Demolition - The Enclosure

Bathroom Demo under progress

This photo shows an emergency re-piping performed a few years ago

All heat in the house was supplied by hydronic radiators/convectors

The only traditional insulation was in the ceiling.

Three styles of insulation in ceiling: Loose Fill Mineral Wool, Mineral Wool Batt, and Fibreglass Batt (fibreglass added well after build to try to improve thermal performance)

Insulation was installed above foil lined cardboard radiant barriers.

Asbestos Remediation Containment Tunnel was built between container and house and sealed to front door.

Asbestos Containing Drywall Remediation in progress

End of Remediation - Place was spotless!

A Remediation Containment Tunnel is forming

The tunnel was sealed right to the container which itself was going to be double lined.

Containment Tunnel - 2x4 frames sealed with plastic (on inside so frames did not have to be disposed of) and a plywood floor (again sealed on inside with plastic)

All purging was supported by various recycle containers for metal, soft plastic, hard plastic, and paper.

Tree protection fencing in place. Red shipping container in back ground will be used to store construction supplies.

Drilling out penetrations on north wall that will service the heat pump and generator

Outdated Kitchen

Kitchen Demo - End of Day 1

Kitchen Demo - End of Day 2

Utility/Laundry Room ready for demo

Demo in progress

Removing Non-Containing Ceiling Tiles

Goodby failed Hot Water Tank

Lifting plywood and VA tiles as one to not disturb asbestos containing tiles. The floor was then cut into 2ft strips outside while being sprayed down with water (using slow speed reciprocating saw) and then double bagged (including the water) and taken to a special landfill in Delta

Dismanteling Sub Floor

Utility/Laundry Demo Complete

Bathroom Demo About to Commence

Purge and Final Sort Complete. Bins contain recycling and various goods to go to shop organized by category

Backfill almost complete. Was a tight fit for Alfie!

Drywall Remediation Complete - Tunnel being dismantled

Even during the night, my ghost clone is working away

Drywall remediation complete - Time to Get to work

Starting to lift living and dining room hardwood floor

Hardwood take-up well under way

Living/Dining Room hardwood removal complete

That's a lot of wood. Now have to grind off staples

Hallway faux chimney

Starting to remove hall flooring

Hardood flooring removal in action

Easy with the right tools including my custom made pry bar

All hardwood is now removed and stacked in living room waiting for processing

Time to start striping wall

Japanese SenSen wood panelling will be saved and incorporated into new house. Interesting installation method with wood strapping behind panelling.

Time to start stripping wall of strapping

Half of the walls are now bare stud

Stripping walls - Thankful for steel shanked shoes

Most of walls in house have now been stripped.

Hired labour grinding nails from hardwood

I finished off grinding the last 1/3 of the salvaged flooring

I found grinding off the nails to be the fastest of all methods

Discussing progress with supervisor (neighbour Ron)

Dismantling non-bearing wall in kitchen

Continuing with hallway and utility room walls

Another site supervisor visit

Dining room and spare bedroom walls start coming down

Most internal walls that are not bearing have now been removed.

Gutted Kitchen and Utility/Laundry Room. Salvaged lumber stack in foreground.

Starting to strip insulation from ceilings. This was a mistake, I should have vacumed up the loose fill mineral wool insulation above first.

Bathroom and Spare Bedroom Stripped

Except for master bedroom and garage, inside of dwelling has now been stripped down to studs and ceiling joists

Taking green waste out to trailer. Green waste was any non-manufactured wood that was not painted, stained, or varnished. This generally included small pieces, pieces with way too many nails to bother salvaging, and fractured pieces. The large stack in the background was 2x material that was kept.

Salvaging Roses and other landscaping materials

Time to strip cedar siding. This was saved and will be used to re-clad my greenhouse and garden shop

Removing faux brick facade at front of house. Will be used again for greenhouse and BBQ pit.

Removing shiplap sheathing from structure

Craigslist responder salvaging two rooms that had oak flooring

Shingles were also saved and taken to ecowaste.com where they are stockpilled and then ground-up and used for admixture in asphalt roads

All roof ship-lap sheathing was also salvaged and given to freecycle.org respondents

This is what I call open air concept

My landlord came by to lend a hand. I have awesome neighbors.

Time for a break!

All 2x4 roof rafters were given to a craigslist responder who was going to sand them down and use for a deck

Neighbor picking up some thin wood profiles to be used for props in garden

Brick chimney was knocked over and then picked up by a freecycle responder

More freecycle responders picking up roof shiplap. Was going to be used for a storefront being built at a school to create a market garden

wood leaning against wall given to group for firewood on campout

House has now been bisected. This sure did give neighborhood a lot of grounds for speculation. I advised I was creating a 'his and hers space'. This was actually needed so I could move the shipping container to the front yard before filling it full of materials being stored in the parts of the house not yet torn down.

