Progress

It’s nice to see things moving along finally. The weather is cooperating. Cold but not too cold, dry and no precipitation. All the crews are finally working together. We had a week without holidays. Even the city forestry showing up by surprise didn’t slow us down.

So the conditions were perfect to get some work done and that’s exactly what happened. Tuesday was pouring day for the main floor icf. Wednesday the workers took down the scaffolding and braces for the icf. The outside was back filled last Saturday. All the bearing walls in the basement were framed and all the first floor subfloor was cleaned. The sump pump was dug out in the basement. We even got one of the bay windows framed out. It looked great! When I left today, more lumber was dropped on site and the guys were screwing in the rim joists for the second floor. There’s still a lot of work left before we close up the roof but this week we were closer and nothing was holding us back.

heated basement. forms for concrete ledge is made at bottom, door to cold room is seen open to rear and allows access to the basement.

bearing wall in basement 2X8 studding on concrete ledge over footing. gravel on floor, basement is now heated. black tube on far wall is exit pipe for sump pump. it makes a right turn at rim joist and exits the front of the house ( to the right)

bearing walls in basement, they are built on footings and than on concrete ledges. basement is dry and heated. white tubing on floor is drainage from south wall weeping tile to sump pump

This is the sump pump working. It is a 1/2 hp pump and seems to be draining constantly

mainfloor icf is poured and site is cleared. south wall boxed bay window is now framed out (right). office window (left) front door (center) and mudroom window (small window center right) bucks are made.

looking at the back you can see the box bay window and the large window in the rear of the house. to the right is the rear door and bay window sitting area we will use for breakfast.

workers are hanging the rim joists with the simpson strong ties

First floor

After the ice storm, black out, holidays, artic vortex, and one day enforced labour shut down (courtesy of ministry of labour) the workers got back to it. We missed about two weeks from the day the subfloor got installed to the workers being back at it again.

The first problem was the ice on top of the poured icf forms. They had to be removed completely. Some of the ice couldn’t be removed from the dimples on top of the forms and these were just cut off instead. The forms were than glued and plywood braces were used to hold them together. We were fortunate that the weather swung from -40 Celsius to +9 Celsius. This allowed some of the remaining ice to melt just in time for the next floor of concrete to be poured.

We also finally got the backfill around the house. This was delayed because the machines wouldn’t work in -40 weather. I would have been more worried about the footings but the basement was heated after the black out stopped and it was actually warm in the basement despite the -40 weather outside! Yeah for icf.

braces and scaffolding in the front office window

forms are being erected on the main floor

scaffolding and braces for dining room windows

site is ready for pouring. braces and scaffolding are up, window bucks and plywood reinforcement are in place

mainfloor icf is ready for pouring, horizontal rebar in icf forms is placed and walls are reinforced.

Ice storm

The weather has been uncooperative since we started. Unfortunately, it became much much worse this past week with an ice storm! What is an ice storm? We’ll if you haven’t lived through one, it usually happens when the temperature hovers around 0 Celsius and it is wet for a day or more. In this temperature, the water coats and freezes objects as it falls from the sky layering on thicker and thicker pieces of ice. Eventually the branches and trees and hydro wires become completely coated with thick layers of ice and the tree/ branch/ wire breaks and falls. This is unfortunately the second time I’ve lived through one. The other storm was worse and ice was almost an inch thick on all sides of branches. This year, the ice is less but enough to stop the city completely. Wires/ branches and trees fell down all night leaving 300,000 without hydro. The temperature than dropped to -18 Celsius the next day with a extreme frost alert across the city. This is now our 4 or 5 day without hydro and we had to evacuate our home because our indoor temperature reached -6 Celsius. All the pipes are drained of water and the whole street is black still. This also means our work site has no hydro too which means they’re not working either but to be honest I’m thinking everyone has slightly bigger problems until we all get our hydro back. Let’s hope the insulation tarps work!

removal of ice from the top of the basement forms was a slow procedure

Time lapse video

The time lapse starts at week 4 because we didnt have the hydro pole up in time to put the camera. We missed out on a lot including the demo, excavation, footings and building the icf block foundation in that time. The time lapse starts with pouring the foundation in the forms in week 4. This video is updated every few weeks as the project progresses along.

How to make a cheaper house

A lot of effort in this blog is about building the best possible house for our family but one of the questions that people may have is how we could have done this cheaper. This post will try to answer that.

