Must say I like that blenny, possible to get little better shot ? Also the dwarf is a beauty.

Uh oh =)

Are we talking about the fish or???:lol:

Yeah, your tank is looking nice. :cool: It's a bit of a FOWLRWTF though (fish only with live rock without the fish .. why, what did you think I meant with that?). Oh and except the rock was dry and so wasn't really live either. But FOWLRWTFAETRWDASWRLE is just getting a little too long of an acronym.

Mike I'll try to get some more shots up of those soon (they probably belong in a different thread though). The blenny is a little tease because he'll sit in one spot just long enough to let you think you can get a picture, but by the time the shutter goes, all you've got is a blur of the backside of his tail.

Actually the angels are darn near impossible to photograph too for that matter, they're never still and man they're fast. I don't know how people get such great photos of fish...

Progress on the build has ... once again .. stalled. This time it's work to blame. I've been working nights to get caught up on some things. Unfortunately it hasn't been enough, I've now been told I HAVE to finish one service call onsite so I'll be off next week to take care of it. Not too happy about things at the moment but .. I guess that's life.

Tony now that my build is done I've pretty much lost interest in my tank. If you don't mind cutting me some keys I can keep the plow moving for you!

Well, I was sort of hoping to update this thread with some of the good progress that has happened (remember it's not really a tank build, it's a whole basement build, and all the good fun that comes with that).

However, ..

I'm just about at my limit with the unpleasant surprises. Tonight I found my concrete floor under the tank is disintegrating away (literally turning into powder).

Something of a showstopper. :( Is there anyone on the board in Calgary who is a concrete contractor or something of this nature and can please contact me? I need to discuss causes and cures and how I'm going to fix this. :(

I'd post pictures but I'm seriously ticked off at the moment and just want to walk away from it for a bit. :(

Tony - PM sent about the concrete.

Sorry to hear about the set-back!

Aww jeez Tony, if it isn't one thing its another :neutral:

I hope you can get it fixed without any major issues.

That sucks Tony. Hope you find an easy fix.

This is the portion of the floor you painted correct? The is really scary. I don't blame you at all for wanting to walk away with something like this cropping up.

Let me know if there is anything Kevin and I can do to help you out.

Oh NO Tony, Sorry to hear, I hope it's a simple fix and you can move forward

J

Update - Feb 21 2010
 

The dream is alive and so maybe should this thread have injected a little life.

This won't look like much of an update but it does represent a major milestone for me. Tomorrow, Monday, is inspection day for the permits and so the wall framing is complete, the plumbing is complete, and the electrical rough-in is complete.

It doesn't sound like a lot, and won't look like a lot, but .. it has been an indescribably immense amount of work to get to this point. I divided my work out for myself into tasks that would take roughly 2-3 hours each, and there has been somewhere in the order of 80 to 100 of those since December - so you can well imagine I have sunk somewhere between 180 to 200 hours to get things to this point. Plus, that's not taking into account that with many tasks I estimate "2 to 3 hours" that ended up being "4 to 8 hours". :neutral:

I took a week off from work the first week of February and that made a HUGE dent into things. Ever since then it's been "2-3 hours here, 2-3 hours there" and a lot of late nights.

So, it is with a HUGE sigh of relief that I say "things are ready for inspection." Once passed inspection, or any deficiencies found during inspection are remediated, drywall can go up in the tank room and then I can concentrate on an actual tank build, and not so much a basement build. In fact, the rest of the basement will take a back seat to the tank project at that point. I am looking forward to that phase.

What's left at this point, the plugs in use and light switches have to be pulled out before inspection time and I will do that before going to bed tonight so that it's all ready for tomorrow.

I have been existing on 4 hours of sleep for the past few months and this is taking a toll on me physically. So after inspections tomorrow, I am not doing a single thing on the construction project all week. Not one thing all week! :lol: The following week the family & I are off to a beach vacation, and when we're back from that the drywalling will commence! I can't wait.

