got lucky as it fell right into the front end loader!!
https://youtu.be/NpUfGhha6I8

Now they are getting the piles from the back of the truck.
https://youtu.be/jaX0AQ7SBaI

And this is how they got them out of the truck.
https://youtu.be/iU8tywmeA_Y

As the large truck finds its way out of the neighborhood, the crew has the weighty task of moving the last of the piles onto the property.  Once again the tractor came in handy as these things weigh a ton, figuratively speaking.

Once all the piles were on the property, the crew went home with plans to return the next day to install the piles.  Roy, my contractor from Hauser, was hopeful that we could install the piles in a day or two.  I can't wait!!  BTW, this is Roy's first experience with helicals.


Here is the time lapse video I took of the day.  I didn't have my grandson to help me edit it, so it isn't enhanced.  You can always speed it up, if you want.  I love watching the clouds come and go.      
 https://youtu.be/qCYoUxS7sZg

Installation of the Helical Piles

It was another beautiful day in Half Moon Bay.  A day full of promise.  A day I had waited years for--one of the most important steps in the process of building a house--putting in the foundation.  The first workers showed up a little after 9 am, others came later.  James from Taynr drove here from Sacramento, Roy from Hauser arrived after checking in on other job sites, and Richard, the expert from Goliath Tech, flew up from Irvine.  In spite of all the experienced and responsible people present, the install didn't go quite as planned.  

The day started with the crew assembling the equipment.  Hauser had dropped off their Kubota tractor the previous day.  The scoop, which had been useful in unloading and moving the piles, was removed from the tractor.  

The scoop was replaced with a TPE, a telescopic piping and drilling extension.  Aren't you impressed by my knowledge of technical terms?!

The high torque hydraulic motor was then mounted to the TPE.  A gauge was attached so that the torque could be measured while the pile was being inserted into the ground.

A plate was attached to the hydraulic motor, which in turn was attached to a helical pile.  They chose the largest pile to install first.  The first problem they encountered was the pile would not go through the hard packed base rock.  They solved that problem by breaking through it with hand tools.

The pile is finally going into the ground.  Looks good, right? 

I don't have any pictures after this because I couldn't watch.  I could see the pile wasn't going in straight and it drove me crazy.  Later I asked Richard about this and he said it wasn't a problem--that they could fix it with shims.  After the first pile, they did do 2 things to make the work go easier.  First, they put an auger on the end of the tractor arm and drilled pilot holes through the base rock, and second, they rented a larger tractor to install the piles.  Both of these things helped and the install proceeded more quickly.  

But as the piles were being installed, it because apparent that parts were missing--including many of the piles.  The other important missing pieces were some of the plates used to attach the hydraulic motor to the piles.  Since the piles are different sizes, they needed different size plates.  This meant that the workers couldn't even install all the piles that were on site.  

James stayed after everyone left to do an inventory so he could contact the suppliers and rectify the problems.  He says it could be weeks until we get all the parts we need.  

The next day 3 workers came back to finish installing what they could.

This is how the lot looked when they left and how it looks now--a week later--an abandoned worksite. 

Here are the time lapse videos I took of the 2 days.  Day one is especially long because I set the camera to take more frequent pictures.  I was thinking that I wanted to get all the detail I could because it was such a special day.  I don't know how to speed it up in the editing process, so you will just have to speed it up on your own.  The video of the second day goes very quickly because I changed the settings.  It was also a shorter work day.  Richard is the guy with the hard hat.

https://youtu.be/xHeVexylgW0
https://youtu.be/AuBmbmNBAPI

Needless to say I was extremely disappointed and disheartened.  It wasn't just the missing parts that upset me, it was also the quality of the work.  I like things plumb and level and the only leveling tool on site was one plumb bob.  I was too depressed to write a blog and spent much of the weekend learning more about helical piles.  It didn't make me feel better when I read how important it was for the piles to be plumb.  

