OK people. This Photo Gallery thread is gonna be a little different. More topic based than project based. The idea is to go through at least some of the process of site development. Probably won’t be too interesting to some people. And a lot of other’s just kind of take this stuff for granted – I know I have in the past. OTOH it is just as much a part of homebuilding as circular staircases, be it not so “artsyâ€.
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I have been collecting pics for the last few months on 2 different projects I’m involved with. I’m no expert on this stuff, but I thought some would be interested. I’m gonna try to organize the pics in the following categories with probably some misc stuff thrown in. Unfortunately I wasn’t around for the (tree) clearing process on these projects so I’m gonna skip that.
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Categories:
Grading
Surveying
Blasting
Rock
Tree protection
Erosion Control
Wet Utilities
Water main and services
Sanitary sewer main and services
Storm sewer systems
Dry utilities
Power
Phone
CATV
Natural gas
Curb and gutter
Paving
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It’s gonna start up a little slow, but then pick up from there. Again, many will have no interest in this thread – and there is some probably boring stuff involved…
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There are basically 2 sites involved in the pics 1) a 48 unit apartment complex with a budget of roughly 5 $mil and site development budget of maybe a half $mil – it’s an approximately 6 acre site. 2) a housing community of ~20 acres with a site development budget of roughly 2 $mil and an <!—-><!—->unknown <!—-> overall project budget. This one is 86 lots (I think).
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Replies
You say something about pics?
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
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Ya gotta give me a minute.... :-) I got like 140 pics to sort through, resize etc.. Hummm - I see those didn't work out too good size wise on the screen. OK - I'll do better on the next batch.
Edited 4/23/2006 7:14 pm ET by Matt
No problemo. Where is this happening?
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
tagline comments are temporarily suspended due to Percostte
In the Raleigh NC area.
OK, here are some grading pics...
The basic grading activities are cut and fill - moving dirt around the site cut from one area and fill in another area where dirt is needed. The idea is for the engineer to design a "balanced" site, meaning that no dirt will need to be removed from the site (via truck) and no dirt will need to be trucked in.
Might get kind of boring so I'm gonna throw in some tech stuff - GPS.
Your basic machinery are dozers, pans, excavators, and off-road trucks.
Pictures:
0 - an excavator (track hoe) loading up an articulated off-road dump truck.
1 - a pan - used to scrape up dirt in one area and move it to another. I is often used with a dozer and a compactor.
2 - A dozer - notice the GPS receivers on the blade. Sorry, I forgot to get a pic of the GPS screen in the cab....
3 - here is another dozer parked right next the the GPS base station, which is set up in a spot that requires not cut or fill at the beginning of the project.
4 - another shot of the base station. This will be used as a reference point through out the project.
5 - The transceiver of the base station
9 - a GPS rover - used to check progress of the cut and fill operation and a number of other things, one of which might be to topo a pile - to find out the size of a large pile of spoils.
10 - the control panel of the rover.
Some more grading pics...
24 - a dozer cutting in a road - actually I jumped ahead a bit as you can see the erosion control around a storm sewer, and the cleanouts sticking up for the sanitary sewer. I forgot to take of the Cat D-10 they had on site - it was a monster and was only used at the beginning of the project - the blade was maybe 7' tall... Big toys for grown up boys :-)
211- an excavator bucket getting fitted with new digging teeth - there are other types too...
1059 - the mechanic's fuel and lube truck.
1060 - a on-site fuel sled. I'd estimate it holds about 1000 gallons.
1062 - the compactor that belonged in the previous set of pics. This is normally where the beginning operator starts. There is a major danger of falling asleep..
1068 - an excavator loading an articulated truck. The articulated truck steers by bending in the middle. Not really sure but I'm gonna guess it's a 50 ton truck and a 35 ton excavator, although actually they rate the heavy equipment in metric tons... not sure about the trucks...
1119 - a roughed in road - somewhere close to getting ready for the road bed subsurface...
Great stuff, excellent... keep it coming.
IIRC from a previous thread you are a super running several houses at a time. Is this part of the project under your supervision also, or your company's, or is this somewhere you'll be running houses later?
Some of the pics will be from an apartment complex I'm in the finish up stages of.
The single family neighborhood where the grading pics came from I'm supposed to start building ~ June 1, but I gotta finish up the project I'm on now first. My involvment in upcomming neighborhood project is limited to weekly meetings to monitor progress and making sure our lots are being "set up" the way we need them for what I will be building. There are 2 builders in there, and the other is acting as the developer. We have a great site contractor there and things are going like clockwork.
