Water Issues and Drainage

...and Im back! Been busy with work, being sick and taking a quick vacay to Mexico. Well, Im back to write more and bore you with more house stuff. This one will be full of pictures, possibly boring, but can be interesting if you care to read on. 

Like many of the other things we knew we were getting into when we bought this place, we knew one of the major things that needed to be addressed was water issues in the soil - in the depths of the abyss...well, not really...but surface and below soil water. Yes, this place had many issues with water (i.e. the stairs leaking, sewer replacement, etc)...but this was a bit more of a REAL need that never was addressed and should have been. Had this been done sooner, foundation and other settling issues might not have occurred with the property. Among the more damaging items, the need for a new foundation will be needed in the future...which we did know ahead of time, but by addressing the problems that led to it, we will be able to hopefully extend the existing foundation from further deterioration and issues caused. 

Some things to address that I will go over:

- Sloping property

- Downspouts - proper way!

- Water Diversion

- Foundation

First of all the simple stuff - Downspouts. These are those things that no one really pays attention to, but is a HUGE thing when it comes to water and your foundation. These or those little gutter things that you see on the side of a house that brings water from the roof down to the ground level - supposed to be away from the house into a drainage of some sort or at least to divert water away from your home. Well...this house had them and all the spouts pointed down and straight to the floor which was exactly where the foundation is - a no no. Imagine heavy rain year after year, day after day of water collecting from your roof draining straight to the soil of where your house is planted. NOT GOOD over time and yes - it does affect your foundation and the soils stability. It essentially keeps that area saturated and can lead to your house sinking of moving very slightly - but enough to create cracks in your walls. Even a 1/2 in drop in your property an cause those hairline cracks in your interior/exterior walls - think of it, the house is basically shifting. This needed to be addressed quickly.

In addition to those little buggers, the house is on a sloped property. All the water from the houses above our grade basically drops down to our level and sits at the lowest point. If the water cant move anywhere, it will collect and sit in the soil and is usually where the foundation is - and guess what, we sit in one of those areas. Grrrrrrr. After doing research on stuff like this and getting opinions from experts, it was determined that we would eventually need a new foundation and would need some sort of water diversion under ground to move water away from our foundation. This is where the French Drains come in to play. 

There are many ways to do a French Drain and many wrongs ways to do it. For our purposes, since we are not doing a new foundation just yet, we went for the simple, yet effective route. The key for doing it the way we did it is ensuring the trench was deep enough to catch all the water below the surface before it hits our homes foundation. Here is an illustration of what it looks like and its purpose:

Basically we want to catch all the water coming down from the hill above us and have the water go into this drain before it hits our foundation and pools the soil until it makes it mud. During heavy rain, the water would never dry out and thats a bad sign for foundation and an invitation to small critters called Termites. They love damp grounds. By having this, when the water below the surface is flowing and or saturating, it collects into the pipe and then gets diverted towards the front of the house into an exit point of some sort. Since we have to build drainage across the entire length of our backyard and down the side, this was a perfect opportunity to tap in the downspouts mentioned from above so water had a place to dump into.

First step was to trench the back of the house - due to sewer lines and other blocks preventing us from getting too close to our foundation, we had to space it out about 24-36 inches away from our foundation - which is fine. The trench needed to be at least 24" deep in the shallowest part and down to up to 48"+ at the lowest part. The key to doing this properly was to ensure a proper slope so the water had somewhere to flow down. You can just put a pipe on level ground and expect the water to move down hill...but because our property is naturally sloping, this made that work much easier. 

We needed pipes - lots of it. Not regular pipes, but some that had holes to absorb water. These are specifically made for french drains. They have cheapy flexible pipes that do this, but we opted for the rigid 4" piping to ensure proper flow and maximum water pickup. Along with pipe was some rinsed rocks. The rocks would take the place of some soil and allow the water to passthrough, also acting as a filter for the pipe to ensure no debris clogs the pipes and to ensure water was getting through to the pipe. This is whats on the left - tons of rocks - about the size of a quarter.

Below are the begining phases of the trenching. You can see it is the entire length of the rear foundation. This ended up being 24" at the shallowest point and down to 48" on the deepest point. 