This is the view into the basement looking in from the bottom of the stairs. On the right is a hallway that skirts in behind the 2-piece bathroom/"powder room" that leads into the furnace room/utility room.
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_0007-0.jpg

A few steps forward and a turn to the left in the L-shaped hallway and that enters into the main rumpus area. The 280 is just ahead and to the left of the view point. You can see the existing 115g cube in the back there and the 40g carpet anemone tank is behind that.
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_0008-0.jpg

The next two photos show the mini-kitchen area - there will be a mini fridge here, microwave and a sink. I had to do a drop down for the ceiling there to work around the furnace and HRV vents. I extended this across the whole basement mainly for looks and also so I'd have somewhere to run the bathroom fan ("fart fan") ducting.
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_0009-0.jpg

http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_0010-0.jpg

And last the tank room itself. There's a preview of what the electrical will look like (I have to take it all apart now for inspection, oh well. :lol:)
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_0011-0.jpg

And this is where the work sink goes. I took the sink out so the inspectors can get in there and see it all. My personal favourite feature is the pot light that will illuminate the sink when I'm working there.
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_0012-0.jpg


As for the concrete issue, I ended up chipping out all the distressed concrete. Once it all dried out it wasn't as bad as I thought. There is about a 3' diameter section of floor where it's all chipped out, but there are no structural concerns. So I'm leaving it be.

Thanks for looking..

looks god Tony little by little its going to be done,

Wooty! Movin right along. Good luck on the inspection tomorrow, I'm sure you'll pass with flying colors! :biggrin:

Hell yeah! Onto the fun stuff soon. Keep us posted man.

Where's the holding cell for the son?

Oh ya it's on! :-D

let me know when you are ready to aquascape. Got my rods, zip ties and drill bits ready to go! :lol:

WOW Tony It's looking really good. Can wait for the drywall.

Have a great vacation

J

It's coming together now Tony! Drywall is the home stretch, then the fun begins.

Wow Tony.....sure looks different from I was there last......looks great man!

Did you help bring his tank home? He may not have even lived at this address Doug LOL =)

:rofl:

Well .... alas, not quite ready for drywall. Did not pass the electrical or plumbing. Did at least pass the construction inspection, so the silver lining is I'm not in danger of losing my permits in March.

Wasn't really expecting to pass electrical so not a huge surprise, at least the findings were minor. Some were due to me misreading what constituted as "ready for rough in inspection", others were "I just didn't know you needed to do that." For example of the first kind, the guidelines state "Please note: do not secure plugs, switches, and lights to outlet boxes on first inspection. If you wish to to terminate the devices and surface mount lights to the wires for this inspection, do not fasten to the electrical boxes." I misinterpreted this to mean that I didn't *have* to install plugs and just hang the wires out of the boxes. Where I went wrong is that pigtail splices still need to be done. Ok so my bad. I totally see the requirement now above this line. :redface: No big deal.

Other things like the outer sheath was extending more than 1/4" past the cable clamps in some boxes .. and single gang boxes that have splices need to be 3" deep, and I used 2.5" for all of them. So 3 of those need to be replaced.

Again no big deal - I didn't really know where I was going to be deficient, now I do .. so it's all good. Won't take very long to correct these and get him back in to reinspect.

The real disappointment of the day was the plumbing fail. The culprit is the laundry sink in the tank room draining into the floor drain. Apparently this is a huge no-no. :nono: I've been directed to jackhammer the floor, hard plumb the drain into the 3" line in the concrete (ie., the line for the floor drain), and vent the sink drain to the roof or to the nearest vented drain stem.

I guess I'll be fixing that off-centre floor drain after all. :lol:

Oh well. Live and learn and move forward.

Why are you letting people in your house Tony when you are doing reno's do dry wall it and done i never tell the city about my reno's on many times i get the city can we come in and inspect your house and I say nope you can inspect from the sidewalk.

Tony, can you remove the laundry sink for now? After passing inspection you can go ahead and run it into the floor drain.

I dunno. It would look mighty strange having a sink hookup without a sink. I would not be able to bluff my way through it if I was asked what's up with that. I totally didn't see it coming either. Surely I'm not the only one who's ever done that .. the HRV drains into the floor drain, the hot water tank overflow .. the A/C .. all just lines that hang into the floor drain. It was like 2 minutes into the inspection when he was all "well, we're done here, sorry."

And why bother with the permits? I don't know. I'm starting to understand why people don't bother. At the end of the day, if all goes well .. your taxes go up. :neutral: So what's the incentive? ... In my case, I've just learned to be a pessimist. If something goes wrong, who's liability is it? And if we sell the house down the road what then.

In fact it's my total lack of poker face ability that got me into the permits mess in the first place. I just wanted electrical .. I went to city hall and the guy's first question was "why do you want an electrical permit? Are you developing your basement, by any chance?" "Well, ah, not .. really .. er .. yes, yes I am..." "Ok then you need to fill out this and this and that .. and .. ok there you go! You're now officially 3 permits richer than you were 20 minutes ago." "Uh, thanks ..."