At the other site, I'm learning tons of stuff the hard way... :-) Pics to follow.
I see Marty made it down your way as well.
:-)
"Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think -- there are no little things" - Bruce Barton
just a little touch up and I had to get Boss's Deere back to him...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
I would have prefered a cat but that was all Boss Hog had...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
I can tell that pic is fake, there are no areas that are that flat in NC.
So, with the GPS sensors on the dozers and all, you've basically got CNC grading? I wonder ow long until there's nobody in the cab of the machines...
did
We discused that. An operator still has to feel how the machine is cutting through the dirt... raise the blade if the tracks start slipping or if the motor starts lugging...
I'm guessing we are still 10 to 20 years off...
Matt,
I'd been looking forward to this thread. You were to have started building on June 1, any updates available?
Here is a little bit on surveying. I know very little about this except that the graders, etc are highly dependant on the surveyors. Sometimes, on a good sized project, it seems the surveyors are there daily.
1. They use some apparently pretty sophisticated instruments. The project files are loaded into the instrument.
2. I'm not sure how this really works but it seems that the team lead is often the one who is not operating the instrument.
3. Hubs are set up around the site as reference points. Not a great pic but there is metal stake in the center. The flagging is to help protect the hub from being run over by the heavy equipment (again) :-). There is usually a benchmark somewhere on site that everything goes off. No pic of that.
4. Different companies, etc have different methods of marking their grade stakes, but this one is a "Cut 7.7" or remove 7.7' of dirt.
5. This one is a fill 3.4'. Ideally, the cuts and fill operations on a site balance themselves out so no (or as little as possible) dirt has to be imported or exported.
Moving dirt on and off site is very expensive, given the quantities that can be involved. $15 a yard might be a typical to import or export, depending on if it is compactible fill, top soil or what. Thousands of yards is not a lot, and it can even go up into the 100s of thousands or even millions. Proximity of the sites where the dirt is being moved between is very important. Removal of rock is even more expensive, maybe up to about $80 a yard for off site removal.
The whole dirt business is kind of weird - ideally, they charge one location to remove it, and then charge another location to drop it off. You might think, wow!! - what a racket, but really I don't see these guys getting real rich real fast.... and the dumptruck owner/operators seem to just get by... Many grading companies might have only a few dump trucks, and when they need to move a large quantity of dirt/rock/whatever, trucker subs are called in.
6. You will often see this. They cut around the grade stake to preserve it as long as possible.
Edited 5/28/2006 3:53 pm ET by Matt
Well... I was hoping someone would jump in and fill in some of the blanks on surveying.... I'm only posting about 1/4 of the pics I have.
There was a lot of rock on both of these sites. Most of it was loosened via blasting. Some of it was removed by other means. Rock removal is rather expensive. They charge by the yard. Once the rock is fractured, then it is dug out with large excavators (track hoes).
007 - a drilling rig in place. Holes are drilled and a grid pattern. Note the small piles of white sand where holes have been drilled. Once the drilling is done for an area, dynamite is placed and the blasting is performed. Didn't take any pics of the actual blasting. Probably not a good place to be when you hear the warning horn ;-). At the site where these pics were taken, they had one blowout - the explosion got a little out of control and an area of about 5 acres was covered by broken up rock about the size of softballs that was hurled into the air. I'm guessing that the insurance for blasting is not cheap :-)
1069 - a closer pic of the drill
1070 - A pic of a blast mat. It is basically a bunch of old tires woven together with steel cable. It is placed over a spot to be blasted to help contain the explosion. Ideally, the area to be blasted has several feet of dirt cover and the drilling is rather deep so a blast mat is not necessary, but sometimes they are.
Looks like a lot of slope staking. C/F 3" @ 7'. A little different labeling than we used to use. We use C 3" @7' for a cut, and F 3" @7' for a fill. Too many illierate blade operators. The EDM sure makes it quicker than the old chain and level method. And the theo does the calcs.
Seems to me if you have a good topo of the area, and have coords, the layout and sloping should be real fast.
BTW, when you get down to finish grade, it's called "bluetopping." Need a pic of a 12lb hammer being used. Separates men from the boys.
Exellent pics and narrative.