Below the pipe has been laid down. The process is as such - dig the trench, slop it properly, add gardening cloth (as a filter to keep soil out of the pipe, line it with some rocks, place the pipe over the rocks, add more rocks on top of the pipe, then close the fabric liner (like it was a burrito or something), then burry the remainder with more rocks and soil. You will notice some pipes sticking up - I added those as part of my design as surface drains. These will be drains that will sit on the ground level and will be cut to a desired length once we figure our what the actual ground level will be. They will alos serve as a cleanout area in case the drain gets clogged - I would be able to access the pipe from any of those areas sticking up where it is "T'd" off.

This pipe takes a bend at the side of the house downwards towards the street where the water will eventually exit. Imagine gallons and gallons of water when it rains getting absorbed through this pipe and making its way down to the street rather than pooling up in the yard and saturating our soil and foundation. Relief! 

And the thing about the downspouts - well now I have those addressed by them tapping into this same pipe that leads to the street. No more water from the roof going to the soil, now it will exit to the street. Eliminates the saturated soils in various areas of the house now too - another huge relief. 

           
These two downspouts below used to dump water straight down to the soil and to the foundation. No longer an issues. The white piping is what we added - which is tapped in under ground to a pipe that leads to the street ensuring no water is sitting during rainy days and collecting at the side of the house.



One other area that I needed to address was by the front of the house. After the first rainfall when getting this done, I was able to observe any other water issues we had and one in particular got me thinking of a way to divert water. I decided to draw it up one day and asked RonDZ to help me out in getting it done and that we did within a few hours.

Unlike the backyard, we had a barrier in that concrete was an issue and we werent just able to dig in the ground and add pipe. This was a little creative and not optimal, but to me it was genius. LOL.

So water was pooling up on the corner area of our house - where our entrance was. I do have a door to my basement where it was significant, however it was more for my personal wants to get this done - wasnt really needed, but was definitely cool to make it work the way I thought it would. Heres what I drew and we quickly went to work.

Above: Water would gather here on heavy rain. The area where the rocks and bricks are is where the water would now drain to and exit through a pipe we dug into the soil. I added an elbow on the downspout to help move the water from the roof in the right direction.
Right: This is the exit point in the front of the house (yes, not legal), but it works and is hidden enough to not question. There you will find a nice cover under the rocks that allows the water to just release into the sidewalk. Its completed work is RonDZ's work - much better than my original one I did...very clean I must say.

 Left: We found this bug when digging in the soil. Not one we've ever seen before, but wanted to snap a photo. Any ideas on what it is???

In the end, what we did ended up working for the front corner...however it will only serve a real purpose in HEAVY downpour. For light rain, the water does not pool enough and the flow of the water does not reach our rock garden catch all area...but when its raining hard enough, it does. Oh well, it was nice trying - and it works, just not 100% of the time. 

As far as the french drains, I check it every single rainfall and it is definitely working 100% for the back of the house. Money well spent and was needed.





Foundation - to touch on Foundation. We have Crawl Space rather than Slab Foundation. Basically, when I mention foundation, for our home...the only true foundation is on the perimeter of the house. Many newer homes are built on slab foundations. For us, its a must to address foundation issues because 1 - we dont have a ton of it and 2 - its VERY OLD. When we had our foundation assessed, standards on how foundations would be built today are VERY different from how ours was built. Addressing these water issues were key for us to "extend" the life of our foundation. The reason I say "extend" is because no one can really put a date on how much longer it could last. Its more of a best guess and will need to be replaced for sure. Signs of deteriorating foundation are clearly found in our foundation because of the items we addressed that the previous owners did not. Had they done that years ago, maybe this would not be an issues. Since we do have crawl space, part of addressing the water issues from above is to prevent the soil under our house from getting damp. This leads to mildew, mold, and other weird things. Luckily, even without us doing what we did, none of that existed - so it was just extra precaution.

 It is what it is...in the end, water is very damaging to your homes foundation.

To continue my catch up work, here is some more work that has been going on.

11/7/12 Sewer Lateral Work

Sewer Lateral Work/Inspection is required in the city of Oakland and much of Alameda County. Not all have the same requirements, however if your sewer lines fail during inspection, the property is immediately red flagged with EBMUD and you are subject to fix it - usually at the sellers cost. This only occurs and is required when transferring ownership of your home. If you plan on living in your house forever and never get it inspected, then your good - essentially grandfather in and the mandatory sewer work is not required. That is the only exception that I can think of that would apply to this blog - but there are other exceptions for homes with more than one tenant or address (i.e. a Condo).

