Have been slowly chipping away at basement prep work prior to our little 'Big Dig' project. Boiler and oil tank were removed & recycled. New tankless hot water installed (and working 10X better than prior set up). Basement is ready for footings to be underpinned.
My better half came up with a floor plan for the 2nd floor that 'fixes' the entire house regarding it's layout issues. Problem is, it's a TON of work and removes 2 bearing walls. The new plan involves demo'ing the existing chimney that vented the old boiler. This will involve a mason, as this is tied into the main chimney at the 2nd floor. So, this involve demo'ing 2nd floor walls, which really disturbs quality of life. I want to do this prior to the basement work as the concrete contractor would otherwise have to pour a new footing under this chimney, and seeing as though it's about to be demo'd, we don't want this and think it's a waste. Also, we have an additional 2nd floor bath in the planning stage, so this will have to be accounted for in the underslab plumbing.
Two things which may complicate the dig out project: 1) If our waste main doesn't leave the house at a low enough elevation, we'll have to run the main above the new slab, and 2) If we encounter bedrock, or any rock for that matter when digging down.
All this being said, when (not if) the slab gets poured, we'll need to put a new boiler in for the Fall.
Lot's of work!