Thanks for showing the "real" work before the wussie concrete crews and carps show up. ;-)
>> The EDM sure makes it quicker than the old chain and level method. And the theo does the calcs. <<
Can you explain that some?
Thanks
>>Can you explain that some?<<
Yep. An EDM (elecronic distance measuring) device coupled with a theatolite, uses an infraed laser beam propagated from the theatolite to a reflector on a rod, then back to the theatolite (gun). The elapsed time is measured (against the speed of light) and the distance is calculated and displayed. The horizontal and vertical angles are measured and displayed at the gun, with corrections for slope applied to give a true horizontal distance.
When using a chain (tape) and level with rod, we would have to physically measure out from the center line of a roadway or top of a berm and set a stake where the proposed slope or fill (2:1, 3:1, etc.) encounters the existing ground level...within a tenth or so for dirt work. In both cases you have to know the finished grade of the top of slope (TOS), toe of slope (BOS) to calculate the intersection from the percent of grade. Lot easier than it sounds...
theatolite... theodolite... I've heard both terms. Same thing? Which piece of the equipment is this, and what's the root of the term?
Pretty outdated term now, just as "transit" or "level." The theo is now a "total station" because it will not only make the observations, but do the mundane calculations we used to do by hand.
It's tripod mounted device. The data recorder is usually hand-held or clipped to the tripod. The "rod" is now the staff and reflector that the survey helper carries around for observations.
The theodolite basically an optical device that measures both vertical and horizonatal angles.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheodoliteHere is a solid brass on for $729.http://www.stanleylondon.com/theod.htmhttp://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-the1.htm" [Q] From Alasdair Downes: “We had a discussion recently about a theodolite and came to wonder where the word originated since theo- means God. The Chambers 20th Century dictionary simply said the etymology was unknown.â€[A] There’s an intriguing story behind the word, but in essence it boils down to what Chambers says.The portable surveying instrument that we call a theodolite was invented in the middle of the sixteenth century by Leonard Digges of Kent, who gave it a name that was expressed in the common Latinate form of the time: theodelitus. (The name changed to an Anglicised form later, and at that time the e in the middle shifted to o for no very good reason anybody can discover.) His theodolite, by the way, was not quite the same as the modern device, since it consisted of a circle for measuring horizontal angles only. It was described in a book that was published posthumously by his son Thomas in 1571: A Geometricall Practise, named Pantometria, divided into Three Bookes, Longimetria, Planimetria, and Stereometria, containing Rules manifolde for Mensuration of all Lines, Superficies, and Solides (but then you knew that).The problem for those seeking the true origin of the word is that Mr Digges never recorded how he invented it. The suspicion is that he was a better surveyor and inventor than he was a scholar. The word looks Greek, as is theos, the word meaning “god†that we have in English words such as theology. It may be—this is only an educated guess, mind you—that he derived it from the Greek stem thea-, sight or view, which is also, through Greek compounds, the root of theorem (from theorein, to look at or be a spectator), and theatre (from theasthai, to see or to look at). If he did, we shall never know."
Edited 6/2/2006 8:31 am by BillHartmann
Thanks for the explanation. Great stuff. I was hoping this thread that will address a number of subjects in a redamentary manner would spark some discussions that I cluld learn from....
There's a TV show I've seen a few times on highrise construction. It shows the surveyor coming onsite to set points on a newly poured deck many stories off of the ground, maybe the tenth floor or something like that. He has a control point set at street level on a chunk of dead-end street next to the project, that he uses every time. He sets up his instrument near the edge of the floor so it can see the control point (there may be two... it would seem that he'd need two... but they only show one).
Anyway, once he shoots the control point(s) the instrument knows its own location on the floor, and he starts shooting points elsewhere on the floor for wall lines, corners, etc. Slicker than snot, really, and the instrument looks like it costs a year's pay! The carpenters then come in and start building from those points.
I've come close to taking a job or two where I would have had a surveyor come out and put in building corners.... odd shaped buildings on odd shaped lots.
>> I've come close to taking a job or two where I would have had a surveyor come out and put in building corners <<
Every house I build is located by a surveyor. One trip for a slab on grade house, 2 trips for raised foundation foundation house, sometimes another trip for as-built:
trip 1) set house corners prior to digging of footers.
trip 2) set "brick points" on newly poured footers. "Brick points" apply to concrete foundations too.
trip 3) (optional) do an as-built survey which shows exactly where the house really ended up.