Exactly. For my really basic basement reno I'm putting my laundry tub in after I pass inspection. Will rip it out if I ever sell.

Not helping... :p

On the sale of my house the sellers were going to withhold $5000 if I didn't provide my basement permits. Everyone buying these days demands to see permits. At the very least it makes selling a home easier.

But yeah I won't have my pex or tub in. Run all of it after inspection and remove if I ever leave.

Actually as annoying as it is, I still assume that the requirements are in place for a reason and that reason is probably more elaborate than "we're the city and we like jerking you guys around" (no, really, I'm sure there's more to it than that. I have faith..) .. So, if it's not 100% right, it's good that I know about it and correct it properly. I don't want anything lingering over me "I wonder if this is not right.."

I tend to agree, if you didn't do it the way it's suposed to be done and you run into problems later you'll be kicking yourself for not doing it right in the first place.

Not to mention if you flood your basement or burn something due to electrical issues the insurance company could ask for your permits. Even if it passed there would likely be an investigation which could bring out some nasty skeletons in your basement! "Looks like your tub flooded the basement. Oh, your plumbing passed so its okay! Oh wait, this tub wasn't here during inspection, sorry Mr. Tony, the flood is your problem, so long see ya!"

I'm really wondering about insurance companies denying a claim if no permit was issued. Guess would need to re-read the fine print on the policy but don't remember seeing the clause "no permit, declined".

Could see problems if there was a gross violation, like the lights from the grow-op, powered by the bypassed meter causing a fire, but really questioning that if I wired a receptacle, without a permit, to code using the proper wire, enclosures, etc...

As for the value of permits my little rant. I was at my new place when the final occupancy permit was signed off by the City. The gas line (no meter) had yet to be hooked up, so technically no heat or hot water, deck construction was approved (spacing between boards etc) though all the timber was sitting on the ground in the backyard still with the steel banding. Later the permit process frustrated me with the builder as got from him "City signed off, to bad" and from the City 'pay an engineer to produce a report, we'll admit we missed, the builder will walk and we'll come after you until fully resolved to our total and complete satisfaction or you can just drop it'.

I'll be honest and say I didn't permit for the electrical I did for my tank. If it becomes a problem when I sell the house then I'll yank them out, it would take me all of an hour. I had an electrician friend of mine look it over, said it's all good.

I do plan to finish off the unfinished portion of my basment with a bathroom and another spare beadroom and I will permit for those changes.

I didn't permit for the reno's to the main floor but I technicaly didn't move anything, plumbing didn't change, electrical didn't change, a couple outlets may have been moved a few feet but nothing was rewired. I could get hasseled for removing a load bearing wall and putting in a header but that can be inspected from the attic if I ever needed to have it done.

I don't really mind the electrical not passing. Even though part of it not passing was simply my misinterpretation of what constituted "ready" and part of it was "Ok I have to redo some of it", the list is not that bad, won't take me more than a couple days and after that it will all be to code.

What irks me is the plumbing. I plan to put a bathroom downstairs eventually but finances being a problem these days, my plan was to sit on it until well into the future. But since taking time off work to go to city hall and all that is a hassle, I decided to get the permit now and be done with it. I *thought* all I needed to show for the plumbing to get passed was just a "rough in" - roughly, the water comes from here..and roughly the water drains into that pipe there. The bathroom has a toilet and sink rough-in already but only one capped-off T. I was just going to T into this stem for the bathroom sink and mini-kitchen sink that sits on the other side. But it turns out that this isn't good enough, I need to rough-in BOTH T's for the sinks. Ok, no big deal there either: a hacksaw and $10 worth of ABS and ABS cement and I'm done.

The tank room sink is what really has me choked. Never in a 100 years did I anticipate I was going to be failed based on a laundry sink that I use to rinse a protein skimmer with because it drains into an existing floor drain. What has me doubly-choked on the whole thing is that when I built the house, I ASKED FOR A SINK ROUGH-IN. Between my cost-sensitive spouse and a housebuilder's sales lady who was doing her best to keep our build costs under control, I was out numbered and this option was struck from the list "because the floor drain is good enough." So the cost for saving $100, 6 years ago, is now today I have to foot probably about $1000 bill to have this work done. Even if I were to do it myself it will be HUGE pain to route a vent through the ceiling trying to work around HRV and furnace vents and who-knows-what just to tie it into the nearest pipe stem that's vented all the way up to the roof.