I love the idea of helical piles.  They should save a lot of time and definitely save on excavation, dirt removal and concrete.  (In case you didn't know it, concrete is very bad for the environment.)  Helical piles were first used in 1836 to support a lighthouse in the water.  Apparently there is no patent for them, so they are made by many companies with slightly different configurations.  Some even have square shafts rather than circular.  While they can be used for buildings up to 5 stories tall, they are mainly used for smaller jobs like decks, additions, and fences.  I've heard it said that they aren't used a lot because they are very expensive, but it my case they were a lot less costly than the original foundation design.

The sizes of the helical piles are determined by an engineer using the soils report and structural specifications.  The soils report for my lot said that the piers needed to be at least 12' deep.   All the piles were engineered to be 14' in length with the diameter and thickness of the metal varying by the load they support.  The piles come in 7' sections.  Once the first pile with the helix is installed, another 7' pile is bolted on and then they are screwed the rest of the way into the ground.  The torque is tested to make sure it is equal to or greater than specified.  If the torque doesn't meet the specifications, another piece is attached and the pile is inserted deeper.  They could go down as much as 100 ft.  I guess the engineer didn't anticipate the need to go deeper on my foundation because no extra piles were included.

Once the piles are in the ground, plates are welded to the tops for the structure to sit on.  This is a very critical step because they have to be level and in exactly the right spot.  In my admitted inexperience I don't see how they can make it work with the piles installed as they are.   In particular the first pile is far from plumb.  James is also concerned about it and thinks it needs to be reinserted.  The other piles are a lot better regarding plumb but it is hard to tell about the placement.  I just have to trust that it will all work out in the end.  I know James is working very hard to make it happen.  I trust him and feel better after talking with him.

Like every other step in this process, things didn't go as expected.  It is definitely a learning experience.  I'm not only learning about construction, but also patience and tolerance.  And it isn't just me that is impacted, it messes with all the contractors' schedules.  I feel sorry for them, but as James said, it is one of the challenges of the business they chose to be in.

Second look at containers

The only activities on site in the last 2 months were the weeds growing, the gophers digging and, of course, Juno running around.  The main hold up was a manufacturing issue with the 10" helical piles, but that has been resolved and all the piles are due to be delivered and installed this week!!   I've got my time lapse camera ready to go so I can make another fun video.
Meanwhile, work has been progressing off site at the TPU location in Vallejo.  James arranged a time last week for us to meet and get a close up view of the work that is being done.  I invited a friend, Lindsay, to join me on the drive.  

We were met by James, Michael, Randy and Abel.   Randy Larson is the president of TPU, Michael showed us around last time in Randy's absence and Abel works for Taynr.  Lindsay took the picture.

My house-to-be was in pieces scattered around the yard.  At one point I got turned around and thought I was looking at someone else's containers and noticed how they looked just like mine.  Here are the two 20 foot containers that will be the studio apartment.  They are sitting side by side, but unattached, as that comes after delivery to the site.

  

Here is a shot out the upstairs south facing bedroom window looking at the west facing side of the downstairs units.  This is a view you could never get in conventional construction.

This is a shot of the containers which will be the upstairs of the main house.  In place of the container doors, there will be sliding glass doors.  As we looked at them, James told me I have the option of leaving the container doors on and welding them open--expanding the indoor space into the outdoors.  I don't think this would work well upstairs because of the deck, but I will give it some thought for the downstairs.

The container in front is the downstairs bedroom and behind it are the upstairs units.

Going inside the containers was another interesting experience.  Here we are in the upstairs bedrooms and baths.  The openings for the windows and doors have been cut from all 7 containers and have been reinforced with steel.  My first impression was how big the openings were, but then I had to remind myself that the windows that go in will have frames so the actual glass portion will be smaller.  The other confusing part is that the interior walls that are not part of a container have yet to be installed.  Lindsay and Abel are standing in the hallway, but the hall will not be that wide.  There will be a wall in front of them.