So when we started to purchase this, the rule for this Sewer Lateral work just took effect. Yay (not!). A headache for us, yes...what is meant at the time - very unclear. However after days, weeks and months of waiting for the home, I too learned why and what needed to be done. And so the journey for this begins.

Inspection was required to see if it would pass - great. Scheduled that and guess what? FAIL! Old sewers lines were made of Terracotta - yes, what you see on Mediterranean Style House roofs (such as Costa Brava in Bayfarm)...that burgundy ish colored tile of a roof material. Yes, the sewer lines were pipes of that stuff. So over time, it breaks, cracks due to earth movement. Well - that wasnt smart, but was the safest cheapest way to do it back in the day I guess. When originally plumbed through the ground, Im sure it was a fairly straight shot to the main sewer line in the street...like, who cares if it breaks under ground???

When you get inspected, the folks inspecting stick a camera through an entrance in your home (usually a cleanout on your property of by removing a toilet and entering that way) and begin searching the line until it reaches the sewer main (usually located in the middle of the street you live on). They check for cracks, standing water, anything that would show water leakage into soil. The camera is to serve as proof and yes - it is recording when they begin the test. This is what goes into the records if your house fails. Why? - who can prove anything underground needs fixing if you can even see it and require you to fix something - well - technology at its best helps do that.

To make a long story short, the house failed the test and we were told to get bids on how much it was going to cost to fix it. This was all done before buying the house and all details were worked out ahead of time. To spare details - I got quotes, chose the best folks to do it and submitted the cost in our offer when buying the house. It was accepted and all costs for this was covered - money from the seller to go into escrow account and contractors to collect from there. I was to schedule everything once we closed.

To give you an idea of how much this cost - estimated work to do everything was $13.5k. This is not typical, but because our property is on a hill, sloped property and has a decent size footprint, the work was much more than what you would typically see for a normal lot here in Oakland. I asked about what it normally costs people on an average and it was anywhere from $4-8k. Interesting.

So this work took 3 days and involved a ton of digging and quite a large crew to complete in that timeframe. With technology, stuff like this would have taken weeks to complete and would probably cost double what it does today. Rather than digging the pipe out, they have a new technique called trenchless technology. Essentially they locate an end where the old terracotta pipe started and send a new pipe through it to follow its old path, but by bringing in a new pipe behind it. Imagine taking a straw from McDonalds (call this the terracotta pipe) and then forcing a Jack in the Box Straw (the new pipe) through the McDonalds straw. The McDonalds straw is smaller and you are forcing a larger straw inside of it. At some point the straw (with enough force) will give way and break or stretch to make way for the larger straw. This is sort of whats happening. As the new pipe is pulled through, a drill like device is pulverizing the old pipe and is pulling through a new pipe in its place. Amazing technology. The old pipe stays in the soil and they remove as much remnants as they can as it passes openings they create where major points connect to your home. Sounds gross as it is sewer line - but this is deep in the earth. We're not talking surface soil that you could simply dig up with a shovel....we're talking anywhere from 6-10 ft deep. Doesnt sound like a lot, but if you jump down the hole or look down 10 ft of soil, its deep.

Here are a few snap shots of the sewer line replacement that occurred. Though its not something you see as far as "upgrades" go, but its nice knowing that my sewer line is compliant and is not clogged or will ever get clogged. Massive lines, new, and added cleanout areas to ensure no sewer water makes in backwards into the house and an pathway to clear out any massive clogs if you ever get to that point (better see a doctor if you clog your toilet that bad). We have 3 areas where water will burst out of in the even of some massive backup - would technically never reach in the house - which is why they require cleanouts and test is before signing off on the work done (done by a city inspector during a live test of flooding the new lines with water to ensure no leaks and that the cleanouts are working properly.

 Lower right of this pic is a clean out - says sewer on it and is a capped pipe. If I ever need to unclog something MAJOR - the plumbers can go there to inspect. It also serves as the last resort to put over flow water should the city main line backup and cause water to enter back up the lines that go to houses - something Ive never heard of happening, but who knows...



Above: Thats how much pipe was needed to run all my sewer line from the back of the house to the city mainline. Super long run.