1. No ICF- the ICF was really expensive (approx 70,000$ more). Unnecessarily so because I had to use a General contractor in addition to the ICF contractor. If they were the same contractor than the process would have been cheaper. The difference may only be 30,000$. I’ve heard some reports that the additional costs of icf may be as little as 4% more than wood framing. The downside with using a contractor who provides ICF as well as GC is that that person will not be an expert in ICF construction. It’s like the same as a GC and a plumber or an electrician. For some duties, including the ICF, there is considerable benefit to hiring someone who specializes in that product.

2. the cheapest construction is wood veneer with 1/2″ OSB plywood construction. Cheap? Yes. Would you want to live in it? The walls are paper thin and become a complete death trap in a house fire (burns in 15 minutes). I’ve heard stories that you can hear cats outside meow right through the walls. There are fire marshall reports that houses burn so quick and hot in new house construction that people die in their beds asleep charred beyond recognition. The issue is that the glue that holds the wood fibers together is flammable.

3. Cheaper still? Forget the new construction- just knock down the main and top floor and redo this. The new house permits and new utility installation fees were 20,000$ alone. All this is not necessary if you keep the basement and make it a major renovation. Unfortunately, this confines you to the layout of the basement, the vent and main drain stack, the bearing walls. You could change the stack if you break the basement floor but at that point you really have come close to a total demolition. If the basement layout is too small for you than you are forced to either dig a basement extension and tying this into the old basement or building on a slab on grade (not wise in frost area zones), crawl space or pillars (this results in very cold floors in the winter in areas where there are no basements). Building on slabs , crawl spaces or pillars without a full basement causes problems with heating duct/ return air vents and water pipes as this space may be a cold zone and inappropriate for those utilities which should all remain within insulated spaces.

4. Cheaper still? Put a second floor on top of the bungalow. This confines you to the layout of the main floor, the vent and drain stack and is often complicated by where to put the staircase. You will still have problems passing the forced air and return vents to the second floor from the basement.

5. Cheaper still? gut the house. Just remove everything on the floor/ ceilings and walls until you see the studs and rafters. Than rewire/ replumb/ reduct to your hearts delight. You can still relocate/ resize rooms but your main restriction is the square footage of the house and the location of the windows/ staircase.

6. Is there anything cheaper than this? Try a pre fab house top up. Made to your exacting standards in a factory off site and delivered to your house. The roof of your house is removed and than the prefab goes on top. It’s pretty quick and I understand the construction and quality of the prefab houses has improved considerably.

7. Bargain for the lowest price to start with. There are two truths about the price of custom home building. 1. the cost only goes up after you start construction. There are lots of changes during the process and everything is an extra. Very few things are actually cheaper. 2. if you really want a cheaper price than you will trade for lower quality materials ie second floor carpet rather than hardwood throughout, stock kitchen cabinets rather than true custom cabinets.

8. Is there cheaper still? No. Dont try to build a house if you want cheaper still.

How much insurance is enough?

Building a house is a complex, expensive and risky undertaking. Both you and the bank will want to mitigate those risks as much as possible and that includes buying insurance for every part of the project. Here is some of the insurance you will need.

House Insurance- one of the first things we needed was regular house insurance for the property that we bought. If you are planning to construct on a house you are living in than you already have this insurance. It was a condition of the mortgage that we by the house insurance. Initially, we did not want coverage for the property but only coverage for injury on the property or damage to adjacent properties. Unfortunately, we found that because the house was vacant, the insurance brokers would not give us house insurance. They required someone to live in the property, either us or renters who had rental insurance. This was a problem and it was difficult to solve especially if we told them that we planned to demolish the house. Instead, we decided to tell them we were planning to renovate the house but the plans to renovate would take 9 months to a year and in truth it did take that long. After this, we were able to get the house insurance and as a result, the mortgage was approved.

General Liability insurance- this insurance is purchased by your contractor, subcontractors, designer, architect, surveyor and most non-professionals working on your house. The amount of insurance they purchase should equal the cost of the house at least and perhaps more (in case there is damage to the adjacent houses). I would recommend 2 million in most cases. You should demand to see a copy of insurance before you agree to talk to anyone. Anyone who is not insured should not be working on your house ie the ‘neighbourhood handyman’

Workers Compensation- everyone who is working on site should be covered by workers compensation. You should request proof of coverage before agreeing to any work by a contractor. If this coverage is not available it is possible that you become liable for any injuries (including paralysis, death et et) that may occur on site when the workers are there. Just dont take a chance on this.