Step 2 became popular about 10 or 15 years ago, and really reduces the number of mistakes for foundations. The surveyor drives a nail in the fresh concrete at the exact point of the house corner and either marks it with orange tape or spray paint. I'm not really sure many foundation crews (masons or concrete) around here even know how to layout a foundation without step # 2 any more. This is also probably why we never use batter boards anymore. Surveyors help immensely with sloped sites too.
Step #3 is sometimes required by the bank. To me though, it's a good example of adding costs to a house for little gain.
I think the increased use of surveyors is partially due to the fact that more lots are small in relation to the size of house that is being placed on it, so the structure is tight to the setbacks. When I'm placing a house on a lot (on paper) I try to stay at least 6" away from setback lines so that a mistake of a few inches won't matter.
All this talk about surveying makes me want to take a class at the local community college. I'll add that to the hundred other things I'd like to know more about... :-)
Edited 6/2/2006 8:08 am ET by Matt
Thanks for showing the "real" work before the wussie concrete crews and carps show up. ;-)
Uh, oh. You're in trouble.
See, they know it's the truth 'cause there havn't been any gripin.' It takes a lotta prep so the princesses can go to work....
This challenge is written with humor and light heartedness intended. No offense.
I have been priviledged to have experience in both areas. I started as a frame carpenter in Tennessee in 1971. I framed for many years, before nail guns became common. On some Summer days my hand cleaved to my hammer. I had to peal my fingers off of the handle. We walked 2 x 4 -2 to 3 stories in the air, we carried plywood up steeply pitched roofs, layed them against the rafters and fastened, we provided cornice craftsmanship while balancing on a 2 x 8 site built scaffold 1-3 stories off the ground with 50 pounds of tools straped to our waste and handling 16' pieces of siding and cornice boards. We stood on 2 x 4 top plates 8' - 20' off the ground, hoisting, carring and setting 2 x 12 x 26' lumber on accurate layout marks, we built 40'-50' and 60' walls laid on the salb, them lifted them over anchor bolts to place them...etc.
I am now 51 and own 100 acres. At 51, I own a tractor and skid loader. I also share a much larger tractor technically owned by our Church / Ministry.
At 51, it is evidence that demands a verdict, that I can run the tractor and / or loader for 10 to 12 hours, but ask me to frame under the same conditions and weather....no way....I would play out early in the day.
Sitting on a piece of equipment and driving around playing in the dirt is a piece of cake campared to framing. Being one who has also (in my youth) set forms, dug beams and tied stell I find the same is true with concrete work. I now have a superintendent that is a framer and runs my equipment. I think he has the same mind. In some of the first projects in which he was doing dirt work on the machines, he commented that he could not believe that he could get paid for having so much fun.
Maybe we should have a contest in August in Texas. My super against your best machine operator....not so much a test of skills, but a test of endurance in the Texas heat. We frame for 12 hour days for three days and then run machines for 12 hour days three days. At the end of the six days a panel of judges will determine who provided the best value and help to the others trade. : - )
The loser and all of his supprters should pay some humbling and ridiculously silly penalty.
Naw, that's all behind me now.
FYI, surveyors are like the SeaBees, first in, and last out. They have to do a site topo and locate all trees and utilities. And, if you've ever had to grid a 40 acre site, you get well aquainted with ax, machete, and chain saw. Then we have to lay out access roads so the "Bob the Builders" can drive their machines in and start the excavation. Then we gotta hold their hands when they cut stakes out and can't figure which is a cut or fill. I've seen roadbeds superelevated on the inside of curves. No clue. After that, we have to lay out the slabs, utilitues, and lot lines. I've even had carps want me to lay out interior walls if "I've got a minute." After the building is completed and the painters have left, we get to come back and do "as-builts."
I've tied steel, roofed, and roughnecked, and IMHO, surveying is the hardest, but most satisfying, occupation to do outdoors.
BTW, next week is Surveyor's Appreciation Week. Take a crew to lunch.
Yea, no big deal. I am sure anyone who does not have a hardy respect for the work of concrete crews or framers does not know anything about the trades.
The only thing we use surveyors for is to locate the lot. We do our own layouts. In fact, just last week we went out and found our lot pins with a metal detector.
Bit of advice. Be sure those are the "right" pins. I've worked on dozens of as-builts where the contractors used the wrong pins and had to compensate adjoiners or remove structures within easements or ROW's...
