Yeah, me likey too.

But at the price I *think* they may quote me for a 12 or a 16'  2 X 6,  they may like it more than I do.  I want to do it, but the budget squeaks at this point because lumber prices down here have spiked because of the hurricane restoration.  

Picked a crappy season to build something, did I?  

Yes.  Yes, I did.

Anyway,  while I wait for the call on how much the LP engineered sills will cost,   (I actually probably only need three sides of that long part of the pad, which will help a lot) I'm staring at my grade.

Now that concrete is poured and the whole OMG I'M COVERING MY PLUMBING WITH F****ING CONCRETE is dropping a notch or three to DEFCON 3 instead of DEFCON 1, I'm staring at my grade and going " *heavy sigh  " I need a drain behind that slab."

Kitties will now proceed to dig.  

AFC will be back to dig my ditch to my septic and clean up the neighbor's driveway ditch and bank, and he may well offer to dig for me, but I dunno if I want to haul 13 loads of gravel with my baby-ass trailer (looky there, I went from going, "OMG that trailer is WAY bigger than I'd planned" to now thinking it's a candy-ass trailer because now I need to haul more than three teaspoons of gravel. ) to fill his 18" wide ditch.

Wide ditch equals effective drain, though.  Hmmm....



The drama never ends.

I should edit to add...

Why is it so low?

It's low because that's how I wanted it.

I'm treading the line with how tall my "barn" is going to be in relation to the height of my house.  Codes here state that your outbuilding may not be taller than your house.  They also state that all outbuildings must not exceed the floor space of the home---yeah, I'm busting the hell out of that, and lying like a rug in the processs.  Olde house.  Two outbuildings.  They don't know the upstairs of my house is not liveable space, and they don't need to know, as far as I'm concerned.   Their building codes are designed for subdivisions.  That's not my situation. )  

Still...the building inspector did mention this to me when I was on the phone with him about this building.  So if I OBVIOUSLY blast that height requirement too far out of the water, it wouldn't be right.  He will look the other way a little, I think, at a foot or two.  An obvious height difference?  That might be harder.

So anyway, I want the building to sit "low" not only for aesthetic reasons, but so I don't bust the codes I'm trying to actually meet. (I go beyond code in all instances, just for the record, where safety or common sense is concerned.  I do not necessarily think the same way when it's about feeding the Builder's Association machine.  So there.  I said it, out loud and in front of God and everybody.)

ANYHOW.....that's why my building sits low, and that's why I'll be digging.  

Contractor did what I asked.

Now I will pay with sweat.

Expansion joints happened today.

AFC sent Ian over with the awesome little saw.

In deference to truth, I should note that I tried at least three times to steal this little saw, but AFC was paying attention.

He had my number once I tried to steal a level with cool magnets in the side, a significant number of form pins, and his trackhoe.

I would have made it with the trackhoe if I'd known how to start the damn thing.  

Just sayin.








ETA: I traded expansion joints for a check, since AFC is, technically, finished with this job.

He still has a thing or two he promised me, plus backfill and cleanup, to finish.  

So we shall see whether his finish is as good as his start, which, if it's good, will make me recommend him to everybody I know and their friends and their friends' friends.

fingers crossed.  

It's easy to get busy and not finish as well as you start, yaknow?

@Rat_Patrol

Just wanted to follow up on this.  

Was talking with AFC about the grounding issue.  It's very interesting that the county just to the south of me (actually I live only about a mile north of that county line) requires the ufer ground.  But in MY county, the inspectors don't like it.

AFC was saying he didn't like grounding in the footer and turning the footer into "earth via the rebar rods, because he has seen lightning hit a house, blow out stuff in the house, then follow the ground rods through the footer, to the driveway, and blow out a huge chunk of driveway--threw it a few hundred feet into the neighbor's yards.

So putting horizontal rebar in a footer, to him, is like asking to have the end of your foundation blown out of your house at some point.

The local inspectors agree with him on this, and think it's a bad idea.

One county south, they are towing the line of what's the newest idea of grounding.

I don't have enough technical knowledge to have a significant opinion, but when I first started mulling the idea of turning my footers into "earth" up through the mulling I've done since, I have not been able to get my gut to buy into this.

I'm not saying it won't work.  And not saying I know more than the electricians who came up with this.

