Playing in the Sand Pit

[Squizzy246B]

As the scarey moderator guy with the big sicle would say....this is the classic Bass Ackwards job.

The owner is an engineer:eek: (thats your first clue). He struggled to get plans to put three units on this block but eventually got it through with major concessions. He was unable to bring up the left side of the site to take advantage of the sand onsite.

The second major problem was demoing the old house. Our friend the engineer went with the cheapest quote ($10K less than the others)....so the guy didn't really do demolition....what he did was invert the house...yup...most of the house appears to be buried on site:mad:

I quoted this job 5 months ago (indicative only) on the drawings and for the walls only...no earthworks (Thank the Lord...twice:cool2)

The owner agreed the fences would be removed and the earthworks would at least be at a stage where I could build the walls.......so I had the blocks delivered (Big mistake) to avoid a price rise....Imagine my face when I got to site and find that by some magic I'm building walls in mid air....now we are good but.....:rolleyes:...and other walls are 6 foot under.

Here is what it looked like last week:

In the first pic we are removing the timber fence....was that in the quote...ummmm...No!. The corrugated fibre cement fence up the back was manufactured before 1987 so it contains white asbestos....lets see....nope...no asbestos removal in the quote:D

The blocks are in my way and have to be moved.

In the third pic by the right leg of the tripod and infront of the concrete apron is the water main pipe....what it is doing that shallow..???:beatsme

[Squizzy246B]

So I built some retaining on the left side and explained the concept of "Time & Materials" and "hourly hire" to our good friend the engineer....he really is a good guy....just needed some planning.

The surveyor pegs out and as you can see the actual corner of the block is on top of the telephone junction box:Banghead.

Next I got EfFie the 938......nope...no loaders an trucks mentioned in the quote;)

Check the spider on the back of the semi. I'm loading here even before the sun comes up because its been hell hot.

[Squizzy246B]

So I did a bit of diggin..

The load out point is terriffic...On oneside is a power pole with an overhead line, on the other side where the steel post is, lays the water meter for the site:Banghead

With the rear end of the loader down the ramp you have to watch the Z linkage on the higher sided trucks.

[Squizzy246B]

You can see the overhead wire above the truck...just great!

I got 14 truckloads out this morning.....340m3 so far (440 yd3).....thats not in the quote either:rolleyes:

an thaT bucket aint full:(

Stay tuned next week for another rivetting installment in the SandPit!

[HeyUvaVT]

wow squizz good luck with that..hope you are gettin ur $$ outta this job..looks like ALOT more work than you signed on for...at least the property owner has a decent contractor working for him now...keep us posted!

[Squizzy246B]

Well there is no point complainin....we like to provide solutions, not throw up objections...but still...its a PITA job

[jazak]

Looks good. How far down to you have to dig to hit stable earth? I hope you're not going to stack on the sand................

[Lashlander]

Some times a change in plans, although a pain, can work out well for the bank account! Nice pictures.
Is that 938 really considered Oversized?

[Squizzy246B]

Looks good. How far down to you have to dig to hit stable earth? I hope you're not going to stack on the sand................

Jaz, I would have to go about another 40' before I hit solid limestone. What makes you think that the sand is unstable?.

[Squizzy246B]

Is that 938 really considered Oversized?

You know I have never actually checked. The oversize signs where put there by the city council that originally owned the machine so maybe the width is close.

[Construct'O]

I'm missing some important details ????? Please explain what your actually doing?Before that i'll try guessing.

Unlevel lot being leveled up or down it seems.So is the darker dirt the closest thing to top soil(black dirt) you have where your at.Does it stay or are you stock pileing to remove ,save then sell later or will it be spread over site when done.

Is the walls to be built on top of like a basement for house or juast used for retaining walls.Will the walls go around the whole area or just the deep dig sides.In one set of pic you already had placed a few blocks.They stay ,but will be a low wall for the low side of the lot.

Sand,sitck, or building lumber from old house there before you started??? is being removed and hauled off site,never to return,hopefully.Interesting project,if i just know what was happening.

So the extra work will you get paid for it or was this a bid and your just out for the extra's.Not good if that is the case.

Sorry i had to ask so many question to understand what is happening.Good luck

[Squizzy246B]

I'm missing some important details ????? Please explain what your actually doing?Before that i'll try guessing.

G,day Construct'O, Goodo!...I'll try an explain...but thats part of the problem, I had no plan for this, I just got lumbered with it...so the plan is basically on of those day to day things...undesirable. I turned up to build the walls....I'm not sure what the owner was thinking I would be able to do. However, nobody else was going to come and do the work at short notice.

Unlevel lot being leveled up or down it seems.So is the darker dirt the closest thing to top soil(black dirt) you have where your at.Does it stay or are you stock pileing to remove ,save then sell later or will it be spread over site when done.

