Well I wish I had some images of cool flat panel cabinets, modern fixtures, new hardwood floors, glass tile back-splashes and shiny new objects but first things first. Normally, I do the concrete flat work last but since its part of the structural scope of this job I wanted to get it out of the way so when I get inside and start patching I know nothing is going to move.
We removed the entire garage floor, driveway and even part of the City sidewalk due to the Pepper tree roots. Once the floor was out we fixed 6 cracks in the stem wall and then removed 6″ of soil to make room for the new thicker slab. First we laid down plastic sheeting for moisture and then 6″ of clean sand to prevent possible expanding soils to pop up the new floor later. Finally we doweled #4 rebar into the existing house foundation, stem wall and all perimeter concrete flat work securing it with epoxy. It took 25 yards of the best 2500 psi big rock concrete you can buy and 6 finishers but we completed the pour in one day.
The big exterior load bearing beam was also rotten from water damage. Looking around the neighborhood at the same floor plan houses, a lot of homeowners just added a post and cut the long beam off. I wanted to really retain the original look of the house so we rebuilt it as it was originally done. I’m probably the only one on the block that has it back correctly now. This beam was a 4″x12″x26′ and weighed 400 pounds. It only cost 200 bucks and was easy to replace once we broke the stucco and supported the roof with a temporary wall. Windows, exterior doors and garage door are all on special order. The new roof is coming next, believe it or not I haven’t even done demo yet inside, stay tuned we’ll eventually get to the shiny new objects!
Are there better trees, shrubs, etc, to use for landscaping that won’t have such adventurous roots and, over time, wreck the nice new concrete?
Anything I usually plant will be o.k. Pepper trees are super cool as long as they are not within 20 feet of your house. Even then you might have a problem over time. To plant one right by your house is asking for serious foundation issues. The roots don’t go straight down, they crawl along just below the surface as you can see in the video and get quite large. This isn’t the first Pepper tree I’ve seen cause huge problems. There are 2 kinds of pepper trees, Brazilian and California, both are bad but I believe mine was a California. A really cool evergreen shade tree for a big park or something but not next to your house. Plus they make a huge mess.
Nice work Tom and great video as usual. Can’t wait to see the finished product.
Thanks Curtis, and Thank You for the help with the rendering! Wish I could make it Saturday for your workshop but you know where I’ll be.
Tom,
Did you have to deal with the city when replacing the sidewalk at the street?
Jason
What sidewalk? : )