Builder’s Risk Insurance- when demolition of the house begins, the house insurance will be cancelled and you should than have builder’s risk insurance. General liability covers mistakes that the contractor can make on the job site that results in loss/ damage to the building but there are many risks unrelated to the work of the contractor that also need to be covered. For example, if material is stolen from the site or if lightning causes a fire and burns the house down 1/2 through construction. Builder’s risk insurance mitigates those risks. The type of questions I would ask about builders risk insurance include:

1. start date (digging of foundation), length of policy (9-12 months), extension costs (pro rated, fees), end of coverage (unattended, expiration, occupancy),

2. hard costs (all materials, labor, contractors overhead/ margin) against theft, fire, wind and vandalism. Ask about coverage of house and damage to neighbours houses.

3. Soft costs (interest on money borrowed, real estate/ property taxes, architect/ engineering fees, expenses)

Warranty- The warranties from private contractors can mean anything from ‘if it breaks, I’ll come back to fix it’ to very detailed warranties that include foundation leaks for 7 years et et. In general, if the contractor becomes bankrupt or they are irresponsible, than enforcing a warranty from a private contractor may be impossible and as a result I would factor that into how much you value warranties from private contractors.

TARION- In our province, there is a government mandated, industry self regulated new home builders warranty to provide warranty protection for people who buy houses before they are actually complete. This gives them some peace of mind. It is mainly directed at large builders and condominion builders. Although the warranty is clearly stated, it is not 100% perfect. For example, the warranty is limited ie foundation up to 7 years. In addition, there are reports that how the warranty is enforced is up to interpretation ie foundation cracks are fixed by injecting sealant from inside the basement to foundation cracks are dug up from the exterior and the entire exterior wall is waterproofed again. Finally, the new home warranty guarantees up to 450,000$ which will not cover the cost of building a house from scratch again if there are major problems. Better than nothing or a private contractors warranty? Yes, but not perfect.

Professional Liability Insurance- all the professionals that are involved with your project are required to have professional liability insurance to maintain their membership with their organizations. ie plumbers need professional liability insurance to keep a plumbers license, same for electricians, engineers et et. This insurance should also be 1 million minimum.

Life insurance- Finally, you should protect your family from catastrophic events by having sufficient life insurance to see you through the construction. This can be really cheap like fixed term 10 year life insurance. The amount should cover completion of the house and any other expenses that may occur. In many cases, the bank will also require proof of this coverage as a condition of the mortgage. If not, they will charge you for their own life insurance policy with the beneficiary the bank and at a much higher cost.

 

UPDATE

Just to let you know, we initially planned to construct the house over 6 months and bought builders risk insurance for a total of 9 months. Unfortunately, the construction took nearly 11 months ( one month they went on holiday). When they did that, we had to extend the builders risk insurance and the prorated cost was 1/2 the amount of the original cost 1500$ vs 3000$ for only 3 more months. If I were to do it again, I would buy insurance for the entire year and even than be prepared that it could take longer.

What questions do I ask a contractor?

Here is a list of questions I had to interview contractors. The list comes from “A Smartwomens Guide to Home Building”. It’s one of the books I read and it was very comprehensive.

1. Registered business name in:
   1. Years of continuous operation for this business under the same name in Ontario:
   2. HST number:
2. What is the address of your website?
3. Who is your contact person?
   1. What is your contact phone number?
   2. Is this the same person who will act as the general contractor on the job site?
   3. If not than who will be the general contractor on the job site?
   4. What is your contact email?
4. How much are you bonded for?
5. How much are you insured for against negligence/ liability
   1. Can you provide proof of insurance ?
6. Can you provide proof of workers compensation/ accidental injury insurance (please copy and return to us) ?
7. Are you a member of TARION?
   1. Can you provide proof of current membership (please copy and return to us)?

Contractor Information

1. Can you provide proof of electrical license (please copy and return to us)?
2. Can you provide proof of plumbing license (please copy and return to us)?
3. Can you provide proof of HVAC license (please copy and return to us)?
4. Can you provide proof of licensing for all other workers and subcontractors that require provincial licenses?

References

Can you provide up to six references (please list below)?