What I do know is that rods driven into the ground...those work, usually.  Often enough that we don't see many homes destroyed by lightning.

Since lightning takes the easiest path (usually) I like the path into the ground.

Years may prove I have not made the best choice.

Ahhh...indeed.

I'm trying to figure out the minimum I can get by with for electrical inspection, so I can get them out of here and do my work.

So, Kitties, are you, by chance, over budget on plumbing?



Yes.  Yes, I am.  





On a high note, I bought lumber to make a removeable enclosure for my trailer bed to haul gravel and pipes and such.

Unfortunately I need the gravel tomorrow, and the enclosure is not ready, as it requires a second person to help cut the 12-foot boards to assemble it, and uxb is not here  cuz he's on call at the hospital and got called in.

That's life at the Kitties and uxb homestead.

I figured I'd have to get about three teaspoonsful at a time.  

They'll get tired of me at the gravel yard.

At $430 per load, yeah.  I don't need nearly that much, but they charge a bunch to deliver half a load, if they will even do it, as busy as they are.

The fill gravel for the foundation was delivered.  I was really glad to not have to buy a second load.

That's the price I paid from the quarry three miles from me.  AFC ordered it.  That's the bottom price around here, but that was for (I lose track of the designations--#9 maybe?) which was a lot smaller than the 57 I want for the drains.  So it'll take a little less weight for what I'm after, but I'm okay going to the quarry.  It's close by.

Friday was a hard day~~

When I decided to do this thread, I was debating on just how honest I should be.  After some thought, I figure it will be more useful to people who have not done something like this, if I tell the truth, and show my (many) mistakes as well as my successes.

I've done a fair bit of renovation and restoration, but putting up a building from scratch, on a concrete slab, is new for me.

What's not new?

I've done some kind of creative work my whole life, whether it was creating a piece of art, a piece of writing, a piece of music, a landscape, or a room on a house.

I've also done a LOT of work where I was helping somebody else make his/her creative vision a reality.  That has different challenges, but it's overall easier, I think.

For me, there has been one steady constant when it is my own work.

When you're creating something from nothing, literally making something appear, *poof*, where there was nothing before but the vision in your own mind, at some point the project nearly ALWAYS hits a place where I say, "This is too hard. I want to walk away and go live somewhere else, where nobody knows me, so I don't have to look at this or deal with it anymore."  Sometimes there's more than one of those days.  I didn't really expect that with this building, because it's just a building, it should work logically.    I was wrong.

So, the hard day begins.


Friday morning I was expecting AFC to come by to do the final work we'd agreed upon.

Background:
Originally my building's footprint was a little larger than its present 736 square feet.  I backed off of that original design so that I did not have to get my property surveyed (for...oh, let's see..the fifth or sixth time since we've owned it).  Yeah, the original pins are still there from the FIRST survey and...brace yourselves....the  lot has not changed in all that time.  Shocker, right?   So I made my building smaller for the permit.

When the project size got reduced and I told AFC that the foundation would be smaller than originally planned, I asked whether, since he would be providing fewer yards of concrete, it would work out for same money if he dug the ditch for the drain to my septic tank while he was on site.  He said yes, he could do that and we could keep the contract same.  Simple is good.  I like simple and win-win.  Score.

Flash back to present.

Friday morning I spent two hours running around the big town north of us, from supply house to supply house, searching for a waste Tee for thin-wall PVC, because my favorite plumbing supply house had looked at my photo and told me my present septic line was thin-wall.  To be fair, every supply place in town squinted at my photo and frowned.  Nobody understood the numbers on my pipe.



Finally I went to the same house that sold me the blue poly pipe to sleeve my PEX water line.  Guy looks at it and says (paraphrased), "I think that might be thick-wall pipe.  Here's how you measure it with a string.  Here are the measurements you need to know what you're dealing with. "  He punched stuff into a calculator and scratched out some figures and handed me a sticky note.

I came home, dug that pipe out of the dirt, and put string around it, and came up with.....thick-wall pipe.   So I didn't need that elusive fitting, but I'd wasted half my morning.

I laid out the 4" pipe in what I was hoping would be the layout for the septic drain ditch, to make sure I had the fittings I needed.  




See how it comes down the side of the building, then toward the septic tank?  

