- 2020 garage fire completely destroyed.
- But I wanted to get my garage rebuilt
- Contractors had dozen excuses:
- Can't work, stay at home orders.
- We laid off our staff, try call again next year.
- We're only accepting easy indoor bathroom kitchen remodels.
- Our staff took the pandemic checks and quit.
- I had to close my business.
- We're booked for 18+ months out try calling again next year.
- I had 2 companies submit bids, but they were double what the job should cost; "Sorry we got a lot of jobs with this pandemic these are what we're charging now." (It was price gouging at the time, or inflating the jobs they don't really want.
- But then Canada stopped shipping lumber to the US, prices are going up!
- I found a concrete contractor that could extend the garage foundation to maximize allowable square footage and fix a badly sinking part of the driveway right at our primary entrance.
- Started looking at metal building options. They refused to offer one in my 24x35 (840sq/ft maximum allowed garage size in my City. They kept trying to sell me other buildings that were abandoned by previous customers. Tried to get me to agree to accept a smaller building after I already paid ~20% of our insurance payout on concrete for maximum allowed square footage. NO!
- Now there is a run at the grocery store no meats, no toilet paper, no canned foods, everyone become a prepper and prices started to increase in more sectors.
- Need permission to be out, essential workers, this is when crazy people start doing the Canonball run because Law Enforcement stopped enforcing basic traffic laws, reduce their risk of catching this disease from a stupid motorist, Officers just want to get home safe.
- Lack of anyone wanting to work for anything under $15/hr or the schedule they want; because they got government pandemic checks. Along with a few other factors the lack of US GDP starts to drop, while tariffs on imported goods caused more inflation. Along with the computer chip shortage stopped many vehicle manufacturing assembly plants.
- Because living in groups increases the risk of catching the Rona, more people are buying homes or going out to rent for themselves. Now there is a housing shortage and new home construction booms again.
Contractor lined up, dates set, permits pulled. (Now after having the previous concrete work done, permitted, inspected, passed, the agreed building contractor price DOES NOT include any foundation work). As far as everyone knows they new extension was rebar'ed into the original slab and 42" foundation was ALL in great condition.
But after doing demolition the original garage was poorly built in 1992. The old 2x8 sill plate covered up the problem, while the 2x10 ceiling joists & 2x8 roof trusses; made it all seem like it was over built to be a strong building. After the 6 HOUR LONG fire (at night without windows), nobody knew until it finally burned through an extior corner by the door. it still stood despite the heavy fire damage, because of those extra large joists and trusses. Under the sill plate was a terrible 8x16 block job. Some of the blocks were picked with wall despite the unbolted sill bolts. When they were done; I started to investigate the blocks, and many moved just pushed with my foot, while others I could easily knock over. That "Nice Over Built 2x8 Sill Plate" was just hiding their laziness and poor foundation work!
I specifically paid them for just the lumber structure to reduce how much this is going to cost over the insurance payout. It's specifically in my builder's contract; "No foundation work!" Thankfully the did demolition on a Thursday and said they'd return Monday (when lumber is delivered) to start construction. Giving me a 3 day weekend to replace many of the bad blocks, Hammer drill, rebar down to the footer, rebar the corners, fill with concrete, and add new lag bolts. Sorry for the long story, hopefully as my new garage is built the entire backstory from 2020 becomes irrelevant. I'll have time lapse videos of each day's progress (I have 16+ security cameras around the property).
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