Earlier this year my older brother that lives in Brooklyn, New York had to replace the sewer line to his home. His contractor was familiar with doing such work and everything went as planned. But one thing they had to deal with was a 68″ sanitary sewer pipe! It is hard to see in this photograph, but what appears to be a lump of soil at the top end of the trench, right around the workers feet, is the 68″ diameter sewer pipe. There were other smaller pipes to excavate around, as well as various gas and communication conduits. The excavation has been cribbed and braced for the workers safety. But no matter what you do to the trench, it is a lot of work to excavate under a 68″ sewer pipe to install the new utility line.

Seeing this type of construction makes me realize how difficult it is to coordinate and perform construction projects in dense urban cities. There is no room for staging  or storing materials. People need access to areas at all times. And above all, you don’t really know what you will find in streets that have been in place for 200 years.

Work also has been moving along on the interior of the home. The drywall was installed and is being finished. The living room and master bedroom on this home have a vaulted ceiling. The vault is a 4/12 pitch so it ends up being about 12′ high at the peak, creaing a light, airy feel to the home.

This is a type of project that Northfield Construction Company handles safely, quickly and at reasonable cost. We use all our own equipment and employees for tasks like this so the work moves along very quickly. Contact us if you have such needs.

Once the holes were bored we placed concrete. Yesterday was an ‘iffy’ day to do concrete work, but late in the afternoon it cleared and work progressed. We filled each of the holes with about a foot of concrete. Letting that firm up for a bit, we poured some other small areas including a small step and some sidewalk. Then we set 8” and 10” diameter concrete forms on top of the footing base, inserted steel reinforcing rods, and filled the forms with concrete. Doing that always is a job as it usually involves shoveling most of the concrete from the wheelbarrows.

At the end of the job we were a happy, but somewhat wet and mosquito bitten crew!

We reinforce our driveways with steel bars each way. Some contractors use wire mesh, which can also work. But we have found that using steel reinforcing bars makes a very long lasting driveway. We make sure the bars are suspended in the wet concrete. Oftentimes wire mesh ends up on the ground under the concrete and doesn’t really help reinforce the driveway. In addition, the steel reinforcing bars provide a stronger driveway so when any type of heavy load, such as a garbage or landscape truck, drives on the driveway there is less chance of failure.

We also are creating a small patio at the rear of the home. The patio will have an 18” border of standard broom finish concrete with the interior exposed aggregate concrete. The contrast of materials creates a very pleasing appearance.

With spring arriving now is a great time to consider some exterior and energy improvements to your home or commercial property. Contact us for help evaluating your existing conditions and preparing a budget for improvements.

For most of the home we used a 6” exposure on the lap siding. This is in keeping with the siding used in many of the older homes in the area. We also incorporated a water table at the base of the siding which is often used in older homes. In a similar fashion, we incorporated banding trim below the main floor windows at the mid-point of the second floor windows. The siding terminates at a frieze board trim just under the roof soffits.

The lower portion of the house is sided with smooth sheets of fiber-cement siding. When the home is painted I think the trim and siding details will look wonderful.

It is important to install fiber-cement siding properly. Some people think because there is cement in the product that it is indestructible. While it is a very tough product, you do need to be careful to see that moisture does not get behind the siding. We typically use backers behind joints and always try to run sliding from trim to trim wherever possible. It is crucial to incorporate metal flashings where there are transitions between siding and trims. When installed properly fiber-cement siding should give decades and decades of trouble free use.