Site Participation

1. Would you allow regular site visits and participation in the construction by the homeowner?
2. Would you allow outside sub contractors, as designated by the homeowner, to provide competing bids for portions of the work?

Costs

1. Can you provide an estimate for the costs of constructing a 3000 sqft home with standard finishes (all hardwood, granite countertop et et), understanding that this is only an estimate and not a binding quote?
2. What are the upfront costs needed to begin consultations and before a final contract with construction schedule and payment are agreed upon (ie are the consultations free of charge and what are the costs of the architect/ designer) ?
3. Excluding change orders, can you guarantee the final costs of construction once a contract and schedule or work and payment are agreed upon?
4. How will extras/ change orders be managed?

Workplace Safety

1. What is your workplace safety record?
2. Does your staff receive workplace safety training?
3. Are your staff and subcontractors required to wear personal protective equipment at all times when on the job site?

Availability

1. When can you start?
2. How much notice would you typically need to start a large project such as this?
3. How long would a typical project such as this take for your company?
4. What is the best time of year…
   1. to start construction of a house
   2. to begin permit applications (including applications for minor variances)

Choices you have in building your home

1. Who to build?

Architect + Builder +/- Engineer = Most expensive and reliable approach

Designer (Draftman)+ Builder +/- Engineer = Most practical for standard houses

Designer (Draftman) +Yourself +/- Engineer = If you havent done it before it is a lot of risk

2. Footings= not much choice here but you should make sure they are built on undisturbed soil and have a soil engineer check the bearing load at multiple points along the strip footing. If there are any soft spots, they need to be dealt with. There is a choice to have your footings keyed or with vertical rebar reinforcement to prevent lateral movement of the foundation walls. I’m not sure if this makes a difference. All footings should than be covered by waterproofing to prevent upward movement of moisture into the foundation wall (wicking).

3. Foundation wall

Many choices between wood framed, poured concrete, concrete block and ICF. I believe ICF is the best but most expensive choice but I understand even well constructed wood framed basement foundation walls can last 50-60 years.

4. Waterproofing

There are many ways to waterproof the foundation wall. All foundation walls should have 4″ weepers with a sock covering circling the perimeter of the entire house. Above this, the wall can be covered by some waterproof material either tar, bitumen or other product. Finally, the wall should than be covered with a dimpled membrane extending above grade to the weepers and circling the entire house. Any less is inadequate.

5. Framing of house

Most houses are stick/ platform framed on site. The framing will include sheathing which may be oriented strand board (OSB) or 1/2″ plywood. I understand OSB is dimensionally stable and similar to plywood when dry but loses stability when wet and burns extremely quick in a house fire. OSB is of course very cheap (about 7.50$ vs 17.50$). You may also built the structure in Structurally Insulated Plywood (SIPS) or Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFS). These choices require specialized builders in these construction methods and should not be built by regular contractors unfamiliar with their construction method. SIPS and ICFs are expensive choices. You can also have a modular home built. I understand the technology for modular homes is improving substantially and allows for homes which are no longer ‘boxy’ but allow for more architectural detail. Finally, there are many other choices for building the structure of your home from steel framing, pillar and post framing and pre cast concrete panels but I would consider these methods more extreme and chosen for more unique circumstances.

6. House Wrap

The house should be wrapped and taped if it is being stick framed with sheathing. There is an interesting chapter in Complete Building Construction by Rex Miller that questions the necessity of house wrap and the role of industry in promoting building materials but I think for most people this would not even be  a question.

7. Roof

May be either trusses or rafters. Trusses are engineered and prefabricated to be installed on site. They come is stacks of triangles that are easily and quickly erected on the roof. Rafters however are built on site by skilled framers piece by piece. The roof takes some time to complete and is usually over engineered for its purposes. The benefit of rafters is it can allow for easy modification afterwards if for example you may want to place a dormer window in the roof or add a skylight. Trusses should never be modified after installation but are installed very quickly so it gives the benefit of closing the house up quicker from the rain or snow.

8. Floor Joists

Solid wood floors are the standard but the spans between support structures is limited to 17 or 18′. In addition, these floors tend to twist and buckle. I beams are made by many manufacturers under many different brands but are basically long finger jointed 2X4 pieces separated by webbing that can be OSB or smaller pieces of 2X4 in a web pattern. They are dimensionally stable (so they wont twist or buck) and and can span longer lengths between support structures. Of course you can also choose steel joists and pre cast poured concrete to create your floor structure but I would consider these choices more extreme as well.