Left: Picture of the pipe as it passed through the existing pathway of the old piping. I have a video that shows it moving slowly - they have a machine that is pulling it through.

 Left: This is a shot of the pipe entering from the backyard opening. Still amazed at how this thing worked.

Right: Old terracotta sewer line. As the new pipe passes through, it sometimes will push out old broken pipe it was destroyed. Workers pick up large pieces and haul it off when they leave.

Left: Two massive holes they had to dig. This is where the pipe passes through and then "T's" off to the house. All main areas where you have waste water, the holes are dug to ensure replacing proper fittings needed.














The sewer lines are all new in the house and though you cant see it, just know that we some clean sewer lines! Time consuming fix, free for us and good to have. Once the lines are replaced, you are given a certificate that is good for 20 or 30 years. This means that if and when we sell within that timeframe - the next buyer will know the sewer lines were replaced and no tests will need to be done. Basically compliant for 20-30 years from today. Yay.

...to finish off the yard work stuff, Guadalupe or "Lupe" stuck to his word on his price, however did mention that the spa was extra as it was more work than he thought. Fair enough. I DID however pay him extra as I felt the service he provided and the time that was put in was much more than he quoted me. Think what you want...his actual words were, "...pay me what you think is fair, if you think what I did was worth the original price I told you, then thats ok". I am not one to cheat someone out of what is fair...I gave him $ on top of what we had originally agreed on - fair or not, it was more than what he asked and I felt good about giving him the extra funds without feeling I got ripped - end of story for the yard.

On to things that we needed to take care of before the rainy season hits - 10/30/12

When it comes to specialty type of work and with the knowledge for all things...I knew of one person that could help me with my mini projects. Growing up, I would see him build things, fix things, paint things, etc...one of those people that knows everything and does things himself (or with the help of others, such as his kids)...I know, trust me...we lived in the same house and we were neighbors for many many years. No stranger to renovation type of work, I knew I could think of something that would utilize his skill and I would be able to pay him for it. He's now retired and I overheard he does some side work. Perfect! You guessed it, Uncle Ed. Yesssir!

Coming into the project, I had a task list I have been building over months and months of anticipating...who was going to do what, approximate costs, separation of work (JBT vs Outside Contractor vs Myself vs Family, etc etc). I separated things as they made sense to the project, thinking of cost, timing, difficulty, and overall personal satisfaction - was it something I could do or something I was willing to do and learn while trying. Well, the things I was going to ask was a perfect opportunity. Something too small to ask a general contractor who would probably tell me to do it myself even though I tell them Ive never done any house work or too expensive to explain how I "think" I want it done and someone would just over charge.

Here is the task:

- Waterproof the stairs. This house had massive separation on the stairs (in the entry way) on each of the sides. Over the years with settling and poor (or "old" construction rather caused this to happen - this actually NEEDS to be replaced, but can last a little bit longer if we take care of it for now. We chose the cheaper route - fix it for now.

- Additional Support for the Stairs. The stairs are concrete, so its very heavy and we had a structural engineer asses it and overall its built right, however it can use another support post (if we chose) and other than old techniques compared to how people would build them today, the skeleton of the stairs were actually built right, just missing tips and tricks builders have done through the years to help eliminate the problems that led to this.

Heres a few samples of whats happening -

So before you judge this - it looks bad. It is. However, this is after the prep work. Imagine smaller openings, cracks if you will rather than these large gaps. One way or another, it was visible and was enough to allow massive amounts of water during rain - a no no. So as each day passed after we first laid our eyes on the house and getting an inspection done - THIS is one of the items that just killed me every day it rained. I knew each day water was getting in, it was getting ruined. Well months and months have passed and I was unable to do work because at the time, the house wasnt ours yet.

So here it is - both side cracked and with gaps fairly large. I met with Uncle Ed to explain the situation and gave him a few days to noodle on it. Soon enough, we planned a day to tackle it and we got to work.

Things to address:

Water Penetration Prevention, Mold, Dry Rot, Support Post

Nevermind how ugly it is for now, we needed to get this fixed to stop water from entering and to support the stairs from moving any more that it has.

Solution:

Sikaflex - a flexible, paintable caulk type of material. Withstands weather and can flex if the stairs decide to settle more

Backer Rod - a foam material to create a backing in the gaps. Essentially stops the Sikaflex from dripping through the cracks

Support Post, some lumber, wire brush, chisel, hammer, iPod and some special spray to stop dry rot and prevent any unwanted critters from eating the wood.

