With all the systems finally installed insulation is in. Great to see the individual spaces of the units for the first time.



The unit 4 living room is pictured.

tags: insulation, construction

Driveway grading is beginning today.

One huge downside to the porous paving we're using for the driveway is that it has perked the fire departments interest. When we were passing the project through plan check the fire department took a long hard look at the system we were using and made us promise what material we would use, how to install it, etc.

So now they send an inspector out every couple weeks to see how the driveway is progressing because they are using Rock Row as a case study for other permeable driveways.

20 pallets of the grasspave system are being delivered on Monday so pictures will post then.

tags: construction

The bulldozer that was supposed to come on Saturday was in the shop so the driveway grading has been delayed until Wed.

In the meantime the grasspave was delivered; 20 pallets of plastic eggcrates for $20,000!
Seems expensive but if you think about how much nicer the project is going to look than it would have with a solid concrete driveway then it is a good value.



tags: construction, concrete

The driveway concrete was finally poured today. Most of the driveway is going to be grasspave but there are two central concrete strips to handle the majority of the traffic going in and out. The pattern dimensions match the cement board siding sizes. The pattern is running bond (joints at the center of the adjacent block) instead of the offset pattern of the cement board so it looks similar but not like it is trying to duplicate the siding.

Picture 1: Formwork
The layout is based on 1) the cement board dimensions mentioned above, 2) the spacing for grass to grow in the seams is the width of two 2x4s to minimize waste 3) the spacing of car and truck wheels 4) the size of the grasspave block to minimize labor and waste.



Picture 2: Concrete Placing
It took eight guys all day to place and trowel finish the concrete.



Picture 3: Retarder
To give the concrete a sandblasted texture a retarder was sprayed on after the concrete was troweled. The retarder inhibits the chemical bonding of the cement on the surface of the concrete. After a couple hours it is washed off and takes the top 1/16" of cement with it. The retarder is the the white layer in the background of this photo.



Picture 4: Final Pavers
This is the final product about 8 hours after it was poured. The retarder has been washed off to expose the aggregate. Besides giving the concrete a more natural look this also eliminates the squeal of turning tires like you hear in parking garages. The next step is to place the base which the grasspave sits on and then start with the grasspave.


tags: construction, concrete

Its been a few months since the last update so here's what's been going on:

+ Phase 1: The first eight homes were occupied in September.
+ Since then Phase 2 has been underway and going much much faster than Phase 1. Since it is exactly the same the blog died rather than becoming a deja vu story.
+ The last entry from before was the driveway pour. Here we are again pouring the final part of the driveway today:



(The last three homes on both sides of the driveway are new)
+ Three of the seven homes that comprise Phase 2 will be occupied next week and the remaining four not long after that.

tags: sales, construction, concrete

Today we broke ground. We are exporting around 200 yards of dirt. Running two trucks and 1 backhoe. The backhoe is $110 an hour. The trucks rotate every 45 minutes or so and hold about 10 yards of dirt. We get about 10 trips a day in. Excavation will probably take about a week. This part of Echo Park used to be underwater as part of the reservoir back in the 1902s so the topsoil is pretty dark and fertile.

tags: construction, acquisitions