That's to help my tree...the walnut to the left...not get any more roots cut.  I love that tree and I want it to survive this build.  I wouldn't be so worried if it hadn't lost six or seven big limbs this summer, just from storms and the heavy load of walnuts it carried at the wrong time for the high winds, and if I had not cut half of its anchor roots, also destroying feeder roots, on the building side.  

Anyway, with that done, I started pulling the forms out of the pad.

Tub form out.





Shower form out~




Thanks to the detailed advice of @billhw1 about getting this "pre-pan" done in the pour, and putting saw kerfs in the wood frame members, removing these frames was really easy, with just a little persuasion.


My go-to Persuaders:



AFC showed up at about 11:00 a.m.  Rain was forecast for 3 in the afternoon.

I'd texted AFC a few days earlier and said, "I need an extra hour when you bring the hoe to clean up.  I want you to dig some drains around the footers. I will expect to pay you for this excavation that is not part of our contract."

Bottom line:  The whole "sill below grade" thing had been giving me heartburn since I saw the first block go in. I want to be able to sleep at night, so  I'm not the kind of person who chooses "okay let's try that half-ass fix and see if we can get away with that."

Once I posted pics, others in the thread also noticed the grade issue, and while fancy sills might be in discussion, I just needed to freaking FIX IT, so I could move forward and focus on making the building work. Yes, it will mean a bitchin lot of manual labor for me, but there is no reason to half-ass bullshit something and hope for the best, if I can do it right.  I will just shovel the damn gravel.  (For anybody reading who is confused....When you need to control water flow, remember that water takes the path of least resistance, ALWAYS.  Gravel is your friend.)

It was MY MISTAKE that I did not anticipate this water flow issue and plan for it BEFORE I had the slab poured.  In particular because I know how water works in a landscape.  
Lesson:  When you are overwhelmed by a project that is unfamiliar (OMG CONCRETE!!)  you can overlook the obvious.

So.... AFC dug on all sides of the building for me, down beside the footers, so I can put in French drains (and some other water control magic, but mostly we're talking about gravel and perforated (and some solid) pipe) which will make me able to sleep at night, even when it comes a toad strangler (as we say in the south)  where the water overloads the gutters and pours in sheets across the ground.  





Next AFC pulled out Burger and set it up right over where my main drain exits the building.  He explained the setup to Erik, while Ian was in the background at the septic entry point.





MY MISTAKE--

I took up too much of the available drop because I was focused on "getting the shit out of the building" because OMG CONCRETE.

I have more slope than I actually need under that slab.  My thinking was..."once it's out of the building, I can dig it up if I need to" but I used up too much slope.  (Plumbing rough-in rookie here).  

So I didn't have enough to get to the septic line.

AFC has his septic installation license (thank you God) so he knew what he was looking at.

1- I needed to go straight from exit point to the septic tank.  (But this would further compromise my beloved tree.)

2-I might need to go into the side of the tank, which would gain me two inches of drop.

I said do it.

He started digging.

Burger was set up so that, at any point along the ditch, they could check the receiver and know they were digging at the right slope.  AFC dug, and Ian followed with the receiver.



AFC got really excited when he hit something unexpected.  (He says this is what keeps his job from being boring).  
It was a building that I didn't know about.  It had been smooshed and buried in my yard at some point.
It had concrete footers, and was wired for electricity.



We did not find the box of money I've been looking for since we bought this olde house.

Here is Erik standing on one of the footers AFC dug up.  You can see part of the metal roofing (I'm guessing it's roofing) piled beside him.




He finished the ditch~



Then he proceeded to knock down the mountain of dirt that was piled in my yard, and roughly turn it into a smooth grade up the the new building.



Ian packed up Burger and sat on the case while AFC graded the yard and cleaned up the neighbor's driveway drainage ditch, repairing the damage the gravel and concrete trucks had done.

You can also see the mess of the drain ditches he dug around the footers.



AFC packed up all his tools and shook my hand, and promised to come look at the house in town I'm rehabbing (I need masonry work on that) and he left.

All this dirt would not have been a big deal if it hadn't started raining an hour later, which turned it all into mud.



So I looked at all that dirt, turning to mud, and I hit the "this is too hard" point.

The way I get through that is by taking the night off, drinking some wine, looking at something that helps me remember the point.  And that you just have to power through the hard spots.