As a side note, we have had the structure inspected by an Architect, Structural Engineer, Home Inspector and a few different general contractors to get opinions. All had different opinions and I took something I learned from all and came up with what I thought would be best for us for the time being - fix it for now, replace later. Everyone was on board (wife, mother inlaw, brother inlaw), so this is how we got to this point.

Uncle Ed went ahead and did all the work as I sat there and watched. It was an interesting day learning from him and watching the fix take place. It looked promising and I must say I added a few of my own "wants" for how it was done. Though not necessary, I was very picky on how things needed to look, so he decided to go with what I wanted as far as the hardware needed for the support post he put up. Lots and lots of prep work which I appreciated - something you wouldnt probably get with some joe schmoe off the street from craigslist.

Here is the finished work of the stairs - yes, its ugly...but this fix is a few bucks compared to 15k or so.  it will be painted when we paint the exterior and waterproofing the concrete still needs to be done. It will pass once its painted, so it works for me.

 We will definitely need to keep an eye on this while it is in the temporary fixed stage. Clearly not something we are 100% happy with as far as our renovation goes, but we need to spend the money in the right places for now. This is a big problem with a big price tag - but one that could be extended in life if done properly. This is the solution for now and it works for us.

One thing we did notice when prep work started - someone had previously tried doing this same thing, but with what looked like bathroom caulk. It was hard as a rock and not done with the right materials. Sikaflex happens to be some massive bonding caulk that flexes and this particular one is meant for concrete fixes - so as there is movement in the structure, it will flex a bit to ensure a tight seal. So far it looks fine and the rain coming in the next day will test its effectiveness.

When painted, I dont see it as an eye sore. You will only know because I blogged about it.

As for the support post - Uncle Ed did his magic and made a post to support the center of the stairs. This was not needed, but was a recommendation by one of the Engineers that came out. Since it was a cheap fix and one I know that would help me sleep better at night, we went ahead and did it too. Remember, these are concrete stairs - how many tons of concrete is unknown, but if its moving and causing cracks, how can a post not help stabilize it...even just a little bit.

On the very left - we sistered some existing wood due to dry rot and put the post in the lower center portion of the stairs. Nice solid fit and should last us until we replace the entire entry way down the road.

One thing that is not right about this portion of the house is the base of the stairs and the foundation. It was not done right or was just done sooooo long ago that it does not meet how things are done today.

When we rebuild the stairs, a new foundation will be poured down in this area and under the stairs will become storage space. Its a nice size area, but is 100% unusable today. For now, it will have to do and we will have to keep our eyes on it as the seasons pass.

10/31/12 - Rain hits Oakland and is a day for me to come out and check how the fixes held up. Water was stopped on the side of the steps and no leakage at all from the sides.
I did however find water coming from two top corner areas above. This needs more research and investigative work to narrow down. As far as how it compared to before the fix - Id say we are at about a 90% better place than we used to be. I suspect because the concrete is porous, water is getting through and leaking. Who knows, but Ill find it and fix it. One way or another, we are in a much better situation that we were before - but it still needs to be addressed. Thanks Uncle Ed for the work and look forward to learning more on fit projects throughout the house.

10/25/12 actual work on the house begins. Anticipating an estimated close of escrow date, I pulled my MB Air out, looked at my notes and went to work calling people to line up work to do.

Not being a seasoned veteran on house work, it was unclear as to where to start. I knew what I wanted to do, but couldnt think of who to call first, what to do, how to start, etc. Its very different from what my trade is, however I made the executive decision to move forward and pretend I knew what I was doing. Dont get me wrong...I had a clear sense of what I think we want the place to look like when its done, but no idea what happens in between....sooo....as with this blog, I will tell it as we go.

First impression on the yard...looks good and acceptable at a glance. Upon detailed inspection and several visits and paying more and more attention each visit...spider heaven, overgrown, web central, nasty spa (which was ok, but not our cup of tea), more spiders, and easy to make better with a little sweat....

Lower Level of the yard - Not bad eh? Ehhhh....

 Upper Level of the yard - Spa anyone?

Spider Heaven - Ivy bushes grown at the deck level that is raised. Fence is unknown...does one exist?

