How I spent $300K on a shack and keep smiling about it... Part 8

I have to start thinking about building a retaining wall in front of the house so the soil does not get washed away by the rain. I get a student from a local architecture school to prepare the drawings for the wall and take it to DCRA to get the permit. Since now I know my way around the permit office and their rules, and it's just the wall I want to build, it only takes me a couple of hours to get the permit.

A few days later the contractor begins working on the retaining wall. First he needs to dig a hole across the property to pour the concrete for the wall footings. Then he can build the wall. The soil on the hill is pretty loose so it's important to build a wall to hold the soil and stop the hill from deteriorating.

I get a call a few hours later - it's the contractor and there is a problem - he has dug a trench almost 3 feet deep and there is no solid ground on which to place the footings. He needs to call a geotechnical engineer to come out and get a study done on how deep he'll have to dig. He also mentions that the soil is quite loose and a part of the trench collapsed during the dig. Well, hello! What do you expect? You have to build a supporting structure around the ditch to prevent the walls from collapsing. Do I have to be at the site all the time to babysit? Thank God no one was hurt.

A few days later I get another call from the contractor. He has met with the engineer and after doing some tests the engineer can't determine how deep to dig, since he was not able to poke his way to a solid ground. Now what? I need that wall or my house will eventually end up at the bottom of the hill. Is there any other solution?

Apparently there is but the geo tech suggests that I meet with his boss to discuss those options. So we schedule an appointment.

Saturday morning we meet bright and early at the house to discuss the options:

1. Bring heavy machinery and install those big steel beams that they usually install at big construction sites - however, that requires several additional permits and several thousand dollars.

2. Keep digging until we get to the solid ground - but there is no way of telling how deep we'll have to go

3. Build the wall at the bottom of the hill, then bring more soil to build up the hill again

I go with the 3^rd option since it seems the most doable and cost effective. However, since the bottom of the hill borders the public space, there is another permit involved and another trip to DCRA. On the other hand - there is an old deteriorating wall at the bottom of the hill, so it shouldn't be too difficult to convince the DC officials that we need to rebuild it.

When I get the bill from the geo-tech company I find out that they also charged me for their travel time at the same rate as the consultation rate. And for chatting about other non-project related things like trying to sell me some products from their vendors. I guess you have to be very careful when you deal with some "service" providers.

To Be Continued...