9. Load bearing walls

Load bearing walls support the inside portion of a floor joist (the exterior wall supports the outside portion). They may be constructed out of lumber (2X8 or 2X10), poured concrete, concrete block or brick. If a load bearing structure is needed but a wall is not desired than they can be built with posts (made from steel, wood, concrete block or brick) and beams (also made from steel or wood). I found it interesting to discover that solid wood beams are actually more fire resistant than steel I beams. The reason for this is that when steel I beams reach their melting temperature they lose structure and the floor above collapses immediately. In comparison, solid wood beams burn until they are covered by an eschar which is actually quite fire resistant and the protects the core of the wood from burning any further.

10. Subfloor

Subfloor can be made out of OSB (cheap and burns very quickly) or plywood. It should be glued and screwed and you should specify this because the builder can install it a number of ways from nailed only to screwed only to glued and nailed.

11. Drywall

The most common drywall installation is 1/2″ but this only provides a fire rating of 15 minutes! You can also choose type X  5/8″  regular drywall which improves the fire rating to 45 minutes or 1/2″ type C drywall which is the same thickness but also gives a 45 minute fire rating. Sound proof drywall can also be chosen if it is desired. In most builder homes, this isnt even given as a choice but the reality is, the additional cost of type C drywall on the whole house is 3000$ and for that money I would gladly pay an extra 30 minutes to get my family out of the home.

12. HVAC

HVAC is the first rough in. There are many choices here from the location of vents, number of returns, size and type of furnace and AC. There are of course better choices but they increase in cost. I think some of the most important choices to consider are the number and size of returns (often overlooked in houses). Some houses will have one central return on each floor. This is likely inadequate and you should have one return in each room with larger returns in places where solar heat gain is an issue. Finally, I would also consider a heat recovery ventilator or an energy recovery ventilator for the house.

13. Plumbing

Most houses are built with PEX tubing so it’s interesting to see that copper is the choice now. I would ask that the PEX be installed in a ‘home run’ fashion with a central basement manifold. City supply pipes can also be sized up to allow for higher water pressure. They can be 1/2″, 3/4″ or 1″. Drain stacks are typically ABS now but in the past they were cast iron. I would also ask for a house trap, sump pump and backflow prevention device. I think these things should be in all houses but if your house floods from sewage backup or anything else you will regret not having this.

14. Electrical

There are again many choices here. Starting with the size of the circuit fuse box either 100amp, 150 amp or 200amp. The setup and location of the wiring (some of this is by code but if you want special switches in certain locations you should ask). I like the idea of having a whole house surge protector and a universal transfer switch in case you want to add a generator later.

15. Low voltage wiring

This is all the telephone, ethernet, cable, security wiring in the house. Lots of choices again.

16. Paint

I’m not going to talk about the paint choices but builders will usually limit your colour choices to 1 for ceiling and maybe 2 for walls. Anymore is extra (that’s why all rooms look the same in these houses)

17. Trim

Lots of choices from the materials either medium dense fibers (MDF ie cheap), painted poplar or stained oak. Size of trim from 3 1/2″ side casing and 5 1/4″ base boards smaller or larger. Style of trim ie simple window framing and baseboards or arts and craft or victorian or grand victorian… et et

18. Kitchen

Lots of choices. I’m not going to really get into this because there are lots of books on this.

19.  Insulation

Insulation can be either batts (standard in walls), blown in cellulose (in attics you should ask for R50), rigid foam (good for basement walls), spray foam (good for everywhere).

20. Windows

Lots of choices again from the material ie vinyl (standard), wood (expensive), metal (poor insulation). Gas filled ie argon, krypton. Coated once or twice for energy efficiency. Number of panes 1,2 or 3. Style ie fixes, casement, horizontal sliding, awning, single hung, double hung.

21. Exterior covering

Lots of choices from real stone or brick (both expensive), concrete panels, stucco (cheap), fake stone, vinyl siding (very cheap), wood siding, cement fiber siding. Some of the nicest stuff out there is hand molded brick but pretty pricey stuff for the whole house.

Those are most of the choices I would discuss with the contractor before you start. My list was 16 pages long but it’s good to have it all clear before you begin building.