Here we are in the downstairs of the main house.  As you can see, it is a large open space--living room, dining and kitchen at the back.  The supports in the middle of the room are temporary and will be replaced with ceiling beams on site.

Being inside the containers allowed us to make some important decisions.  Here is James in the downstairs bedroom/bath.  He is marking out the location of the shower, toilet and cabinets.  In the original plans, there was little room for a sink and cabinet because the shower was so big, but by making the shower narrower I am able to have a full size vanity.

An option came up that I had long since given up on and that was the possibility of leaving exposed the original metal container ceilings.  The alternative is to frame up the ceiling and put on drywall as in a conventional house.   By leaving out the drop down ceiling, the room height will be greater, there is a savings on material and labor, and the look will be unique.  The electrical wiring that would normally be there will go above the container roof.  BTW, the container roofs will be covered--the downstair containers will be covered by the upstair containers and the upstair containers will be covered by insulated roofs.

Another benefit of seeing the units first hand was we were able to catch mistakes.  Before we even arrived, James had noticed that a window was placed too high.  It is the window over the sink in the studio and it is too high to see out, which is not what I wanted.  The solution was simple--just bring the bottom down and make the window taller.  He had this correction made before I had returned home.

There was another mistake that I noticed right away.  The man door next to the kitchen and leading to the backyard, was not where it was supposed to be.  This greatly affects the kitchen design and has to be fixed.  I have no idea how they will fix it, but I'm sure they'll do a proper job of it.  My guess is they could remove the back panel from that container and put on a new one.

Where the containers come together, the seam is not flush with the walls.  I knew there was to be a plate on the floor that will have to be allowed for when the floors are laid, but I did not have a clear understanding about how the walls went together until we were there.   The union projects into the room.  For the most part this doesn't matter, but one joint lands in the middle of the kitchen counter.  I mentioned my concern to James and he said that wouldn't be a problem--the cabinet could just be cut to fit.  But when I got home I looked at the plans for the kitchen cabinets and saw that the cabinet in front of the seam is the one with the dishwasher and cannot be modified.  The solution is to move the dishwasher to a different location--not a huge problem--but it was lucky I noticed it before the cabinets were built and delivered.
There is still more work to be done on the containers before they are ready for moving.  Metal framing will go in the exterior walls and foam insulation will be sprayed behind the framing and in the floors and ceiling.  The windows will be installed, if they arrive before the containers are to be shipped, otherwise the windows will be installed on site.  

The next time I see the containers will most likely be when they are delivered here.  What a day that will be!!

Guess that about covers everything for now.  I have much more to write about--mainly my search for finishings--but will have to save that for another day.

The challenge of being "Green"

Where's the train?

In my last (short) blog I reported that I received the updated building permit.  I thought, having received the final approval, the project would proceed "Full Steam Ahead."  But, as usual, my expectations have not been met.   Now the holdup seems to be getting Goliath Tech here to install the helical piles.  The good news is that work is continuing on the containers.  

Here is a picture that James sent me.  As you can see, the openings for the windows on the upper story have been cut out and framed with metal.  The black around the openings is primer to protect the metal from rusting.

While I wait for the site work to move forward, I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about "green" products.  I've been putting this off for years because it is very complicated.

Being green is not easy because there are so many factors to consider and few, if any,  products meet all the criteria.  For instance, bamboo is considered a sustainable material because it is renewable and fast growing, but most of it comes from China and it takes energy to ship it here.  Also, you might want to think about the manufacturing process--does it use excessive amounts of water, does it use harmful chemicals, are the workers exploited?  The only way to evaluate your choices is to prioritize what is important to you.  Are you concerned more about climate change, sustainability, a healthy environment, or fair-trade and/or ethical production?  And most of us have to include the dollar cost when making our decisions.

