Initial Lot Inspections
Kevin Tamikado,
Site Supervisor
Building a home is quite the undertaking from start to finish. There are many hands that help build the home and a surprising amount of inspections and prerequisites that need to be met before and after each part of the building process. This blog will help explain what we do in the early stages of building a home and explain the steps that Cedarglen undertakes to go above and beyond the standard building practices, from flat ground to after the excavation before any cribbing has taken place.
Prior to the staking of your home, Cedarglen completes a file review of what type of home will be built. We first look at the grade slip issued by The City of Calgary and pick out any important information from this document. Some examples of the important information that can be found on this document is requirements for sump pump, elevation checks, sulfate resistant concrete and any additional geotechnical tests required by the developer. Any extraordinary measures that need to be taken are then noted and will be accounted for in the future. The second document reviewed by Cedarglen would be the plot plan. From this plan we are making sure the house sits on the lot properly and whether or not there will be any retaining walls installed during the landscaping phase of the home. A review of the house plans is also done at this time to ensure all the information on the plans are correct and correspond with information found on the plot plan and grade slip. The final document that Cedarglen must review prior to the staking of the home is the Trade Addendum, which is an internal document created by Cedarglen, noting customized features that will need to be addressed during the construction of the home.
Once the file review has been complete, Cedarglen is then ready to have the basement surveyed. We coordinate with the surveyors to set a date to stake the lot. This initiates the construction of your new home. This will be the first visible action taken on your home and can be identified by six stakes with orange ribbon staked into the lot. The measurements written on the stakes are used by the excavators and cribbers to make sure they build the home in the correct location and elevation.
After the lot has been staked, the excavators are then able to correctly remove the necessary soil to build the foundation of your home. Once the lot has been excavated and the plumbing trench properly installed, we bring engineers out to the excavation site to take samples of the exposed soil. The engineers are looking for any sulfate in the soil and will advise on the proper concrete type to use as well as the size of footings required to support the foundation of the home being built.
These steps and procedures that Cedarglen undertakes help to prevent any future problems that can be met during the construction of your home, and ensures that your home is built properly the first time.