An architect recommended Mark. The client chose him because he uses energy-efficient building practices and smart building techniques.
This is an interesting project, which is still ongoing. It is a panelized Deltec Home built in North Carolina and shipped in a tractor-trailer to New York. In this case, I needed to educate myself as to Deltec’s process. I have worked on and/or studied various factory-built homes in the past but each one is different.
Additionally, the site is difficult. The home is to be placed at the top of a knoll, up a winding driveway. The result will be stunning views of the Catskill Mountains but the site is rocky and the excavation will be difficult. We have been struggling with the local health department, which seems to be overloaded.
We discovered rock at the house location so prior to finalizing the foundation plans, we need to do some exploratory excavation to determine whether the foundation will be a full basement, a crawlspace or a slab on grade. This is due to the fact that a specialized set of steel columns needs to be pre-fabricated, based on the foundation configuration and delivered with the home.
We are not permitted to dig at the site until a pre-construction inspection has been approved by the health department, allowing us to get a building permit. This means that we are now under extreme pressure because the home building company has begun construction of the house and cannot hold it at the factory for more than a couple of weeks once completed.
If we do not have the foundation in the ground in time, they will penalize us heavily and in fact, may force delivery of the home panels to the site. We would then need to store them somehow until such time as we can proceed.
The client was told by her realtor that the septic was already in place on this property but after numerous discussions with the health department and a FOIL request, no information was found. I decided to do a little exploration and found that in fact, the fields were in place.
Even if the existing septic fields that we found are not approved, the health department’s pre-construction inspection will allow us to get a building permit and move forward with the exploratory dig. We can deal with the actual septic approvals and construction going forward.
This is typical of this business. It’s up to me as the Contractor/Builder to herd the cats and push the project forward. On we go.
