Our survey crew and excavator completed the digging project at our semi detached job site .  With the excavation all done, the surveyor must return to mark out the corners and height of our footings.  Unfortunately our cribbing crew is super busy at the moment and an earlier delay (from a previous excavation company that cancelled on us) resulted in the typical domino effect of one contractor being unable to complete on time, thus impacting the rest of our basement schedule.

A third contractor, who does our sewer install, is super reliable and has given a firm date.  This creates a peculiar situation where we are going to have a sewer installed prior to the basement walls.  As frustrating as this appears, it is just another construction aggravation we tend to encounter all too often.  What we have learned, especially when it comes to utilities and underground installation is that you, as the builder, must never be the cause of delays or not be ready for the crew.  If you do this, you will get pushed to the back of the line, with even worse consequences later.  For deep sewer/water install, that tends to not happen in winter without serious cost, we are happy to go ahead and get it done now, rather than wait until spring.

If we were to wait until spring, the outcome could be that our contractor will have a huge list of work and our job wouldn't be done quick enough.  Not having water on site is very in convenient for the finishing trades, and would prevent us from installing sidewalks and landscaping.  Better to have the street dug up, the mess all contained into a smaller window, and we can backfill the walls later.