biggerboat's building boondoggle blog
I started this in H&F but this seems a better place for it. These are my H&F posts. A bit long-winded but hopefully en
may i recommend not losing any sleep over it
there are only so many things to occupy brain thoughts while trying to nap
One of our friends just got approved for that house raising grant. Because they've flooded twice in two years, the gubbermint is paying a whopping 90% of the cost. They just got a soil test done, so the process has started.
We'll be keeping an eye on that progress. I'm still leaning towards not doing it even if we get approved, but who knows.
I'm officially finished with post-storm repairs. We finally got the bifold closet doors we ordered in December. Wasn't too difficult to install.
And, we have our hurricane kit assembled - flex tape, caulk, tarps and pigs (water absorbers). We are as ready as we'll ever be for this hurricane season.
And How? Do you have to build something to keep the water away while you deconstruct & reconstruct?
I really don't know. But when big chunks of concrete fall off my seawall I'm going to find out. My hope is that it can be fixed and not completely replaced.
And How? Do you have to build something to keep the water away while you deconstruct & reconstruct?
I don't think so.
The guy on the other side of the canal had to have his completely removed. His yard sort of collapsed a little and they had to truck in dirt when they finished. But his had already collapsed into the canal.
I "think" they might be able to simply put corrugated panels down along the outside and pour a second layer. Then pour a new cap.
But, like I said, I really don't know. I've called a few contractors to come look next week. Hopefully the whole thing doesn't cave in before then.
don't let them try up-sell ya
or even make a fool you
but your broken pink wall cap can't hide from my novice eagle eyes floods of reasons why there may be an out of planar situation or two going on there above high tide
I went to the No Kings protest here last Saturday. It was a good experience. Mostly boomers and older and mostly white. Very peaceful.
I never thought I would be the least bit political but I've become so.
Seems like you should be able to just replace the cap. It's mostly decorative anyway, right?
Yeah, I had two different companies come out today.
The first guy does a ton of work here and gets stellar reviews. He did the wall next door to us and the one across the canal that collapsed.
He said ours is fine for now. Looks bad, but the wall itself is structurally sound.
He gave me a bid for replacement anyway. $48,000. Yikes!
The second guy that came out doesn't replace or repair seawalls. They drill down and spray foam sort of like that insulation foam they spray in houses. The idea is it stops the erosion from behind the wall.
I'm a little skeptical about this. I don't see how they could possible get full coverage 6' down. I also wonder if it changes the integrity behind the seawall so much that it causes problems. I honestly don't know. I started googling but it's been hard to find anything about this method that isn't a company trying to sell it. I'll keep researching.
Fill up the back of the truck with bags of Quikrete, pour it yourself! 😀
Re: No Kings. Out doing errands Saturday morning. Neighbor knows I walk around a lot, sent me a text that there might be crowds if I'm going toward the store. The way he put it was, "it looks like it's in front of Wonderland" (a local brewery).
Was, in fact, wandering that direction. Kind of surprised by a few things:
Crowd size. I don't know how to estimate such things. I live in generic sururbia, not some politically active hotbed. Figured it would be pretty quiet. Everyone well-behaved, but I'd guess there were a thousand or more. About two blocks on either side of main intersection, sidewalks several people deep, with some stragglers across the street or further out.
Everyone peaceful. It wasn't quite "singing songs and a-carrying signs, mostly saying 'hooray for our side'," but close.
Support from traffic. LOTS of the passing cars were beep-beeping as they passed. The amount of horn noise reminded me of Delhi. Not to the same extent, but pretty constant.
No Trump supporters. Figured there'd be at least some from the other side counter-protesting. Maybe I just didn't see them
Kinda disappointed in Wonderland though. When my neighbor texted me, I wrote back that was a huge opportunity for them. All that protexting is thirsty work. They should've totally had a "lemonade stand" out front, or had some kind of protest special.
Pleasantly surprised by the experience. Glad I had a chance to see it in person.
My experience was similar.
It was really hard to estimate crowd size. The rally was held in a sort of confluence of several roads and people were gathered on maybe 10 different corners. Several thousand would be my guess.
Yes, lots and lots of horn honking supporters.
I saw three guys march by with a trump flag but that was it.
It was really hot. People did pass out bottled water. I saw several elderly people have to find shade to sit down in. One lady was asked if she was ok and she said, not really but I'm here.
I got there a little early and overhead some organizers talking. The main person said she had many conversations with the police department and said they were extremely supportive. They didn't want people spilling out into the roads and nobody did.
It really was a great experience.
We got a letter from the city urging us to get this permit stuff resolved. We are not in violation because they have no evidence we did any work and they won't be able to prove that we did. But, we are in the zone that flooded so we are on their list.
I thought about it some and have decided to just get it all cleared up. Our next door neighbors did and it was relatively painless.
So, I went down to the city to start the process. I waited in line maybe 5 minutes before a lady came to help. I showed her the letter and she brought me a packet to fill out and bring back. I'll do that tonight and go back in tomorrow.
She hinted that this letter has spurred a lot of people to come down and told me it would be a good idea to get there early. She didn't come out and say it, but my impression from talking to her was that most of the people getting the letter had already done work as well.
No, it's separate. But it will need a permit.
So I got in line 15 minutes before they opened. There were about 10 people in front of me. By the time they opened there were about 10 people behind me
I get to the first person and he said, "oh the house is in a trust?"
So he disappeared for about 15 minutes and came back to tell me i need a trust verification letter from the county appraiser so that's where I am now.
Got my trust verification letter and ent back to wait in line for a while.
Got a number and waited about an hour to get called.
Handed my paperwork to a guy that shuffled the papers around, tuped some stuff, and stamped my papers with a red stamp.
Then he handed my number back to me and told me to wait in line again until my number is called.
To be continued....
My number got called and I sat in front of a lady that typed a bunch of stuff and stamped some of the papers that the other guy stamped.
She handed one of the papers back and said i needed to take it to another city building to get processed.
So I am now at that building waiting in line again.
Fortunately I got back to my parking meter with 3 minues to spare.
To be continued...
Paid the woman at the other city office and got a certified something-or-other and went back to the first place. She took it and told me I could schedule the inspections, which I did. Should be happening Friday.
The last of the seawall guys came by today. All of them said my seawall has some life in it, but not sure how much. He offered to fix the cap or replace the whole thing (as the others did).
His bid is going to come up on the high side, but I'm going to wait for official bids to come in to make a decision.
I'm leaning towards biting the bullet and getting the whole thing done. If we stay here we'll have to do it, and if we sell there is no doubt that having this old one will reduce the price of we get, even if the house is a tear-down.