Thanks, good advise, but lots are a replat. Old lots were much smaller, everything is square and linear. The new pins were set in 2000, the old pins in the 40s. The new pins are marked with a plastic cap / surveyors name. We found all 4.
The sub-division is very interesting. It was a New Gulf Sulpher Company mining town, built by the company for the company, started in the 40s. Blocks were 9 lots and 9 lots back to back. The lots were 57 x 125 and contained small well built wooden 2-3 bedroom homes. All the homes were sold and moved out (they now dot the counrtyside). The blocks were replatted. The blocks are now 3 lots and 3 lots back to back. Lots are now 171 x 125 / 1 for 3. All old pins were removed, except block corners. The old block corner pins are very intersting, having a 3" steel disc a-top the pin with surveyor info, probably cost prohibitive today. Now we get a piece of rebar and a plastic cap.
The old mining town with its small sensible homes is now a custom home sub-division with homes from 2600 SF. The one we are starting is 4500 SF.
Before the new monumentation requirements in Texas, we set everything from galvanized and black iron pipes, galvanized square head pins used to peg PP X bars together, RR spikes (in tree roots), axles, all kinds of rebar, and concrete monuments with a copper pin. As long as you described what you set, no problem.
Saw a lot of strange corners. One, a buried headstone, complete with date and name of deceased on the field notes. Rifle barrels. Sash weights. Holes with cans and old boots. Found a quart mason jar full of silver dollars over in Tarrytown next to Johnson Creek after the '81 Memorial Day floods. Old woman had been there 52 years, and her father had built the house, and buried the money during the Depression. She was so tickled, she made us all the lemonade we could drink, and showed us every damned picture of her family and the place. Water just missed her back porch.
There was a scam going on in tract houses post WW-II and in the early '50's when rebar was expensive. The concrete crews would tie the steel, the inspector would come by, OK it, then leave. The crew would pick the steel up, and move down the street and put it in another slab. Ever seen any '40-50's slabs or footings with no steel? Had two inspectors and an CE tell me that one.
I have some of those here on my properrty, but added 5/8" rebar and plastic caps when last surveyed . Found steel pipe, old axle and concrete monument.
We have also found artifacts from Santa Anna and US (Sam Houston) army, cannon ball, saddle hardware, buttons, barrell hoops, belt buckles, etc. Apparently they traveled through this area after the Alamo, one or both armies may have crossed my property. Three miles north is a small town called Spanish Camp.
Not far from here a whole wagon (or what was left was found buried). According to history it was very rainy and wet when the armies went through here. Lots of equipment was bogged down and lost. Many of the artifacts found in this area are at the Alamo Museum in San Antonio.
I was in a surveyors store today buying a grade rod. I saw several bins of brightly colored plastic caps and thought, hummm what are those for... now I know!
Probably both Santa Anna and the Texicans crossed your area several times. The Texicans during the Runaway Scrape, then the Mexicans chasing them and then parts of the Texican army on the way to San Jacinto and then the Mexican's in their march back to Mexico after San Jacinto.
That's really neat. Part of Santa Anna's army marched up to Bastrop and burned it down after the Alamo. Lots of history down your way. I still like to look at the missions occasionally when I'm down there. The General Land Office in Austiin has the originals of a lot of grants and plats from that period that I've looked at.
The Mexican army really had it hard on the march to Texas. Get a copy of De LaPena's diary. I just can't imagine it getting cold and snowy enough to freeze mules when they crossed the Rio Grande in February. Check it out. Might find it interesting.
Well, I'm not sure what blanks you would want filled in. You have some decent pictures and your explanations and descriptions are accurate. I am doing the construction stakeout "surveying" for three different sites right now - one is a large stormwater pond for the local medical center, one is a new drugstore in an infill parcel in town, and the third is a small condo complex (six units). I use a two-man crew, sometimes three. The instrument man, me, uses a total station and data collector, basically a tiny Windows-based PC, to set line and grade from established control points. Instead of hubs we typically use large magnetic spikes set in pavement, or a piece of plastic-capped rebar in a spot that isn't likely to be disturbed until the landscaping phase of a project. The rodman carries a prism on an extendible pole, a bag of grade stakes, hammer, flagging, marker and tape measure marked in tenths and feet. The third guy, if we use a 3-man crew, will carry the stakes and flagging and do all the hammering - basically a laborer.
