up your architecture.

So I get home from up north and called Cecil Creel (Laura's son) about the house to make sure that everything went okay with the permitting process and the foundation work so far. He was happy to tell me that they had finished the foundation and the people from CAH:OH were going to start working on the framing next week. Since it was the first project that I worked on when I got down here and started working for the GCCDS I was rather excited to see the progress. So I decided that on my way back from dropping off the plans for permit for Lori Gordon's House (who needs to have a great introduction as she is an amazing person) I would drop by and pick up my camera and head out there.

When I got there I was surprised to see that there were Sonotubes in the ground rather than the block detail that I had drawn up for the house. Upon further inspection, I realized that not only was this done with a different system than I had detailed for the foundation, but it had been done poorly. One of the reasons that we have used block for lowly elevated residences is because we can work with a broader group of contractors which are more familiar with these CMUs rather than the Sonotube which, while very useful and appropriate to elevating houses, can be messed up in 360 degrees if not plumbed correctly.

Needless to say, this was not a contractor that knew what he was doing, or if he did, he didn't give a crap. As I walked around the site feeling a large amount of frustration I also noticed that instead of using a collar tie that we could bolt our rim joists through they used a single strap tie that is typically spec'd for slab-on-grade construction and totally inappropriate for what we were building.

As I quietly seethed during the return trip from Long Beach to work I tried to figure out what happens next. When I got back, I showed my pictures to David Perkes, our director and he told me that we can't really do much about it. Due to the fact that we didn't sign the drawings (since we wouldn't be able to oversee it often enough) if we wanted to make any changes to the plans, David would have to sign them (which would make him liable for the design) and after this debacle, I don't think he was really eager to sign on.

So I called up Cecil and asked him why he had decided to go with Sonotubes. He remarked that he was just trying to do right by his momma and get more "bang for the buck" since the quote he got on the 'tubes was $3,000-4,000 cheaper than the block foundation with the continuous footing. Now as an aside, I must stress that in a climate like this that is so active in terms of storms as well as being so close to sea level the foundation is the one part of the house you do NOT want to skimp on which I thought I had hammered into my client's head. Continuing on, I told him that all the detailing that we did was now null in void because he couldn't have them work the same way with this different foundation plan, pier, and strap. He then informed me that he had an "engineer" draw up this detail and the city approved it. Let me say that David Perkes has an engineering degree and when he looked at the pictures he shook his head. Anyhow, Cecil said that he could "drop off the drawings and I could take a look at them". I said "sure", and he told me that he would "see me soon". I haven't heard from him since. All I can do is hope that they can fix this mistake and move forward.

So ends my first house on the coast.

He suggested calling Cecil back and asking him why they had deviated from the plans