I hope it works that way for this building, too.

Now I wait for it to dry out so I can get in there and lay the drains.

Oh and there's this matter of a hammer drill...gotta come up with one of those, and a 4" hole cutter that can drill through concrete so I can connect to the side of the septic tank instead of the existing line, since my old tank should have had a knockout, but didn't. I'm told I can rent one of those bits, and that I should do so.

Thank you for the encouragement.

In the larger scheme of things, it's not that big a deal.  Part of being able to do anything from scratch is getting around/over/under obstacles, and I'm generally good at that.  I think being forced to hurt the tree more than I already had set me back, mentally, then when it should have been a "cleanup day" it ended up being a "make an even bigger huge f*cking mess day" AND...it was cold and getting colder.   I'll be fine once it warms up a little, the sun is out and I get over the idea of drilling a big hole in an enormous, expensive box of poop.

When AFC and I talked about the options, I said to him, "honestly I'm not looking forward to cutting into that tightly buried thick-wall pipe full of sewage and tee-ing in.  Going in the side sounds easier."  He said, "it will be easier."

You know...I have experience with a fair number of tools, but this one is new to me.  I've heard of them my whole life, but since I haven't busted my way through anything harder than 170 year-old oak (which eats homeowner grade tools like they're Doritos),  I haven't had time to look around and ask "what are the common uses for a hammer drill and why do I need one?".  I've always thought of it as sort of a baby jackhammer.

I took the evening off and went to a wine tasting, which is where I connect with friends in the area who half way "get" me,  and I needed to chill.  Friend there was asking how the project was going and thought I'd be better renting this item if it's not something I'll use much.  Said I could buy an inexpensive one, but would not get the power that would make my life easier, and that he's rented them before and been really happy.  I've been scratching my head, trying to think of possible uses for this tool in the future, and I honestly can't come up with it being more than a "once every fifteen years" item, and for that, I'll rent unless the rental costs as much as the purchase.  Friend also said the same people who rent the hammer drill also rent a bit that is the exact size needed for the OD of the 4" pipe.  That's handy, cuz I bet buying that bit would hurt.


Re: Plumbing suppliers~~  They seem to have their "specialties" around here.  This one is not where I'd go to buy a ten-foot section of PEX, for instance.  But if I want a 30" cast iron sewer fitting (I have no idea whether they come in that size) for a municipal water supply, that's what they do.  They've just been doing it for a lot of  years so they've seen a lot of oddities, and every time I've come across the unusual, they've been the ones who could solve the problem.  They're more a supplier to big commercial jobs--the folks at the level who build the infrastructure for malls and skyscrapers and such-- and municipalities building schools or government buildings.

But they'll spend 45 minutes helping me figure out my issue for something they DON'T have.  Which is really nice.


We are probably STILL 3/4"-1" shy of the technically required drop across that space.  But he saw me worrying and going, "I'm gonna have to lift into that tank" and said, "I don't think you need to lift, I think we can make it work."  That's when he offered the plan and still saw me worrying about the drop, and said,  "This is not a five-bedroom home with four baths in use by eight people.  You're not going to have that many solids collecting in this pipe."

Me: "I dunno.  I'm pretty well full of shit most of the time."  (This makes him laugh)

Him:  "An old contractor told me when I was starting out, 'remember, water don't pile up'.  Make it a practice to fill up the tub or run the shower every couple of weeks, even if nobody is staying here."

I will, and he's right, but I'm still putting in extra cleanouts.

I will absolutely pay attention to this, although I'll have to figure out where the heck these rods are going to GO first.  That whole coffee involvement sounds very attractive.

Oh, and...

Yep, not one tiny regret about that part.  He was digging the drain ditch and suddenly yelled, "I just chipped a block,OMG the whole building is just RUINED!!"

Me: Stands there with my coffee and goes,  "OMG, you have to tear all this out and start aaaaaaaalllll over!!!"

Him:  Starts laughing.  

We've laughed more than we've talked about serious stuff, yet he still is focused on doing it right.  It has been damn near 100 percent positive on my end.  He's not actually worried about the water, but knows I am, so he did what I wanted.

I'll paint enough rubber on the outside of that foundation to waterproof Atlantis.