 Can someone say massive ivy growth? Behind that ivy...the deck. Cant tell, but trust me...its there.

 Kitchen side entrance...bleh.

Heres what I have to deal with...sure the pictures look ooookkkkk...but Im telling you now, its partially inviting until you get there. Quickly you will be disinvited by the plethora of spiders that will bungee down to your face and will having you running like a little "b" (ok, so thats just me...but whatever, you get the picture).

Looking at my notes from months and months of planning, the day was here and I had schedule some gardeners to begin the deconstruction of the yard as the yard was a simple thing to just get out of the way....so I thought.

My thought process was this -

- wasnt too crazy about the yard, the inspection report called for removing the lower deck due to dry rot as it was too close to soil

- spiders were clearly comfortable there and I wanted the spiders and the colony of them to disappear

-  needed something to do to feel like I was a home owner doing stuff for our house

- didnt know the lay of the land due to the over grown plants and wanted to see the untouched land that no one has ever set foot on in the deeper parts of the yard

- needed to understand the yards land in general - was it flat, slanted, sloped, concave, etc...

 Well...the answer was to nuke the yard. Bye bye spiders and creatures of nature...its time for you to move on out. Im moving in and Im here to stay...get out of my face (literally).

Found a company that could clear my yard in two days. I found them from one of the cards that was left on the front door. Rarely will I ever call any of those, but because I saw 3 or 4 of the same business cards, I decided to give them a call because it seemed they were persistent in bringing a new business card as one got older and faded from no one touching it at the door. Done deal!

Day 1 of yard cleanup - 3 people - told them to remove everything but large trees and the bare structure of the deck to allow me to asses its condition. After all, it is a 400 sq ft deck - what a waste to just remove it.

This here is the owner of the company working.

 When I met with him the first time, he was dressed in some slacks, nice shoes, tucked in dress shirt and looked like a business man. I figured he was the owner and estimator who would then delegate the work to his workers. When we agreed on a day to do the work, he then shows up in regular clothes, a company shirt and says hello to me in the morning and said "We're ready!".
I was a bit puzzled by this, but after talking to him throughout the day, he said he didnt trust anyone but himself to run his jobs and perform work onsite unless he is there to ensure things are getting done right. He said its the only way for him to be successful and to ensure things are done his way and to know that what he promised to a customer is what they get...sounds a little like me when it comes to projects. One word - RESPECT. Owner/Worker/Estimator.

So they started removing the ivy and tearing down the lattice from the deck. It was so tangled up that the best way was to remove the lattice and use a saw to cut through all the ivy bushes...or weeds. Whatever you call what was growing there...it was wild and out of control. It definitely did a good job of hiding some ugliness and now had me thinking if it was the right thing to do right now. Oh well...it started and I felt we needed to just continue.











Day 2 of yard cleanup - 3 People - This is the day they expected to finish. Was very excited to see the place cleared out.

So following the first day, clearly this task was much more than anyone expected. Something I thought I could do by myself during my spare time on the weekend turned out to be something that is taking 3 people that have the right tools and know tips and tricks to removing plants, trees, roots, etc much longer than expected. Hoping they would still stick to clearing everything in 2 days...deep down inside I knew it would be longer. What started to scare me was....$$$$$. I could see it now....

Right: A look at the side yard from the deck. Didnt even know a fence was there to begin with. Nice!




Left: A look up towards the higher part of the yard from the bottom. Clearly a lot of unusable space because of the ivy plants that have taken control of the yard. This stuff is everywhere...on the trees, the fence, the ground, in the lattice...etc.


Below: Owner and helper clearing out more stuff...they uncovered a fence that we didnt know existed on the side of the house. The area they are standing in now was something you were not able to do when we bought the place. It started to change the yard - its size, revealed fences that were unseen before, spiders were running for the lives, everything...it may sound funny, but it actually made the yard look brighter by removing some of bushes and whatever existed there.




...its been a long day and my hopes of it being done were down the drain. I could see disappointment in the owners eyes, but he clearly knew that he probably quoted me wrong on the amount of work that was needed to get this done. He came up to me and told me that as they uncovered more ivy, they would find things that were not visible at the time of the quote - very understandable. Still no word on increasing price or re-quoting the job. He simply said it will definitely take another day or two and not to worry.

