Complicated Footer Construction and Shop Drawing Headaches

We are done with the footer forms with the exception of adding all the rebar. There is a lot of rebar so we still have our work cut out for us but at least all the curved and overlapping form work is complete. Now we wait.... and wait.... oh and wait some more while the engineers go back and forth with the rebar supplier over the shop drawings.

We are delayed ordering our rebar by about 4 weeks and counting. Ordering rebar has turned into a series revisions. Shop drawings continue to be a way bigger deal than we anticipated. They had to be revised according to the engineers directions and ultimately need to be approved by the engineers. When I look at how everything has gone so far I can definitely point to the engineering part of this process as the biggest PITA...so far. Every time the engineers need to be consulted it means huge delays. I don't think it is our engineers specifically. I think it is the nature of building a house that needs specific engineering. Our case is worse than other dome builds due to having to hire two firms to get it done. If you want to go back and read my other posts about all our engineering woes click one of these MANY links to old posts or just go to the archive list. Some of the conversations I had with potential engineers were just as funny as my dealings with lenders. These links start from oldest to most recent.

• This post is when we first found out we needed an engineer. https://dometastic.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-first-of-many-roadblocks.html
• This post was after I talked to a bunch of local engineers. https://dometastic.blogspot.com/2017/03/can-it-be-considered-prefab.html
• This post is just a continuation of our frustration with engineers in general. https://dometastic.blogspot.com/2017/03/still-need-engineer.html
• This post was after our meeting with the town about engineers. https://dometastic.blogspot.com/2017/04/roadblock-removal.html
• This post was after some frustrating conversations with engineers. https://dometastic.blogspot.com/2017/04/roadblock-removal.html
• This post was after we finally found a solution to our engineering roadblock. https://dometastic.blogspot.com/2017/05/red-tape-engineering-hot-mess.html
• This post was after we officially hired 2 engineering firms to do the job together. https://dometastic.blogspot.com/2017/06/engineers-revealed.html
• This post was after we got the first draft from the engineers after waiting months and months for it. https://dometastic.blogspot.com/2017/10/engineering-first-draft-complete.html

It has turned into a HUGE hidden cost in building a dome. Normal houses don't need engineering so the cost is not comparable and something we didn't even know about going into this whole process. We thought the standard construction documents that you get from Monolithic were it. We originally had planned to have a garage/basement under the dome but had to give that up pretty early in the process once the engineers got involved. As soon as they started talking about cantilevers and prefab cement structural supports we knew it was going to be out of our price range. This is even more true since we couldn't get a normal construction loan like we could have if were building a traditionally constructed house.

After we received the first draft of shop drawings the engineers made a ton of changes. Our foundation ended up not being as complicated as they originally anticipated which is a good thing since we are stuck doing it ourselves. The shop drawings are made from the engineering drawings. Since the engineering drawings were way over the top they didn't reflect what was being built by us. Once we dug the hole and started building the footer it clearly didn't need all the step downs and very tall 7 ft walls that were originally in the engineered drawings. That doesn't mean it isn't complicated compared to all the other monolithic dome foundations I have found online in videos. All those people have had it super easy. Our footer varies in width from 2 feet to 6 feet wide. The biggest footer areas are under the edge of the cut away front. There are 6' x 10' pads under those walls.

Every other dome build I have watched on YouTube has a standard 2 foot footer all the way around regardless of it being multiple overlapping domes or just one big one. This is why Mr. Dometastic and I keep joking about it being a bridge or parking garage construction and not a house.

The list of reasons ours has been a hot mess right from the beginning

1. We are forced to use an engineering firm that has never done this before because our town is requiring "stamped" engineering. Only a firm licensed in our state can do it and there aren't any firms experienced in this type of construction. 
2. We got around #1 by hiring an engineer experienced in domes to do the engineering for the dome superstructure and then teach a local firm who would be the "engineer of record". This engineer is then the one who oversees the build and is responsible for the foundation part.
3. Our build area is not flat so the foundation has to have "step downs" and the engineer has designed the footer for a parking garage not a house. Just kidding...sort of.
4. We are building in Connecticut so a minimum frost wall depth of 42" is needed
5. We are the ones building it and doing the general contracting. We don't know how it is supposed to go so we continue to be surprised by steps in the process. We ask as many questions as we can but have found that no one volunteers info. If you don't ask the right question you often find out there is a step in there that no one told you about. That hidden step then becomes a stumbling block that turns into delays because you couldn't plan for something you didn't know existed. 

Today we received another revision of the shop drawings that were missing things so back it goes for more revisions. Maybe we will be lucky and this is the final time and the engineers will give final approval. Each time they go back and forth is is another week of waiting! A few days to do the revision and a few days to review the revision......