I have considered this, and still haven't ruled it out completely, but I *think* with waterproofing and a little creative redirection, I'll be okay.  

I'm at the point of not wanting to give up that space inside, among other things.  Either I'd have to build out those walls, or I will lose a lot of the specific use I'd intended for that side of the building.

Did you build those stairs?

They're beautiful.  Come down here and build mine.

And light-colored grout.  You're brave.  Or you really believe in your sealer.

That's a gorgeous tile pattern.  I want to be you.

So...that's your rotary hammer?  

Just out of interest, since I don't know the model and such, should I pay for one of those?

not saying I will buy one.

And I have NOT looked at your links yet.  But I will.

The only problematic surface water comes from the neighbor's yard, through the chain link.  There is SOME surface water approaching the building from my yard, but mostly, it's from the neighbor's yard.  

MOST of the surface water from the neighbor's yard, and ALL the water from my yard, drains down to the pond in the back.  That is the natural flow of surface water for the land around me.

Or it SHOULD drain that direction.

Now it will drain down to the ditch beside the NEW neighbor's driveway behind me.

Driveway is Visible in this photo, but it's cropped.  The drop is sharper and the pond is behind the back end of the truck.  





Hopefully, at some point, if the neighbor handles his water movement right and cleans out his ditch, all this water will go into his pond, as it has for the last 170 years. (The bricks in my chimneys are made from mud out of that pond, mixed with hog hair).  His drainage ditch is now full of clay mud, since he failed to secure the piles of dirt that were uphill from that ditch, when he was building.  He installed his driveway, packed the hell out of it, dug the nice ditches on the sides, then did nothing to keep them from filling with clay when it rained.

Neighbor WANTS more water in that pond, so no problem.  He's going to get WAY more than he planned, since we've had two dry years, and he built based on that, and ignored my advice that the whole area down there will turn to mush.  (I told him he was building in a flood zone.  He did not listen.  I can't do more than that.  You can't fix stupid and I will not spend time trying.)  Now he's got his own new roof, and he's going to have MY new roof, all pouring onto his property via the slope that Mother Nature provided.  

My only issue is the water coming downhill from the neighbor's yard.   I've NEVER had a mushy back yard, but the spot in the middle of my back yard is the low spot on the property.  My house sits on the hump.  Slopes down toward the front and down toward the back, the way all smart people built houses, according to my dad and grandfather.

I believe my drains and waterproofing the existing foundation will take care of it.

If I'm wrong, y'all will hear about it.

@handydave

Is this the kind of rotary hammer you mean?

rotary hammer

I can buy this for $100.

But it looks like the cheaper hole saws (that's how I think of it) for concrete at 5" are more than $200 per bit.

That's what I was figuring.

I might buy a cheap drill for this one job, but I will spend too much for the bit itself.

The trouble with renting is that you get tools that've had the sh*t beat out of them, and they may or may not function well.   This is troublesome, when the renter does not know what a properly functioning tool can do.

I might have to do some calling.  Friends might have such a tool and might help me use it for the first time.

I will check ALL of these links in the following days.  I'm on an edit deadline at this point, and trying to finish early so I have good weather for work outside. But this pays the bills, so I am in and out right now.

Appreciate everyone's input and thoughts.

I take all this into consideration as I make decisions, as y'all have more experience than I do with much of this.

Thank you for all the posts you make, the pics, and the advice you share.

Got it. Thank you.

As to the grade, I dont' think I'll know whether I'm comfortable with it until I get the drains in.

I think I'm going to not fill with soil, but just gravel, to create a gravel swale (sort of)  with perf pipe on that most troublesome side of the building.  With gravel actually ON the footer, and rubber membrane, I think I'll be okay.  The siding will NOT be 8" above the gravel, probably.

AFC actually brought me some super-stick roofing edge membrane that he suggested using to wrap around that low side since I'm worried. (He's not worried.)  He suggested wrapping it over top of the rubber membrane I paint on.  That would come up the side of the sill like a flashing, sort of.  He had the roll left over from a job he did a year ago and thought it might be helpful so he gave it to me.

While I'm considering that, I'm uncomfortable plastering something against the sill itself that would prevent water EGRESS as well as ingress.  I've just seen a lot of rot where people put stuff up against wood.

I dunno.  I'm mulling while I'm on this edit.