So when we go onto a site, I have a base map that has all the points I need to set marked as x,y,z coordinates with a description and point number. I tell the unit what point I want to set, and based on where I have the instrument set up, it will tell me to turn an angle and go a certain distance to that point. The rodman will move around by my telling him, go left, right, away or back 'x' feet until we are close, and then fine-tune it until we can get within 0.25' for rough grading and 0.10' for fine grading. We try to set building corners with finish nails in hubs to the nearest 0.01'. I have a hard time seeing grade marked on a stake as feet and tenths, I think that's lazy. The stake should be marked to an even foot of cut or fill, and it's just as easy to do, and it's a LOT easier for the machine operator to read and understand. If there's a point they need that isn't in my database, I can create it in the computer. It's not all that simple, any monkey can run the instrument but you also have to understand the numbers that you are getting. The surveyor needs to be able to have that common sense that tells him the point he just set is in the right place and the grade is correct.
Nobody around here uses GPS for machine control, the jobs are just not big enough and none of the excavating companies are willing to spend the money on the equipment. Even on some of the more recent highway jobs locally, there's a three or four-man crew with conventional instruments out on the site.
Thanks for the info.
I guess the GPS is used to reduce surveyor costs :-( Still, on a larger project, the surveyors have plenty of work... And it's like you said, on a small project, GPS wouldn't be used.
Nice pictures. I work from the design and supervision end of what you're taking photos of. Those are nice sized projects and look like they're being built right.
Only thing I have an issue with is the GPS base station. Looks a little bit unstable. I think I'd set a permanent concrete monument and brass cap somewhere in a safe place on site, surround it with some jersey barriers and flagging, and skip the 4x4. One careless machine operator and bye-bye base station.
Interesting thread...........brings back lots of memories. I paid for college in the early to mid 60's working as a heavy equipment operator - mostly on I-70 and I-55 near St Louis. I worked from Memorial Day to Labor Day and could make enough money to pay for the next year of school. On payday, my buddies and I would compare checks and I usually had more taxes witheld than they grossed - lol.
No GPS in those days. The surveyors ran grade stakes and god help the operator who knocked one over - lol.
My Dad got me into the union and made it VERY clear that this was a temporary gig for me. He told me that if he ever caught me on one of those yellow dogs after I finished school he would personally kick my arse into the next county. The crews I worked with all knew how Pop felt. One year, I said I wanted to work past Labor Day and the superintendent told me that he didn't care if I went back to school, but he was firing me on the Friday before Labor Day.
My last day on a dozer was in the late 60's when I was on leave from the Navy and helped him dig a large basement for the local Masonic lodge.
I was laying out a manufacturing plant expansion job a few years back, it was a miserable day, late fall, cold rain, spitting a bit of snow. The operators were pretty careless and they had taken out a few stakes already. We had just gotten done setting the last stake and I was talking to the job super, for some reason I turned around to look at the dozer operator and he was backing over the stake I had just set. He gave us a big grin, threw up his hands and kept on going.
I turned to the super and told him that the next time I came back, all the stakes better still be there, I didn't care if they were ten feet in the air on a pile of dirt, or it was gonna cost somebody $200 PER STAKE. He could take it out of the guy's paycheck if he wanted.
I came back the next week to reset that stake and a few others and there was a different guy running the dozer..... first guy was nowhere to be found. Made some good money on that job, we must have put a couple thousand stakes in even though there were only about 300 points.
Very good thread! Thanks for bringing it up.
If having a low wage work force was good for a country's economy then why hasn't Mexico built a fence?
Great thread, I do some similar things on my property, but in low budget old school fashon. I am reading with great intrest.
2) a housing community of ~20 acres with a site development budget of roughly 2 $mil and an unknown overall project budget. This one is 86 lots (I think).
$2,000,000.00 and 86 lots:
$23,255.81 per lot for site development. Do you know if that includes roads / streets, utilities and individual lot survey and / or metes and bounds description of lots?
Tex:
The development costs include all of that except >>metes and bounds description of lots << ... I don't know what that means. I do know that the lots are, or will shortly be "recorded" which I think addresses the >> metes and bounds << thing. The per lot cost to us is partially based on development costs. We are buying 52 from the developer. It's city water and sewer. You will see that later in pics under categories I listed in the first post of this thread.
My bossman is a very savy businessman, and I'm sure he will have me permit and probably grade for excavation before we even own a lot! Less interest that way...