Preparing spot for shipping container used for construction supplies

On its way. I slid it along 2x6 ceiling joists that I had slathered with the used vegetable oil I burn in my truck.

Now that it is in its new home, I installed the shelving and moved in all the construction supplies and tools I had been storing in the parts of the house not yet torn down.

Sucking old loose fill mineral wool insulaiton out of attic with shop vac modified to use 1.5" ABS pipe extension

Big Move - Container needed to move from back of house to front of house. Alfie (tractor) could barely move it even though it was mainly empty.

Removing the last of the drywall from the garage

Salvaging newer 200A Electrical panel that will be used in new house.

Burley Boys at work!

Time for a hair cut - some cedars are going to be limbed while the one closest to the street will be topped and limbed (had multiple leaders and croch rot so was danger). The resulting stub will be harvested at end of project and turned into lumber I will use in home's finishing.

End result was freat, I will get a lot more fall and winter sun. I am now taking down the south annex.

Disassembling south annex with a little bit of help from Alfie (tractor)

Controlled demolition. Majority of wood still salvaged/recycled.

All of the torn down structure of south annex now processed. Wood on trailer was green waste. Wood under blue awning reused for build. Garbage is small pile just visible behind tractor.

Time to take down final wall of house!

Wall down and now being processed for salvage and recycling.

North shore metal recyling arrives to pick up significant volume of metal salvaged from torn down structure. This includes older style wiring, all cast iron piping, metal tub and copper piping. I had previously taken appliances to salvage yard for recylig.

Last of house has been dissasembled and sorted.

Lots of salvaged materials. 2x4's are being used throughout build process and were very helpful for scaffolding during the foundation stage.

Building a cutting and storage shack from recycled materials and remains of a lean-to shed that was attached to north side of old house.

Nothing left but the concrete slab (this house had thickened slab for 'footings'

Loading Diamond Excavating truck with Alfie

Put your right leg in and shake it all about

Tarp raising day. I intended to keep build dry with a 60' x 80' tarp

We have liftoff!

Alfie happily working in the shade staring the excavation.

Big boys have arrived.

Alfie dwarfed by the Hitachi EX200

Woops - gues the tarp was not high enough

Now there is more than enough room

Yours truly. I had to transition from a John Deer joystick pattern to a CAT pattern, but after a few hours I got the hang of it.

Tarp surgery (#1 of many!)

Even so, I was still pretty nervouse when working on steep slopes

The EX200 had a great 20' reach. Here Gary from Diamond is stocking my backfill pile.

Base of excavation reached - establishing elevations.

Installing first sections of ground water sump

Unloading mass blocks that will be used to support banks of excavation near neighbors house. Thanks to Lafarge for donating blocks and Diamond for donating delivery.

16' ground water sump installed. This will collect all of the ground water from the granular drainage layer and perimeter pipes and pump up to municipal storm sewer. The roof and grade runoff will gravity feed to municipal sewer. There is an additional 3' section buried at the base

Diamond's part in excavation is complete. Placing plastic over ramp that will be used to get Alfie out later.

Installing last row of mass blocks. These were needed wherever the bank slope was vertical.

Neighbor inspecting progress.

Backfill pile tarped, but here come the rains (see sitting water in pit base)!

Upgraded pit pump to 1 inch PVC pipe to improve flow volume

Digging trenches to drain pit.

After scraping away mud, backfill with gravel. Had to do this in stages so I could backfill fast enough before mud would return. Also filled top of cavity behind mass blocks with gravel (rest filled with native soil).

Worksafe decided I needed welded wire mesh on all banks regardless of slope.

Tying off last of wire mesh

Tarp succumbed to wind storm (note missing chunk bottom right of photo). This was really the beginning of the end.

Storm runoff is kicking my butt. I would scrape away mud, but pit would flood and mud would re-occur before I could get more gravel slung in.

What a mess - mud everywhere

filling in another corner with gravel between the storms and after I had scrapped away loose mud. See large pile growing in front of tractor.

Rented a Bobcat E80 to work in tandem with Alfie and excavate final dirt from pit now that all corners of footing have been defined. There was aproximately 3 loads taken up but was fortunate that this was not originally taken away by Diamond as I needed soil to backfill in the fornt of the house so that I would be able to backfill enough of the south slope to get Alfie to the back yard where the big pile was.

Finally! A pit completely covered with gravel. A huge relief and now we can work.

Salvaged 2x4's stacked for re-use

I elected to backfill north elevation with crushed recycled concrete. It is half price of gravel and so much faster than backfilling with soil. I needed to get the backfill tasks complete and get started on framing

Ends of mass blocks bullheaded with plywood attached with drilled wedge anchors.

The excavation was tough digging. The 9+ feet of glacial coble did not want to give up an inch.

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