Contact your local power company to find out the procedure
for hooking up temporary power. When contacting the
power company find out if they have power poles and
if they set them up. Some companies have power poles
for building sites. If not you may need to provide
one. Find out if power at your property is underground
or overhead, and ask for a drawing and description
of what is required.
If you need to provide the temporary power pole, the
electrical company engineer should be able to provide
you with temporary power pole requirements. typical
drawing include: required height, Size of pole (usually
4x4), Size of service, where supports are required,
ground rod requirements, GFCI (ground fault circuit
interrupt) protection, etc. Generally a couple of
120 volt GFCI protected outlets, and a 30-50amp 240volt
4 prong outlet are sufficient.
The electrical company will usually charge a fee to
hook up temporary power. The fee could be nominal
or as much as several hundred dollars.
Where
the cost of setting up temporary power is prohibitive
or is not available, a use a generator. A 5000 watt
gas generator is reasonably priced and should be large
enough for the job.
For reason of sanitation, portable toilets are recommended
on the job site. Often city and county building regulations
will require it. The temp toilet company will drop
off the toilet and empty it on a regular basis. Check
in the yellow pages for temporary toilet providers.
Water is required for the job site. Water is used
for concrete clean-up and for testing plumbing pipes.
If the water is potable, it can also be used by sub-contractors
for drinking water. Check with the city about using
a "cheater" (faucet that hooks on to the
city side of the water meter before the meter is installed).
If the city requires the water meter to be installed
before water usage it will be necessary to put a faucet
on "your side" of the water meter.
If you are in an area not served by municipal water
a well will be necessary. Have the well drilled and
set up as soon as possible after property acquisition.
It will be necessary to have a system for disposing
of construction debris. Accidents are less likely
to occur when the site is clean. Building inspectors
and neighbors are "put off" by a junky construction
site. For good PR and safety keep your site as clean
as possible at all times. Some cities require that
you have a dumpster on site. Here are three popular
methods for keeping the site clean:
Rental a dumpster that is dropped off
on site and filled with construction debris. The disposal
company empties the dumpster when called and returns
with a empty dumpster. This method is sometimes required
by the city building department. It is a little more
expensive than the other options but helps to keep
a neat and safe work site. It also keeps people or
animals from rummaging through your garbage. The subs
also know exactly where to put their trash. There
are several sizes of dumpsters and prices will vary
a bit. Shop around for the best deal. Usually it is
not necessary to rent a dumpster until you are in
the framing stages.
Construction garbage haulers
will drop by your site and load up all the junk on
site and haul it away. Typically, the subs will make
a pile of trash outside the house. When the haulers
are called they come load it up and haul it off. The
advantages are that it is a little cheaper than renting
a dumpster but your site doesn't look as neat. If
you hire a company to do this for you make sure that
they know what to haul away, and what to leave. If
you're not specific you might lose a few studs that
you left lying around.
If you have a pick-up truck and/or a
trailer you can always dispose of the trash yourself.
On a typical house you might spend $400-500 paying
someone else to do the dirty work for you. That is
money that you can save. Be reminded however, if you
do it yourself, it can take away from more important
tasks, and it is not likely to be an area where you
can make a good wage.
If you are planning to do a lot of the labor on your
home, or you live a long distance from your site,
an RV or a self contained camper is convenient to
have on site. It can be a big time saver cutting your
travel time, and allowing you to start work early
and finish late when needed.
