Construction About to Start

Good things have been happening, but I was hoping to have a picture of a pile of concrete to show you by now. The good news is I picked a new contractor after receiving five bids, and I know he's going to do an outstanding job. The plumber is coming by today to lay out the area, and I'm hoping we can get the concrete work started this week.

This is probably a bit on the dry side, and in fact I get a headache when writing about it. Read it if you care, otherwise I'll try to come up with something a bit more entertaining for the next post.

The concrete work entails cutting out around 1100 square feet of concrete in the brewing area and in the sewer line area, removing a foot of soil, placing a 35 foot trench drain, and pouring a foot of sloped, reinforced concrete, along with a 1 foot curb which will act as a containment area (a city requirement). The area where the sewer line is going will be filled in, and then I'll wait 7 to 10 days for the concrete to cure before the urethane flooring can go in. Once the urethane goes in, I can put my tanks where they need to go, and start setting up equipment. The plumber can then install the water and gas to the brewing area (and the four sinks), my welder can get to work on piping together the brewhouse, the electrician can hook up my equipment, and the burner technician can piece together the combustion system for my boil kettle.

While all of this is going on, drywall is going up to form a vestibule around one of my cargo loading doors (a health department requirement), the office will have wood flooring installed, a glycol chiller / structural platform will be built on the roof, every wall will be painted, and all concrete will be sealed. A few miscellaneous items like hooking up a few augers, getting city and health department inspections, and dealing with my own sanity will be involved as well.

Exciting stuff, and I pray to God it all gets done quickly. You and I have been waiting far too long!