As we started getting into the approval process it became clear the design process was not just about working with the architect. In addition to the architect we needed a geotechnical engineer, a civil engineer, and a structural engineer.
First off was a geotechnical engineer for a geotechnical investigation, some called it a soil survey. Other new homes in the neighborhood had deep foundation systems, so the expectation was that we would need the same. As soon as the old house was demoed GZA GeoEnvironmental came out and took a couple of borings and shortly thereafter provided us with a report that said the topsoil/fill was not capable of supporting a foundation/home, they hit hard stuff at 39-41.5′ below the surface, and that we should use timber or helical piles to support the home.
Before we closed on the purchase of our lot we had an Big East Environmental check the existing home for asbestos and we also had them check to see if there was a buried oil tank (the existing home was on city gas, but it was not much extra to check for underground storage tanks so tacked that on to the scope). Big East found some asbestos so that would have to be abated before the home could be demolished (115 sqft of linoleum tile, 20 sqft of bathroom tile, and 40 sqft of roof flashing). Not a big deal, some cost and time, but no barrier to closing.
As we started the design process for the new home with the architect we discussed the demolition of the old home, and they “highly recommended” not doing that until a building permit was secured, in order to avoid unpleasant zoning changes. We did a little homework on zoning, I think I might have also stopped in to talk to the local planning & zoning people, and the new home was going to be larger and tighter to setbacks than the existing home, so we ignored the architect’s advice and proceeded with the demolition so that we could have things moving forward in parallel. For example, to conduct borings for soil tests we needed to have the demolition complete, and to design the foundation we needed the soil evaluation done. It also seemed to be hard or impossible to get liability insurance with a vacant (uninhabitable) home on the property, whereas vacant land would be covered under existing liability we already carried. We didn’t get our building permit until almost a year later, so glad we didn’t wait …
So shortly after closing on the lot we picked Terzian Trucking to do the demolition and engaged Homeguard Environmental to complete the asbestos abatement. Once the asbestos was removed Big East came back out to complete a final inspection and provided us with a Certificate of Visual Clearance and a copy of a notification they had sent to the CT Department of Health.
The demolition process in Norwalk is straight forward and probably typical. Before permitting the demolition you need to publish a notice in a local newspaper, notify your neighbors via certified mail, and post a sign on the property.
Demolition Signage
To get the demolition permit you also need a tax clearance certificate, disconnect letters for all utilities, sign off from the historical building people, asbestos clearance info, and the demo contractor needs to provide his license and proof of insurance. Surwilo Contracting handled sewer and water disconnects, coordinating with the Norwalk DPW and the local water utility. Water main was on the other side of the street, they went in through lawn and disconnected the old 3/4 line (maybe iron?) at the main. Sewer was disconnected pretty close to the street ROW line in our yard, they ran a video camera in to check remaining lateral out to the main and then capped it. 6″ PVC was in good shape so all we would need to do is reconnect. For gas the utility, Eversource, removed the meter and disconnected the line at the main, no cost to us. Electric the utility came out and removed the meter and the overhead line.
Sewer and Water Disconnects
The actual demo was completed in just a few hours. No basement but a few concrete footings that were a little work to get out. Building department came out to take a look and then we received a Certificate of Compliance to close out the demolition permit.
During the run up to closing on the purchase of our lot in August ’15 we had the idea to build a modern home, roughly 2500 square feet and probably 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, comfortable for the two of us, a nice guest bedroom, and a third bedroom for that or for an office or other. When we told the broker selling us the lot about this he suggested we take a look at Turkel Design, who he said designed some nice looking modern homes and offered affordable prefabricated construction. We looked and we liked and were initially drawn to their Axiom 2340 model, which ended up being the starting point for our design.
Big decision though, so we wanted to do our due diligence and explore some other options. We couldn’t find any local architects with experience with modern homes, but heard “I have always wanted to do a modern home” a few times, and while local would have been nice (for design, oversight, local knowledge and relationships) we were not entirely comfortable being a guinea pig. There was a nice looking modern home we could see from our lot that was designed by Maryanne Thompson, similar size to what we were planning, but we tracked down the owner and construction cost of about $2 million scared us away (it did have geothermal and solar panels, but still …). An old high school classmate who is a partner at a small high end firm told us we should plan on $600psf for coastal Connecticut, which still scared us! So this reinforced the idea of modern prefab, we went and met with a Lindal representative, Turkey has partnered with them for some designs in their “TD3 Series,” but we preferred Turkel’s Axiom designs and the idea of stick-built prefab did not resonate. We also popped in to NYC to meet the principals of Resolution 4, we very much liked their body of work. A little “boxier” than Turkel’s designs, perhaps driven by their focus on modular prefab construction. We also looked briefly at Stillwater, and I don’t remember if we looked at them then, but if we were doing this again I might look at them now, evoDOMUS. After boiling the ocean for a bit we landed back with Turkel, we liked their designs, the panelized prefab approach made sense to us, we bought into the timing/quality/predictability rationale for the approach, and they initially suggested a budget that was attractive but that we knew was low, but we thought maybe we could get it done in the same zip code.