In the meantime I gotta keep on the developer to not pull any sheet over on us. For example ~16 lots had trees left in the building envelopes. Engineering firm screwed up. I demanded that the trees be removed (in a nice way), and now am trying to get them to properly grub the formally wooded areas to remove the remains of the root mat.
OK, time for some more pics, etc about rock.
Rock removal is very expensive and is always a big $ topic of conversation during site work. A price for off site removal of rock from a utility trench, for example, might be $75 a yard which might equate to $750 per dump truck load, and that may not include blasting charges. Several months ago we had some rock blasted from an area about 30' x 50' x 15' deep and the blast bill was $12 K. I forget what they charge per yard for the blasting...
Anyway, here are the pics:
000 - We had a lot of rock at both the subject sites. Here is some...
001 - Aside from blasting, rock can be broken up with an excavator fitted with a hammer, which ends up being much slower than blasting. Here a "hammer hoe" (I love that term!!) is being used to bust up some boulders in small enough pieces to be dealt with. I'd estimate this is a 60,000# machine with a 8 or 12k# hammer. We rented one similar at the cost was ~2000 a day or $7000 a week, plus fuel delivery, tax, etc. The hammer itself actually rents for as much as the machine. Reason being that these hammers literally beat themselves to death in a relatively short period. When you get a work out hammer - you know it... Also different rock varies significantly in hardness.
002 - An excavator dropping some rock into a rock crusher. Another machine that beats itself to death... Every other week it's: The machine is down for repairs". The idea though is to minimize the expense of dealing with rock by crushing it up into "processed fill", and using it on site. The rock crusher outputs 4" minus. It can be adjusted I think by using different screens, but smaller than 4" is too slow (read $) and larger than 6" will not compact properly in fill operations.
005 - A bucket outfitted with rock teeth on a excavator owned by a utility contractor. Softer rock can be scraped out of the trench.
007 & 008 - a pic of an excavator bucket with a thumb and outfitted with rock teeth. They were using this to load rock into the rock crusher.
013 - another shot of the rock crusher. I think it runs unattended, except that there is an operator on an excavator loading it and another usually nearby on a dozer pushing the pile out of the way. I don't know... maybe it's remote control... Anybody know?
016 - In this pic, we are "making dirt". Which simply means digging a big hole and filling it with some moderate sized rock (behind and to the left of the machine) to get rid of the undesirable material and get some dirt for backfill, etc. Obviously, no building, concrete, etc will go on top of where the rock is buried. This hole is about 14x14x14 and will hold about 75 yards of rock with about 4' of dirt cover on it. That could yeild about a $4k savings over off site removal as this was not trench rock.
I got on one of these hammer HOs :-) just to play and the feeling is awesome - swinging that maybe 40,000# machine around and then lowering the 20,000#+ arm down on a boulder and engaging the hammer - WOW - big boys toyz :-) really bad for a hangover morning though!!!
One additional rock picture -
1009 - What the rock crusher produces. We will use most of this material for structured fill that will go below foundations, etc. The placing of the fill will be compacted (rolled) in lifts as it is installed and the whole operation will be supervised by a geotech engineer. If we have to export some of this stuff it will still be cheaper than hauling away pure rock, because the material can be sold elsewhere, where unprocesed rock would just be dumped.
I have only looked at the piles from the road. But it appears that the onsite crushers here are used to producte smaller stuff (1", maybe 2 at the most).A couple of years ago there a country club was redeveloped and they curshed up the old driveways, foundations, pools, etc.Now there is a develope of another site that only limited existing structions, but large amount of rock that is being moved. Those piles are futher from the road and might be biggerr agragate.About 20 years ago our whole cities (about 350 houses) sewer system was replaced with a forced main system and in ground holding tanks and grinder pumps.A much smaller version of that hammer hoe worked in my side yard for about 3 days to get a deep enough hole to plant the tank.
OK - here is a few pics on tree protection. This is actually one of the first on-site activities in the site development process, but I saved it for later since there is not much to the pics I have. I think it might spark some controversy though.
002 - Here is an orange tree protection fence with a black silt fence right in front of it. Locally, most municipalities require that a buffer of woody plant material be in place around a site. This might be natural material or trees and shrubs planted after the fact. Obviously, natural material is much cheaper. It is always good to leave as many trees as is possible, but it also often gets in the way of getting the lots graded so that the yards are not so steep.
003 - sometimes tree protection doesn't work out and plans have to change...