1st Anniversary Celebration
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Getting close
We have been quite busy with our buildout. Our underground plumbing was a very tough hurdle for us to conquer. The existing plumbing in the building was not up to current California Building Code. The main sewer line that runs underground is a 3″ pipe and it has a fall (slope) of 1/8″ per foot. Current code requires any 3″ pipe to fall 1/4″ per foot and any 4″ pipe could fall at 1/8″ per foot.
Our inspector had asked us to follow the existing 3″ pipe to the furthest point to where we would tie into it. There was a 4″ pipe coming off the bathrooms that appeared to connect with the 3″ pipe that we were following. We dug up a portion of the parking lot to where we believed the pipe connection would take place, but found that both the 4″ and 3″ pipes ran parallel further down the parking lot. We had told the inspector that we were not about to chase the 3″ line further beyond where we needed to dig. He agreed to “grandfather” the existing 3″ pipe (with the 1/8″ per foot fall), but required us to install any connecting plumbing to current code. This made things difficult because the existing pluming line was not as deep underground as we needed to conform to our approved plans. We had to make a few adjustments that took more time and money than we first had planned. After over a week of some more floor demo, dirt moving and additional plumbing supply purchases we finally passed our inspection to allow us to pour concrete. This past Saturday we had a morning schedule of 2 concrete trucks carrying a total of 15 yards of concrete and 2 concrete finishers to get the brewery solid again (at least with regard to the floor). A 12″ reinforced slab was poured just outside of our building. This slab will support our grain silo, boiler and glycol chiller. The concrete that was poured inside was to set our plumbing of 3 separate trench drain assemblies, 2 floor sinks, 1 mop sink and the venting that is required to all drains. We finally were able to take a day off (the first since returning from GABF) on Sunday, except for getting materials purchased and ready for a Monday crew of drywall tapers.
Let the work commence
So we had to pick the hottest week of the year to begin/continue our buildout. This week we are concentrating on making our tasting room a rated room. Basically, since our tasting room is a separate room from our brewery, the room needs to have a one hour fire rating from any production area (brewery). One of the items that needs to happen to achieve this rating is that we need to install 5/8″ drywall 4 feet away from the room on the ceiling as seen in the picture.
Our plumbing needs is the first priority for our buildout because the entire brewery is cut up and waiting for concrete to be poured so we can be mobile again in the building. The biggest obstacle that we are encountering is that of our plumbing/waste line. The existing cast iron drain line is 3″ with a 1/8″ per foot fall (slope). A 4″ drain pipe can fall at 1/8″ per foot. We have been instructed that any new plumbing installed will have to meet code which would mean that if we are to install 3″ pipe, we would have to have a fall of 1/4″ per foot. This is virtually impossible to achieve unless we were cut up the entire parking lot and follow the 3″ pipe until it connect to a 4″ pipe. We have a meeting with inspectors in the morning to see if there is some feasible solution to this.
We are still on track to have our tasting room open by the end of October. Our plans are to get the tasting room open, continue to contract brew our beers at Dale Bros Brewery in Upland while we work on getting our production brewery in operation, which we hope will be by the end of this year.
We keep our fingers crossed that there will not be too many obstacles along the way.
Health Department
We finally received Health Department this past Thursday. We tried to post this sooner, but were quite busy with all of the brew events at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.
This is/was the last step in getting our permits from the city of Anaheim to begin/continue our buildout. The approved plans will be picked up this week from the health department and delivered to the city so that they can issue a permit for buildout.
We met with the city inspectors a week ago for a pre-construction discussion at the brewery. The information that they presented will help with various stages of the buildout inspections and should save us some time.
Health Department
We know, those are two words that scare a lot of business owners. (including us)
It is much more difficult to get through the health department in Orange County than it is in San Diego County.
We are getting very close to have this approval. We just had to clean up the finish schedule…flooring, walls, base cove, ceiling etc., figure a way to enclose our roll up door and explain our operation (mainly the tasting room). Let’s just cross our fingers and hope that this latest design along with our next finish schedule submittal will work.