My only contract was build various retaining walls, everthing else is hourly hire (extras, do and pay). Its not much more than a cut and fill except there is very little space to fill. The grey crap on top was/is the "topsoil" but it was all mixed with demolition waste. I sent the first 4 trucks to the rubbish tip (about 100 yd3). The remainder of excess fill I sent to a recycler for the cost of truck hire only, they will screen the sand and on-sell for fill material. I have kept about 120 yd3 for backfilling the various walls and levelling up the house pads to sub-grade although I will have to rake more debris from this as I spread it.

Is the walls to be built on top of like a basement for house or juast used for retaining walls.Will the walls go around the whole area or just the deep dig sides.In one set of pic you already had placed a few blocks.They stay ,but will be a low wall for the low side of the lot.

The wall at the left is coming up about 3'. The remaining walls will retain around the site basically as I have dug out. There is no basements. The level we finish at will be 8" below slab level with 4" of screened yellow sand to be imported and a 4" concrete slab (plus footings). There are two small houses at the front (lower level) and one up the rear on the higher level.

This all could have been done in a more economical mannner if one of the neighbours hadn't got all anal with the city approvals etc. Its not what you know its who you know!. If the left side had of been retained even another foot higher it would have been heaps better.....but what can you do?.

Sand,sitck, or building lumber from old house there before you started??? is being removed and hauled off site,never to return,hopefully.Interesting project,if i just know what was happening.

All that crap has to go. I suggested to the owner the demo guy should be held accountable:beatsme..if the builder saw this he would have a heart attack.

So the extra work will you get paid for it or was this a bid and your just out for the extra's.Not good if that is the case.

I will be doing up the extras bill today:cool2

Sorry i had to ask so many question to understand what is happening.Good luck

I like to work these things out well before they start......but its an opportunity for me to make some extras and, if it doesn't get done I'm going to be held up anyway. At least if I do it I can prep my walls the way I want.

[jazak]

Jaz, I would have to go about another 40' before I hit solid limestone. What makes you think that the sand is unstable?.

Are you going to bury a course? If so then it will be fine.........

Looks like a fun job.

I should've taken pics of the area I had to drive a New Holland TC 45. It was dirt built up on a drop off to make a 50' "road" about 1' wider then the tractor. On each side it dropped off about 2-3' and also on each was a house no more then 1' drop off. We where taking down a couple large oak trees for a guy who had a lake house and the road was to narrow to use a crane.

[Construct'O]

Thanks for filling me in on the details up to this point.

Looks a little dry and hot over in your neighborhood.So do you have to haul water in to compact things and for laying of your blocks?

After you get the walls up. There is going to be a house built on a slab with the retaining walls on the outside of the property line.Lot seems small,but probably bigger if a person was actually there.

Is this pretty much the normal size of lots you work on? Doesn't give you much room to run your loader around.

You need a few more blocks to move:D,plus a couple more things to work around and not run over.

Please get a job completed pic.Okay !Good luck. Carry on :notworthy:usa

[Squizzy246B]

Jaz, there are two types of wall going in here; Mass Retaining Walls which I am building and Post & Panel concrete. The Mass bocks are 14" high and the first course will be on a compacted base around 12" in the ground depending on the wall height.

The post and panel stuff is used where there is little space for blocks. The design is onerous, the posts being concreted as far in the ground as they are out. I declined to do the post and panel stuff (have done a few) because you need the right gear for lifting and handling. Many guys use labour by hand but if my nephew and I can't do it with mechanisation...we just plain don't (aside from occaisional brain fades when I decide to do manual jobs in 100 F+ weather:Banghead).

Looks a little dry and hot over in your neighborhood.So do you have to haul water in to compact things and for laying of your blocks?

Its in the 90's most days at the moment. For the walls I'll be putting water overnight using a soaker hose. The final compaction will be the builders problem but we will have to get plenty of water on it along the way.

After you get the walls up. There is going to be a house built on a slab with the retaining walls on the outside of the property line.Lot seems small,but probably bigger if a person was actually there.

Correct, these "townhouses" are all the go at the moment....people are subdividing their existing lots and building small units simply to make $$$. Our government has decreed a certain amount of new housing must occur within existing suburbs.....we have too much urban sprawl and a lack of medium and higher density housing.....the backyard is dead or shrinking. All hard to believe in a country the size of the continetal US but with only 22 million people. Brisbane, capital of Queensland is geographically one of the biggest cities in the world.

Anyway, this is a medium sized job for us, we like sub-division. With our small machines we can knock over most jobs and we grab the loader when we have to.

If somebody else turns up and puts anymore crap on this site I'll do what I did once with a load of scaffolding delivered to my site....use the loader and...ummm...relocate it.

[jazak]

How much is there price difference compared to a job like that here an dout by you? And also what about equipment?

[Turbo21835]

I like your thinking on moving the stuff in your way squizzy. We were finish grading parking areas at a school. We told the masons we need the scaffold, block, cement, and a pile of masonary sand moved. Finally after a week of waiting for them to move, and finishing all the other parking areas, including gravel base for pavement, we were still waiting on the masons. The project manager told us do what you gotta do. So, we took the dozer over, spread the pile of sand out, and started pushing pallets of block. The masons decided they need to move quick. All 3 of their forktrucks were over moving their stuff out of the way before we pushed the second pallet of block.