Engineering Firm Bids / Estimates

Turns out this is going to run about $5k to get

• water runoff calculations, 
• impervious coverage calculations, and
• updates site survey 

Needs to be done... but that's not chump change.

On top of all this, there is a bit of history here that needs explaining.  As it turns out, the previous owners had worked with Houtman in the past to get things rolling on their build.  For whatever reason, that build never happened, but Houtman did the initial work to get the site surveyed and basic plans ready for submission to the township.  It seems that since the job never went anywhere, they never completed it - and never got paid.

This is where we come in.  If we go to a new Engineering team, Momenee, we get someone local that has worked with Tony.  If we go with Houtman, we get the benefit of any work they had done on the previous owner's dime.    We had some issues connecting, quickly, with Houtman and decided to reach out to Momenee for the work.  Along the way it was determined that we might be able to get the previous work anyway.  So, down that road we went.

Ends up, this kind of thing is very frowned upon, and we ruffled (un-intentionally) a few feathers.  After a few conversations we ironed things out - let the water under the bridge and engaged Houtman for the complete package.

Makes everyone happy in the end. Unfortunately we had to jettison Momenee Associates in the shuffle. They are a good team, and I would recommend them from the honest and professional stances they took.

Anyway, 5k gets us Township Ready documents.

Cha-chin... $5k it is.

Engineering Firms

One of the rather significant things we did not know about in this process was that of an Engineering Firm. Our Architect, Tony, did of course, but it was new to us.  Seems that you need a full engineering survey to help determine things as complex as water run off and percolation rates.

To put it simply, they need to calculate how much of the ground are covering because of the fact that your house will be preventing the soil form absorbing precipitation.  Pretty big deal, in our case, as our house is covering a significant portion of our lot.  Really, they have to account for every drop of water that is re-directed by our home, and then provide a way to make sure it stays on our lot and not pushed off into the street or a neighboring lot.

Based on some suggestions, we went out to Momenee Associates and Houtman Engineering.

We'll see how much this runs us.