After another contractor
spent six weeks and performed about two days of demolition, the
architect recommended that the owner contact Design & Construction
Concepts to take over the project and build an Old English front
addition to the house with a new breakfast room and entry.
The challenges became more than apparent on day one. The original owner
of this 80 year old house had been a road contractor, and built the
house as if he were building a road. The floors were 14" thick
cast-in-place concrete slabs and the foundation walls were 12"-14"
thick. The sanitary sewer was buried in one of the walls and not marked
accurately by the village, so on the first day they hit the sewer line.
When they uncovered the water line, it turned out to be lead, running
under a hand-laid herringbone pattern brick driveway. Upon opening the
inside walls, it was discovered that the old water and waste lines were
rotting galvanized pipes.
They replaced the water supply line by auguring under the drive, and to
avoid opening up walls on the second floor they replaced the the
plumbing lines by hiding them behind the crown molding and in the
decorative soffit in the entry.
After all this, the project turned out nothing less than fantastic, and
the addition blends perfectly with the original structure.
