The Drive

A 60 year old house was razed to accommodate this beautiful home. Unfortunately the bearing capacity for a 1950’s ranch style home is different that what is required of today’s creative architects.  When, while excavating, a bottomless peat bog was discovered and piling would not work, out-of-the-box engineering was necessary. Fortunately we know of an engineer who wasn’t intimidated. We excavated down through 35 feet of peat, 10 feet beyond the footprint of the entire house and back-filled layers of stone and Mirafi structural textile.  From there we constructed a 3’x3′ grade beam and placed the foundation walls on top.  Basically we built a ship hull that floated the house! All this after a full 500 gallon oil tank was discovered during demolition that was not supposed to be under that slab!  Pitfalls, challenges and solutions – all part of our daily lives as custom contractors.