The guys at my favorite building supply are talking to me about the Zip system, since plywood and OSB are at 17.00 per sheet and the Zip is only $20 per sheet.

That does not account for the Zip tape of course, but it also doesn't account for house wrap.  (They say the Zip system is complete in itself.)

When I take them my list, they will price it out both ways.

Any of you have experience with Zip house envelopes?

POST THEM!!

I would love to see!

I have not had time to do any serious research, and although my favorite building supply place (for understanding, it's "Allen County Farm Service Lumber" which should tell you what kind of folks work there and hint at their mindsets) is poking at me to consider it, I don't have ANY other  information yet.

I'm at that "put out the fire in front of you" point.  Sheathing is not on fire yet.

Proof I am only PARTIALLY  full of shit.





Side of the tank where we will drill the new drain





Ditch for drain...



Earlier today I called the septic tank pump people, thinking they would need two or three days to get to me.

They said it would definitely not be today.

So when handyman buddy texted to ask whether I needed him, I said yes.  I thought maybe we could get this drain pipe pitched properly and glued up before the rain arrives (tonight, according to forecast).

Handyman buddy shows up and immediately wants to start gluing up pipe.   (Handyman buddy is awesome,but requires management)

Me: NO, no glue until we have laid this out and dry fit it, and know we have slope into the tank all the way along the line.

PHONE RINGS:  This is McClard's.  We're filling up with diesel in (insert county south of us) and will be on the way to you.

Me:  Okay that's GREAT!

Thirty minutes later, they show up.  

Can I just say, a concrete block has more personality than this guy?

yeah, he just grunts when I introduce myself.  

Whatever, as long as he hauls my shit away, I will never call them again.

When they finally unearth the cleanout for my tank (It was about six inches away from where we'd already dug around two sides but they were huffing and puffing)  they open the cover, shove in their vacuum hose, and I went, "CRAP!  WHERE'S MY TAPE MEASURE???"

I went tearing off at top speed (a slow jog) to the building site a hundred feet away, grab a tape, and tear back (at same slow speed)to the septic tank.  I stick my tape in the opening, to measure the height of the water.  I need to see how much room I've got from the top of the tank to the normal level of liquid, so I can tell where to drill the hole for the new drain.

Brick Personality Septic Dude (BPSD) squints at me.

Me:  Is the liquid level I'm looking at ALWAYS the liquid level?

Him:  Nods.

Me:  So as long as I drill into the side ABOVE this level, I'm good?

Him:  *squints at me and reaches for my tape, then measures for himself and comes up with same measurement I had*  

BPSD then proceeds to morph from "brick personality septic dude" to "good old boy who is willing to help."  He started talking about septic systems, and how he'd do what I needed to do, and how far into the tank I should shove the pipe.

He gazes out at the ditch where my drain line will be and says, "If you're gonna have an issue, it's gonna be right there,"  and points to the spot where....shocker...there's gonna be an issue with the pipe not having enough slope.

Me: Yep, that's the part I'm worried about.  I plan to add extra cleanouts.  Where would you put them?

Him:  points to the spots.  Then proceeds to tell me how to use a water hose and a jet nozzle to clean out my own drain.

Dude finishes sucking the poop out of my tank, and spends 30 extra minutes (AFter I'd given him his money) talking to me about septic systems, how they work, what's bullshit and what's not, and how to cut into mine.  He also explained to me how my system APPEARS to be in good shape, but it's at the cost of my lateral lines (this he determines after questioning me about how we use water.)  

Dude is cool, and I would call on him again.  

Not sure why me running for a tape measure changed his opinion, but apparently tape measures have some kind of magical control over the attitudes of subcontractors.

I saw your offer to do that, and I much appreciate it.

I've got to get ahead of this work deadline and I will be able to focus on the links and what is what.  Of course, by the time I do that, it may be a "need it right now" thing.  BUT...the reason I hesitate is,

Handyman guy who helps me actually has a hammer drill.  I don't know what size or kind, or whether it will take the 5" core bit.    I have to do some looking and asking, I think.

I should also check with the local rental companies.  They might be easy and cheap to rent here.  

If I can power through this edit, I may follow up on this today, so I know what I'm looking at.

Going back through all these posts now. It's raining here, so I'm not going to be physically on that job today, and likely not tomorrow.

