Professionals

You can only go so far with Google Sketch Up. In order to build the kind of documents that you need to pull permits you need to go to the professionals. While you aren't legally bound to use an architect to design a residence when you get ready to summit your design to the planning authorities clear understandable drawings are a major asset. It's also going to help when you hire structural engineers. Clear drawings are going to save you money with these guy's, they charge by the hour, the quicker they understand where your going the better.
Last week we hired Jeffrey McGrew as project draftsman to produce planning sheets. Jeffrey is an old friend of mine that works out of Oakland, California. He wrote his masters thesis on the use of cargo containers as modular building components about eight years ago. Other friends of mine had been using containers for art studios in San Francisco by that point but Jeffery gave it that academic gloss that got me to take them seriously. We've hired him to produce regular two dimensional drawings and electronic files that will transfer easily for use by the structural engineers.
He'll initially produce the elevation and plot plan drawings needed to apply for permits from the Contra Costa County Planning Department. They will check that the zoning is in order and that the building conforms to the restrictions applicable to building on Bethel Island. These restrictions include all the requirements for building in a flood zone. We will have to get a civil engineer to confirm grade height before construction begins and recheck afterward that the habitable space is above flood level, After we receive plannings permission we will develop the detailed construction plans.
We hired soils engineers this week. Before you can build a house you have to build a foundation. Before you can build a foundation you need to know what the ground is like beneath the surface. We are particularly challenged by this building site. Bethel Island owes it's existence to a levee that was first built around the island by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Without the levee the island would now be 12 feet under the waters of the Sacramento River. Before the Corps decided to control and channel the flow of the river Bethel Island was already very soggy marsh land. Repeating over the centuries the plants on the island died and were pushed down by new growth. All that plant matter turned itself over time into what's known as peat moss. Peat has the consistency of a really old kitchen sponge. This peat bog is on average about 34 feet deep on Bethel Island. Everybody knows this, the county building department, the municipal district and the old guy that lives next door to the site that used to be a soils engineer before he retired. The thing is in order to plan the foundation you need to have an up to date soils report. We went out to bid with two different companies and selected the company that used the least intrusive test bores. The losing bidder wanted to use a very expensive drill rig that he didn't own. It's cost was in addition to his fee for the report. His proposal estimated total cost ranging from $7000 to $11,000 depending on the number of holes drilled. Berlogar Geotechnical Consultants of Pleasanton, California was selected based on a total price of $6800. They use a drill method called CPT and they own their equipment. As the soil conditions in the area were already well documented I wonder what the first guy thought he was going to find in the extra bore holes.
All that we have done to this point is called the site work. If we had needed to cut a road or seriously graded the site that would have added additional expense not just in actual work but in the production of professional reports that cover everything from protection of riparian habitat (bird nests) to water runoff control. Depending on where you want to build you can easily go through many tens of thousands of dollars completing your site work. It's pretty laid back on Bethel Island. I think they have figured out that if you really want to build a house on a peat bog you've already got enough problems.