Day 3 of yard cleanup - 3 People - Wasnt sure what to expect as far as progress, but still looked like a lot of work. 

Removal of the lower deck began and some continued to work uphill on the yard to remove all the ivy on the ground. The deck removal looked like a pain, but they continued to work like it was nothing carrying out heavy load after heavy load by garbage cans and by hand, wrapping cut bushes and such in to large tarps and walking it down to their truck which was in front of the house. Because the property is sloping and the layout is not your standard flat walkways, no wheel barrows and such could be used to haul things. They were actually carrying more with their technique than what I could have done with a wheel barrow or similar. 

The deck removal continued throughout the day with some trimming of tree branches. Lots of heavy machinery this day...but a lot of change happening, seeing the yard slowly open up and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for this project. My prediction at this point was still 3-4 more days. Again...I thought $$$$$....but no mention of it from the owner.

Ivy gone, but ugly fence appeared. Where the heck did that come from...remember in the earlier pictures (maybe you don't because this looks very different). I took a pic from the same spot, but it looked like bushes were closer to my feet. Well....surprise! I just gained a ton of sq ft from removing plants. SCORE!

Day 4 of yard cleanup - 3 People - More progress...lots of concentration on trimming trees and removing ivy that wrapped itself in the trees. Lots of raking going on to cleanup small left overs from the big clean up of ground plants, roots, weeds, leaves, etc.

If I had some before pictures, you would clearly see a change in this tree. It used to be wrapped in ivy from the base all the way to the top. The branches hung down so low that it grew over the deck area and all around making the yards air space look smaller than it was. I had asked to expose the trunks of the trees and to create more air space in the yard, but leaving teh tree for some privacy and shade. What a difference! It just looked so much cleaner.

Right: The picture is a bit small, but if you look closely, I had put in a red arrow that looks more like a red line. Follow it to the lower part of the red line and you will see a red sweater. That was the owner...he was also the tree climber that cleared the ivy and trimmed the branches. This doesnt show the true height...but let me tell you, he was up there. I know I couldnt do it. Oh, by the way...no ladder. Special climbing shoes with spikes and a safety harness. Thats it.

Below: The same tree, noly trimmed. Again, more air space and trunks are exposed. Oh, and for the record...that tree isnt even on my property, but I wanted it nice looking for me...so I had told him to clean the tree and Id pay for it even though it wasnt on my yard. Im sure the neighbor didnt mind...

 

By the end of day 4, it was looking good. You could see the space that was gained from removing the plants and bushes and now the upper part of the deck had yet and even upper upper part...perfect! More room for the dogs, plants and/or whatever we're going to do back here. The yard looked much larger than it did before...but a tad bit less inviting because it just looked unfinished. It was bare, but bearable. I like it - gave us a better picture of what we had to deal with and now we could try and imagine what we want to do.

Day 5 and 6 of yard cleanup - 3 People - Final days to complete the yard. All that was left was final raking, tree stump removal, spa removal.

Top Left: Remnants from a large tree trunk I had to have cut down.
Top Right: Deck removed
Bottom: Panoramic view of whats left










What started as a two day job turned into a six day job. Clearly something that Im glad I didnt try to start on my own and definitely something I could not have done on my own. What I did learn is the topography of our yard - very sloped with healthy soil with the exception of where the lower deck used to be. It was more like clay because it had been covered and very moist throughout the year. One thing that is difficult about a house on a sloping property is water. All water flows down (unless you're at some mystery spot). Well guess what, we are on a lower part of a sloped yard and all the water from the houses above come flowing down to us and gathers and saturated by the foundation of the house. NOT GOOD. Something the previous owners did not address and it shows. This was known when we bought the house as we hired Soil Engineers, Structural Engineers and Contractors to asses the land and give us their expertise on what we can do and what needs to be done to protect the home. The solution is water diversion and believe it or not, making sure the soil is healthy by planting stuff to keep the soil from moving down with the water. You guessed it...thats coming up in the scope of work.

For now, I am trying to gather days that have passed and will combine them into one post until I am updated with real-time updates. So much has passed, yet I want to capture it so I can look back on this journey we are taking on renovating our house. Its definitely more work than I had expected, but it turning out to be a crash course in every job related function that deals with homes. I am quickly learning things I would have never thought I would need to know, but it is very rewarding. Enjoying every part of it as we continue to move forward.