As examples of my tool buying mentality:


I am buying an $850  tile saw because it will make me cuss a lot less than some unstable POS I get for half the money, because I have a lot of tile to lay on at least three projects.  I can then sell that saw for a decent chunk of the original price once I'm done, if I decide I'm not going to lay a lot of tile again.  I'm ALSO considering buying a little shark "rip saw" for tile because I have an entire pallet of 8 X 48 tile to lay, and I anticipate having to rip enough of those to make it worth the cost.  Again, it's the "don't want to cuss at it," component.   That's over a thousand dollars on tile saws so I don't cuss more and ruin more material than necessary.

BUT--
I am buying my framing gun from Lowe's--Bostitch probably (since I already own their mid-size nailer)-- rather than going for a hard-core pro variety, because I'm not framing every day and once this building is up, they'll sit in the cases most of the time, and these tools run well enough for what I need.

I bought Harbor Freight Angle grinders because I don't use them much. (If I start using an angle grinder a lot, and these piss me off, I'll go buy a better one, but by that time I will *KNOW* what I want and what I hate. )  

Sawzall?  Porter Cable corded, back before Black and Decker took Porter Cable the way of all companies.  20 years later, with a taped up cord, it's still a monster.   (20 years ago, cordless tools were not viable for  hard use.  This appears to have changed.)


Given that general "philosophy" of "buy once cry once" when it's a tool that gets used a lot,  I've got some questions about this hammer drill thing.

From this post by ar-jedi  he said this..
That is a very attractive option. I have some of these tile rehab jobs coming up.   I have now been through all of your links.  I see on the rotary hammer you linked on amazon, that at the bottom of that page they note "there is a new model available."  It's less money and I can't quite tell that I'm looking at apples to apples in this case, especially since they're adding fun names like "SDS plus Extreme Max"!!!!! to their new model. Let's confuse the clueless customer, shall we?  Here is the link to the "new" model they show on the same page as your hammer.  
New model!  SDS PLUS EXTREME MAX OMG AWESOME SOUNDING THING!!!


billhw1 says:

Handy Dave said:

I checked these links and read some of the reviews.

Questions:

1-The more expensive of the Harbor Freight tools is only $100 less than the "smaller" Bosch tools  linked above.  I'm not into dropping extra money for a tool I'll hardly use, and those low prices are VERY attractive, HOWEVER--while I can't drop the $550 for the big nice "Max" Bosch in the earlier link, I COULD buy the one for $230.  Maybe.

Am I looking at apples-apples as far as "capability" even if maybe not "quality or longevity"?


2-I like that the Harbor Freight tools are shaped like "drills" instead of the sawzall shape.  That seems easier to manage, to me, especially for applications like setting anchors through the mudsill.  But maybe not?
Does this configuration make it less useful as the tile chisel ar-jedi mentioned?

3-billhw1 mentioned a 1" solid bit rating
A lot of terms have been thrown around, and I'm obviously not looking at the same characteristics that make a regular old drill work or not work.  I will do my own looking to see if I can sort this stuff out, but since y'all know what you're looking at,  if you have personal "minimums" for making a rotary hammer worthy of purchase, please share those?

Absolutely not.

Here's what he said--

He asked me whether I had a washer/dryer.

I said yes, and I do several loads per day.  Also that we take BATHS more than showers (that's another discussion) and that's a load of water running through the system. Plus a load or two of dishes per day.  

He said, "you use a lot of water."  

I said, "Yes.  But there's only two of us."

He said, "doesn't matter how many solids you're generating.  It matters more *how* you use your water.

He said (paraphrasing).  People get their tank pumped once, and it fools them into thinking their septic doesn't need pumping regularly, because they open the tank and see a lot of water, with just a little sludge/solids in the bottom.  (This is what I had, exactly).  But when I opened the tank, did you notice that your water was black?  (I did notice).  He said, there were a lot of broken up, floating solids in your tank.  That's because when you run the washer a lot, or any other *constant water flow that lasts more than just a splash at a time* , the water comes into the tank, hits the baffle and goes straight down, into the sludge pack at the bottom, and "lifts"the sludge and circulates it.  That means those small pieces of solids are then floating to the back of the tank and out into your field lines, which is what you DO NOT want.  (Basically I'm keeping my solids circulating constantly)

The goal, he said, is to keep the solids in the tank and let the liquids out into the field lines so they perk.  If I had let my tank continue to go because it seemed to be running correctly, I would end up with clogged field lines.

