Site Preparation

[HADave]

The sauna tube concept, good thought 24" dia. I've never seen them, but maybe. This is not to say that 12 or 14 " wouldn't work other than I think pslamont was talking about larger sizes to prevent being washed away during periods of flooding. Also the more weight you can attach your house to the better especially if a 160 mph breeze happens by. Apt to end up back in Kansas the hard way, ha ha ha

This leads me to my next question/food for thought. During site preperation should we make provisions for termite prevention. I'm reading that the first and most important rule is not to provide them with extra food. Construction debris that sometimes gets buried and sawdust. Through some of the reading it was discussed that volcanic cinder was a preventitive measure beneath and around the structure but they also made reference to cinder size but were not specific. They also made refernce to sand so I am presuming that cinder must be crushed fairly small. sounds messy when wet.

Time for some forum opinions on this subject before we begin some Thankgiving feast for our little insect friends!

Dave

[leilaniguy]

I built a house in HPP in '02/'03 , on slab, and the county requires termite pretreatment of the slab site after forms & rebar are in and before the pour. You must have a certificate from a licensed exterminator that this has been done or they will not sign off on your permit. As I recall, I was charged about $250 at that time for 480sq. ft. by terminex.



Edited by - leilaniguy on 12/04/2005 14:53:50

[Nate SC]

I have a place in Orchidland and I was digging holes for palm trees in lava rock. I pounded out holes 18" x 18" with a 5' long 1" around steel rod. They call it an " O'o" pole. Lava is harder than cement. One hole took me hours to pound out. I would rent a jack hammer or air chisel if I were to do that again. Raised beds s the way to go. I will be bulldozing a driveway and a house pad but not much more.

[HADave]

I guess for the sake of being a good neighbor I'll ask this question of the forum. With regard to noise and ground vibration would you want to hear the sound of a large piece of equipment like a back-hoe hammer pounding away for a day or two or something smaller like a large portable air compressor running a jack hammer for a week.

Has anyone out there actually run a jack hammer in lava and what kind of progress can you make?

Does anyone know of equipment /tool rental outfits that gives out a list of inventory with prices?

PS Thanks Hutch and Nate for feedback, Hutch I have to ask do you know if the treatments hold true for all foundation applications or just slabs, there is no mention of this in the county's info on obtaining a building permit or the info sheet for residential construction UBC. Perhaps we'll need to call if it is a case by location basis

Dave

[leilaniguy]

Aloha Dave, I can't honestly answer about pretreating for P/P construction,I've never done it with a permit,(Don't tell anybody!)- but I'm assuming it's required.
As far as construction noise, Puna is just like anyehere else, many don't like it, but that's life, eh? I will tell one tale, about 3 years ago my neighbor on one side did all kinds of clearing when he moved here-(part time, he's Cali), at least 50 loads of cinder, bulldozing, remodelling, construction and major tree removal with a boomtruck & chipper. This went on for over a month straight, dawn to dusk. My neighbor on the other side finally had enough of it, got well "lubricated" and went over to have it out with neighbor #1- they ended up fistfighting. But to jackhammer a cesspool/septic pit/field, that's a 1-2 day job, pretty reasonable to most folks around here. What will really make enemies of your new neighbors is dozing pin-to-pin, we really don't like that at all here.



Edited by - leilaniguy on 12/04/2005 14:57:21

[adias]

After the survey, we are thinking about getting the road and house area cleared ahead of time. The lot is 700+ feet deep, ideally we would like to build somewhere in the center, but I understand that this would also mean that we would have to put in extra power lines and maintain longer roads; any other problems in building deep inside the lot?

Any idea how may extra power poles would be needed if we go in 300 feet deep and what they would cost? When clearing the road and lot, are the charges by square feet cleared? (i.e. would there be a big difference between clearing a 100ft road vs. 300ft road? once the dozer is already there?) Approximately, how long would it take to bulldoze a 100-foot road and what should it cost? After clearing is the cleared area covered with cinder or other substrate to prevent growth?

Any suggestions and recommendation by the forum is gratefully appreciated. Additionally, recommendation of reliable dozer operators to contact for estimates is appreciated.

Aloha,
Ajit

Edited by - adias on 12/03/2005 17:01:55

[leilaniguy]

Aloha adias, I believe at 300', you will need 2 poles. Cat drivers charge by the hour. The last time I hired a cat was 2 years ago, was charged I believe $175/hr., but that was then. Clearing for a driveway and small housesite usually takes anywhere from 2 to 5 days. A 100' drive in scrub on flat ground would be a few hours. But I will make a strong suggestion: If you clear your site and driveway too far ahead of construction you will have an ongoing problem with weed trees & shrubs that can seem to pop up overnight, grow like mad, and swallow all your hard work. They grow just great in just about anything you can put down. Unless you're staying on isle where you can mow/weedwhack/poison on a regular basis, or hire someone to do it for you, I would wait until 1-2 months or less before construction commences. I would also highly recommend you explore all over your land on foot before the dozer comes. You may have interesting plants, trees or features on your property you would want to preserve. I have at least a half dozen lava trees on my 1 acre place, the lady across the street fron me even has a cave. Also, tree ferns, smaller ohia's and many other things can be moved and replanted.



Edited by - leilaniguy on 12/04/2005 15:01:39

Edited by - leilaniguy on 12/21/2005 12:57:04

[HADave]

Subdivision streets/roads~ who is responsible for the maintenance or improvements to these streets/roads in front of your property. Example Our lot, The sellar cut a driveway in and where they chose to cut in at the end or beginning ...in the roadway is a very large low spot that seems to be always full of water after a heavy rain. I'm presuming it is going to be our problem if we don't like it and choose to leave the driveway in this location. It is going to be different not living in a town per-say that you can take your complaints to...

Ayuh!

[leilaniguy]

Aloha Dave, This totally depends on your subdivision and it's association, CCR's or the lack thereof. Contact your association if you have one, see if they will look at your particular site. As often as not, they will blow you off, and any local road maintainence is pretty much up to you. This is the case in my neighborhood, (Unit 1,
Leilani) where each owner is responsible (or not), for their own front footage. I have actually poured concrete in the roadway several hundred feet from my lot, just to fix a deep crack that I cussed every time I ran over it. I asked some of my neighbors about helping out in maintainance and most have refused, saying how the bad roads keep out the riff and the raff-(nobody comes down this crappy road unless they have good reason)- and I guess I have to agree, it's nice and quiet on my street, everyone driving nice and slow to save their suspension, and I must admit, we don't get many strangers, and my neighborhood does seem safer than my "paved neighbors". Once you know where all the bumps and divots are, you learn to avoid them and have a fairly smooth ride home. I must say that a lot of Big Island roads are much better than they were in the 1980's. I used to live on "G" in the 'acres (Hawaiian Acres) in the 80's, and it always took about 1/2 hour to get from the highway the 6 miles to home.(No paving then), Coming home from town, we used to pop the first beer leaving the highway, and by the time we got home, at least 1/2 hour later, we'd be totally blitzed. Oh those good old days! :-)



Edited by - leilaniguy on 12/04/2005 15:10:10

Edited by - leilaniguy on 12/04/2005 15:27:09

[Scott_S]

Hi Dave, in HA there is Road Association dues, $50 a year, which is mostly used for the letter roads. If you want any repairs to a number road they usually have some matching funds, if you dues are paid.

I have one pole on my lot, from that pole to a temp. power pole, cost to HELCO was about $3000.

Scott