In spite of the copious amounts of information on the internet, it isn't always easy to find the answers you need to make informed decisions, but there is hope.  I recently learned about a website that rates products by their energy efficiency with more detail than EnergyStar.  It is called Enervee.com.  If you use their ratings, you will want to look for products with a 90 or better rating.  The Living Future Institute has a program called Declare Products and a long Red List of harmful chemicals.  Companies voluntarily submit their products, so the list is limited but growing every day.  The information available includes such things as chemical content, VOC content, life expectancy, end of life disposition (recyclable or landfill) and Red List free (or not).  There are other certifications, as well, like GreenGuard.

The first task I took on was to figure out what kind of flooring I would use.  As I wrote previously,  I decided to go with reclaimed lumber.  I was pleased to have made that big decision and to be able to move on to other things.  In hindsight, I might have jumped the gun.  I got a call from the suppliers that the wood was loaded on their truck--ready for delivery.  I was not expecting this.  I have no house and don't know when I will.  After much back and forth, I agreed to let them unload it in my driveway (next door to the vacant lot).   While they unloaded the wood, I couldn't help noticing the amount of damaged and unusable boards.  They explained that they were giving me more than I ordered so that there would be enough good wood for the job.  All I can say is I hope they are right.  

 The timing was also bad because they delivered the wood the day before the weather moved into a very windy and wet period.    Though they had attempted to cover the wood pile with plastic, the wood still got wet.

 And so the saga continues.....Will there be enough wood?  What condition will it be in by the time the house is ready for it?  How will the contractor react when he sees the wood?  What will it look like when finished?  Eventually the answers will reveal themselves.

The next decision I needed to make was what cabinets to use.  I think a great green choice would be to reuse cabinets someone discarded, but that is a huge challenge--finding cabinets that would would fit the space, design, etc. and not look like junk, and they could contain harmful chemicals.  I am not considering this for the main house, but it could be a possibility for the accessory dwelling unit.  The ADU kitchen design is very simple so I will be keeping a lookout for cabinets that could fit.

Another excellent green choice is cabinets made from reclaimed, locally sourced wood.  I got a recommendation and estimate and found it to be many times more expensive than other options, making it outside most people's budgets.

The most economical new cabinet option seems to be Thermofoil cabinets.  These are the type of cabinets my contractor uses and is what my cabinet allowance is based on.  They use MDF wood covered with Thermofoil.  Thermofoil is made from vinyl or plastic.  I have 2 problems with this.  First is it's questionable durability.  There are reports of issues with chipping, as well as heat and water damage.  Second, PVC has environmental and health concerns.  The MDF or Medium Density Fiberboard can also contain glues and resins which may be harmful to the environment.  I have ruled this out as an option.

There are other kinds of laminates or veneers used with MDF.  IKEA has a cabinet door made from recycled plastic bottles that I was excited about until I found out that the recycled portion was only a veneer on top of the MDF and it only took 2 plastic bottles to make one cabinet door.  Of less a concern is the fact it only comes in black.  Another company has a veneer made from reclaimed lumber, but again it is only a thin layer on top of the MDF.

So what else is there?  Back to basics--all wood cabinets made and sourced in the USA.  I found a company, MOD Cabinetry, with headquarters in Berkeley, CA that fits this criteria.   They have solid wood cabinets made from PureBond NAUF American hardwood plywood, which means it is "wood sourced from sustainably harvested North American forests and utilizes a soy-based alternative to toxic, formaldehyde-based resins."  I was able to visit their showroom and was impressed with what I saw.  The cabinets I chose are going to be painted with zero VOC paints.   The cabinets will be easy to repair or repaint and should have a long life span.  While they cost more than the Thermofoil cabinets, they are a lot less expensive than the reclaimed wood cabinets.

I will be exceeding the contractor's allowance for cabinets, so I'm trying to save in other areas.   I have been sourcing materials, like tile, on Nextdoor and Craigslist.  More on that for another blog.