ADDITION IN DUNELLEN
On this house in Dunellen, NJ, D & J Construction was contracted to add a 20' X 18' addition to the rear of the
house. We were also contracted to do some alterations to the existing structure. The addition was to be full
basement, although the existing part of the house only had a crawl space. This was tricky because as you'll see in
the pictures below we found that the rear part of the house was an addition put on the original house years ago, and
the contractor did a really poor job. When we began to dig, we found that the existing old addition had no footing,
therefore we had to brace the walls and pour a solid concrete wall under the existing walls. We started in late
December (because it was unusually warm) and we are about to finish up this week(Third week in April). We lost
about three and a half weeks due to the bad weather in late Febuary and March.
This is before we started, from the driveway.
This is the house before we started.
We have started to take down the existing deck with the giant BBQ, you can see the dumpster on the bottom left.
The BBQ as seen from the rear had some surprises below grade, like it continued for over four feet!
The addition will cover a lot more ground than the deck and BBQ.
That's my son, Trevor who had leave for 30 days before he left for Pearl Harbor....LUCKY KID !!!
Seen from the pictures above is the house before we did anything to it. It was a nice house, but when we finish it,
it's sure to be a beautiful home that I'm sure the Cannazzaro's will be proud of ! The owners Russ and Susan
Cannazzaro, were very accomodating. They put up with losing the parking in their driveway(and their backyard) to
make room for the dumpsters and material. This was a tough job because we had very little room for access to the
addition area. The access was the driveway.
The deck is down, the monster BBQ is gone and the blacktop that covered the ground is out and ready for the dumpster.
My heights have been established and the digging has started.
There is Willie checking that we are level as we dig.
It was dark by the time I finished digging. Just needed a few hours the next day to touch up and start getting rid of the massive pile of dirt.
A better picture of the hole. The orange marks you see are the height marks we used to stay level as we dug.
Most of the dirt we dug out will be gotten rid of.
We had to dig into the existing doorway to accomodate a new set of steps going into the existing basement....It wasn't easy to get the bucket of the backhoe into that opening!!!
This is where the Bilko Door will be going. Of course we would find an electric line to the pool in the way.
The excavation is finished now. We only have to get rid of most of the dirt. I hired a trucking company to get rid of
it for me and dump it at an undisclosed location. The footings are next, and if you look close to the picture just
below, center you can see that the existing footing is just debris and cement, so I'll have to build a concrete
bulkhead to support the existing walls.
Here is my Son, Trevor taking a well desirved break.
This was one of many buckets of dirt we needed to get rid of.
The hole for the basement is almost finished now. Just a few more hours of daylight to go!
Trevor and Willie taking another break after taking out that giant piece of concrete.
The backhoe is warming up for a full day of digging.
Here you can see the footings are being formed and the existing walls are braced to prevent the house from collapsing.
Here is Trevor and Willie adjusting the height of the footing.
You can see how tight we had to cut the hole , so we could still use the driveway for materials.
Looks like Trevor is contemplating a swift kick, doesn't it?
The footings are formed and poured. We had some bad weather so we ended up covering up the entire hole with
tarps. With temps barely reaching twenty degrees, we had to keep heaters inside the tarped area to keep the
footings from freezing. This was one of the delays due to weather. I believe we lost about a week and a half. But
soon we were back in business starting the block for the foundation.
The block is delivered and ready to be installed. You see a kerosene heater because we covered and heated the work every night.
The block are tightly packed together in the hole.
In this picture you can see the concrete is poured to support the existing walls.
This is what we had to do every night...What a pain in the........
This is my Dad laying block. He and his men did the block work.
The block work is almost finished. Still the weather isn't cooperating, but we keep trying to move foward.
With the block work finished, the next step was to plaster and waterproof the foundation. An exterior drain was put
in and tied to a sump pump pit inside the basement. Backfill inspection went well and the foundation was backfilled.
The Framer had a rough start because we had three snow storms and he had a vacation set. So this set us back
about two and a half weeks. Once the framing got started, it was smooth sailing.
This is the foundation already waterproofed and ready to be backfilled.
The concrete floor is poured. Although we put the tarp on, the heavy snow storm the next day collapsed the tarp.
Another picture of the basement floor. The blue color is the tarp.
The addition is framed and the sheathing is on. The roof is important,so as to protect the lumber.
Now it's starting to look like something. Still quite a bit of snow left, so losing time every day.
This is a good angle. The large opening in the rear is for a Pella French door.
We had to remove the roof on the existing addition and install another roof, wasn't easy!
Looking in from the future doorway, you can see the framing inside and the existing wall that will be coming down.
Nice view from the driveway of the addition sheathed.
The stairs came in and are installed. This picture shows the framing from the basement.
This is another picture of the steps going down.
This addition has eleven foot ceilings, and it is important to get the ceiling beams perfect or else the sheetrock will look like crap.
The roof is now on, and the electrician started his rough in.The windows and doors have arrived and will be
installed. In the next couple of weeks we will be doing the siding. We will be siding the entire house, not just the
addition. This house will be extra hard because it has a thick coat of stucco on it. We will have to shoot wood
nailers into the house so we have something to nail the siding to.
The windows and doors are here and ready to be installed. All are
Even the basement windows are
The old entry now has a nice six panel door, and the concrete has a nice finish coat on it.
The windows and doors are now in, Willie approves!
The inside view of the double window and the french door.
New door installed, new walls under existing floor and new steps going into the existing basement.
A closer look at the walls and steps from the last picture.
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The roof is on now, and the windows are in. The Large chimney on the existing roof will be replaced also.
That half framed wall will be a knee wall. The basement stairs are behind it.
The rough electric is started now. This includes the telephone and cable lines. We will be opening the existing wall
into the addition this week.(there were some surprises in the exterior wall).The siding is now started.
The siding guys are busy. We had to nail wood to the exterior of the house because of the thick layer of stucco.
You can see the wood on the existing house in this picture.
The siding in the back is almost finished.
The siding guys are working thier way around the other side of the house.
After taking down the existing siding on the gable end, we found old roofing, which had to be removed also.
The siding is about finished now.There will be a small deck at the back of the house.
On the front dormer we will be putting
The house is now finished on the exterior. We are waiting for windows to install inside the porch. These windows were removed and covered over by the previous owners, and now we'll be letting the sun shine in.
This wall will be opened to the existing house and a microlamb will be installed.
As you can see from the pictures above, the exterior is finished. The sheetrock is now finished and we will be
putting the finishing touches on. The sidewalk along the side of the house and a slab under the deck will be poured.
The last pile of dirt will be taken away. Final grading, seed and hay will be applied. And then the finished product.
This is the closet in the addition. The trim was just installed.
The final grading is just about finished.
Final grading looking from back.
A slab will be poured below the deck to store garbage cans.
The slab is now poured.
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