Pre-backfill Inspection
Kevin Tamikado and Tom Porta
After the cribbing inspection has been completed by Cedarglen, we are responsible to get the basement ready for the pre-backfill inspection. It is the responsibility of Cedarglen to ensure that these tasks are completed prior to a city inspection taking place. For The City inspection to pass, it is necessary to have damp-proofing below grade installed, the services attached, and the weeping tile installed.
At Cedarglen Homes, we use the Delta Membrane product for our damp-proofing. This membrane which looks like a plastic honeycomb material is designed so that any moisture in the soil, such as rain or snow gets around the foundation, it will drain all the way to the footing level and into the weeping tile. Delta Membrane is an innovative building practice that Cedarglen moved to instead of the use of tar on the foundation.
Once the Delta Membrane has been installed around the living area, there are four service lines that need to be connected in the services trench. They can be identified as the two orange stubs which are the cable and telephone lines, the yellow line which is the natural gas line, and the coil of wiring that is the electrical line to the house. Cedarglen verifies that these services lines are connected to city services and extended to the foundation.
The weeping tile (plastic serrated cylinder) is the last thing to be installed around the foundation footings before booking the inspection. Depending on the soil conditions found at the lot, a filter sock is sometimes placed over the weeping tile for sand or silt soil conditions. The weeping tile is connected to the sleeves in the footing. These were previously discussed in last week’s blog. This weeping tile is then covered with a minimum of six inches of washed rock to aid in the drainage of water around the foundation. Once we have checked this weeping tile installation we will book the pre-backfill Inspection with The City of Calgary.
There are two inspectors from The City that need to come out before backfilling can commence. The first is the Building Inspector who checks the entire foundation and verifies that the basement has a proper damp-proofing and drainage the foundation. The second is the Electrical Inspector who makes sure that the electrical line from the services trench to the house is connected properly and will not fail once backfilled. Once the inspection is passed Cedarglen is able to commence the backfilling of the basement.