Even though my system has been running well for 17 years with no issues, I have probably done SOME damage to my field lines because of the way I use water.  And THAT is why people should get their septic tanks pumped every 3-4 years.  It's $225 that will save you $3-4000 later, when your field lines clog up.    He noted what I already knew--that the ground in this area is EXCELLENT for septic.  It perks incredibly well, but not too fast so the cleaning qualities of the system are ineffective.

My gut  (and I did not like this guy at all when he first showed up) tells me he is NOT full of shit, and that he was telling me this because he knew I was interested and would listen.  He told me a bunch of other stuff about septic, setup, what's code bullshit and what makes sense, exactly how to drill through my tank and the options for how I could put the pipe in, AND he told me to shove the pipe into the tank a foot or two.  I did not get the sense that he was giving me the spiel  to keep the customer in the money train.

I had always heard the "3-4 year ish" numbers, but nobody had ever explained it in a way that made sense and I could believe.

ETA:  I understood him to mean that, the higher you let that sludge layer get, the more solids get out into the lateral lines.  It makes sense to me.  "Get the tank pumped to remove that sludge layer every 3-4 years or so.

Honestly, it'll also keep you from forgetting where your tank is, exactly.


If I had the property you have, I would first:

1-Find the septic system.  (You know how to look at the ground and ID your lateral lines? IF you have lines. I'm assuming you probably do)

2-Determine how big the system is and what shape it's in.  

3-Have it pumped.  This will probably take care of #s 1 and 2 for you.  But I would try to be out there when the pump truck arrives, so you can talk to them and ask questions about your system.

I would ask around in the area for who is good and who is not.  Once you find ONE good handyman, plumber or electrician, my way is to ask them a lot of questions, because they all know each other, and the good ones will not recommend another professional who is not also a good pro in his field. (But you have to find the first good one.  Since you don't live there full time, that's harder.)

ETA:  You will probably know how well the septic is working by flushing a few times, including solids.  

I forgot to mention that he said whatever toilet paper I was using, that I should keep using that, because he did not notice a lot of paper buildup, which means it's dissolving the way it should.
FWIW, I use the Sam's Club Member's Mark paper that I buy in the gazillion-roll packs. (I hate runnin' out of toilet paper.)  It's soft, 2-ply, and it's less expensive bought in bulk.

ETA2:  I would be remiss if I did not mention.....if this is a very old property, you may run into God-only-knows-what in use as septic.    When we bought this place, the existing septic was a 55 gallon drum that had long-since collapsed and was not funcitoning.  Nobody had lived here to flush a lot, apparently, for a few years.  Because all there was, were some old clay tiles running into the back yard, and THAT was functioning as the septic I guess.  The gray water from the kitchen sink was running through an old black poly pipe out into the back yard, where it proceeded to slant UPWARD, so the first time I dumped two gallons of water down the sink, that pipe filled up and overflowed into the cabinet base under the sink.  (Yep, that's right. The poly pipe was not even actually attached to the sink drain.)  

Until you get there and start using that house and poking around, you won't know what you've got.  If you have to replace the septic system, that needs to go EARLY on your list of priorities, so you can get it in the ground and get moving on other stuff, and not have to dig that up later.

I have to say, with the positive reviews on this thing, I am very tempted.

With a coupon, I can walk away with that hammer for $100.  (Plus bits, of course.)

Tempted to get it, drill holes around the perimeter of a  circle, and create my own knockout, since it appears this will also do fine for anchoring my sills, AND I can then use it to bust up tile (some of which *I* laid, and that stuff is not coming up easily ).  

1-The big complaint is that it does not list a bit rating, and that's what everybody was wondering.  

2-A rotary hammer for a day, here will be $60, PLUS another $35 for a bit larger than 1/2"  BUT....

3-I have not yet found a rental company who has a hammer that will drive a 5" core bit, NOR do they rent the 5" core bits.   They have core drivers, which are big things too heavy for me to use sideways.   There may be a rental company that has one. I am still looking.

Don't know if I answered in a way that's helpful for your property, but you are welcome.

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