Work Resumes

The county has approved the new foundation work after over two weeks of delays. Apparently, this is one great example of how hard it is to get the whole building industry to move to green building products/practices. The county plan reviewer was reluctant to approve the two new beams we have to install; They weigh 500 lbs each and are made of 60% recycled steel. The reviewer had approved the use of the same kind of beam in another project, but it was installed upside down (eek!). You can imagine her reluctance when we said we wanted to use the same beam. She wanted to know every detail about the material and installer instructions. Our beams can actually be installed either way, but it took some convincing before she would believe us.

Here's a link to the manufacturers website:
http://essofnc.com/metwood.html

Had we just used the industry standard material, instead of a new, different, recycled material, we could have been two weeks further along in our project. According to our contractor, the building industry is slow to change for any reason, and improving the "green factor" is no different. But at least we have recycled materials available to us, even on a very tight budget.

No pictures today since not much has improved, except the arrival of the beams. They will be installed this week. Next week North Star, our foundation company, will demo/excavate only the portion of the foundation where the new pillars in the basement will go. Then they'll pour the pillars to support the house and demo the old foundation.