I'm just incredulous when I think of it. I thought it would all be about how the lines tie in and any issues with pipes pressing up against nails or whatever that could cause a leak. In the end, he couldn't have cared less about the supply lines. That part of the inspection was done in less than a minute and it was all fine. It was the drainage that he was all incredibly anal about and really the inspection was done in 2 minutes because he just ended it when I told him the tank room sink was draining into the floor drain. He was in and out in less than 5 minutes. And I had to take a day off work and sit at home and wait for 8 hours for that 5 minutes that ended so rather dissatisfactorily. I am NOT HAPPY. :(

I am giving serious consideration to "officially" removing the laundry sink from the plans.

With the electrical - everything - I understand there's a safety issue. After consideration, I fail to see the safety issue of a laundry sink that drains into a floor drain. Is the concern that the pipe could get kicked loose and water drains onto the floor? Is that any worse than tripping while carrying a bucket full of water?

I don't know. It's not the sort of thing I dare to say "I told you so" to my wife but at the same time I'm really annoyed with myself that I didn't stick to my guns back then.

OMG Tony....My head hurts just reading all this! So sorry to hear! This is just crap when you really think of it! Super bummed that you`ve run into these obstacles!:sad::sad:

I wonder how much longer I can stretch this tank journal without there actually being a tank. In fact .. I can't think of a single incidence of a more comical build where there have been so many challenges and obstacles and not a one of them have anything to do with actually running or building a TANK. :neutral: If there was a prize for "longest start ever" I would hope I'd be in the running for it by now.

Anyhow, tried to hire a friend of mine who's a licensed plumber to take care of the drain install. When we finally connected and I explained what the situation was, he stopped me. He said, "You don't need to hire me or anyone, what you're doing is not against code. It's called an indirect drain, and as long as it's into a properly vented and trapped floor drain you're not doing anything illegal or against code. In fact give me the inspectors name and number so I can call him and talk to him about this."

Unfortunately I can't take him on that offer as the inspector did not put any of that info in his deficiency report. In fact, the whole report is a bit ... lacking. It just says "Homeowner is no ready for inspection." Stellar. I'll be calling for another inspection and this time I'll stand my ground a little more I think. 1) Challenge him on the drain issue and press for an explicit listing of what item of code it's in violation of. 2) If there are actual deficiencies, they need to be itemized and listed out explicitly on the report.

My gut feeling here is that he came at 10 minutes from the end of his work day (3:50) and had already mentally checked out of work. And I just said "DURF DURF DURF OK ! THANKS !" ... That won't be happening again.

But, since I got all geared up for renting a jackhammer anyhow, and I have to move a poo pipe for toilet placement in the bathroom, I've rented a jackhammer for tomorrow and will be going at the concrete in there. It's sort of the last weekend I'll have for a bit where Linda won't be working and thus I won't be spending the weekend entertaining my two boys (aged 4 and 1, the real reason I can't get much progress on this build some days..), so might as well take advantage of it.

Anyhow, not sure if anyone's listening anymore but this is the closest thing I have to a blog so there you have it. :lol: Thanks for reading..

:sleeping: .. Wh.. whuh.. what, huh? Did someone say something??

Hehe, just jokes Tony! I think that's actually pretty good news about the plumbing! Man that would royally **** me off, how can someone that's an "inspector" tell you that something is not to code when that's an outright lie?? Don't they have a code of ethics?! Jeez Louise! Too bad he didn't leave his name. I would almost call city hall and give them a stern word. I'm sure they have a record at city as to who came out to your house. But then I guess you don't necessarily want to go rocking any boats.

Yeah, I figure, either I didn't explain it right to the plumber (but I did show him pictures), or, the inspector didn't have a full understanding of what he saw either. I'm trying to extend him the benefit of the doubt about the "It's the end of the day, I dun wanna work no more today" thing but I have to admit it feels like a stretch. He was in and out so fast. It was less than 5 minutes from the time he walked in to the time he walked out. He didn't even really look at the sink. He just glanced at it and said "No."

I did think about calling the city to press this further but yeah, at this point, I just want the darn thing signed off so we can all just move along onto bigger and better things. Like maybe putting water in the tank. :neutral: If the second inspection turns out the same, I'm just going to pull the sink out and and say "Oh look at that. No more sink there. NOW please sign this off."

:lol:Geez Brett.....I nearly spit beer on my puter screen:lol: