A few projects I have done recently

CM1995 said:

Kicking around the idea to go to Orlando in Feb for the big auctions and hit the parks, basically a vacation the better 1/2 and I can write off. Never been to a big RB auction before.

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Do it! It is a big one. I recall my former boss used to go to that one. And I used to purchase equipment decals from Associated Graphix out of Ohio. He set up a mobile decal printing trailer and every Feb he'd shut down the shop in Ohio and travel to Orlando and set up shop at the auctions printing decals from his trailer shop. Perfect win win for him, write off expenses to Orlando, still generate sales, and mini vacation to sunny Fla in Feb. Brilliant!

RB has some big auctions here (Nisku). They don't mess around. If you want something you better bid because they don't give you much chance to think about it if you're not sure. Common to have 3 rings going at the same time. Not good if you're looking at multiple items for sale at the same time.
As far as the roof damage, could the insurance company be questioning the GC's hiring the kid for so much less than established contractors were bidding? It wasn't even close. Just thinking the GC has to share a bunch of the responsibility.

Welder Dave said:

RB has some big auctions here (Nisku). They don't mess around. If you want something you better bid because they don't give you much chance to think about it if you're not sure. Common to have 3 rings going at the same time. Not good if you're looking at multiple items for sale at the same time.
As far as the roof damage, could the insurance company be questioning the GC's hiring the kid for so much less than established contractors were bidding? It wasn't even close. Just thinking the GC has to share a bunch of the responsibility.

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No they can't do that but they can prorate the roof because it is near the end of its life expectancy

re: the roof; I'm curious how close the trees were when you bid job?

Is the building that was punctured the one way off in the background in post #2102? I know you said you priced it for a tree guy to fell the trees....was that only because you were too busy or did you think it was unsafe to fell them with your excavator regardless? Were you going to dig the stumps, even the ones close to the building, after they were felled? I've had some that I was worried about a root popping the foundation if I pushed it they were so close.

I ask because it can be tempting to do too much with an excavator clearing imo. Especially when the customer waits until everything is built and then decides they want that big monster they were 'saving' down. I had a similar situation this weekend....it wasn't real bad, but all I could think about was this kid landing it through the roof. Had my confidence rattled, that's for sure.

The Peej said:

No they can't do that but they can prorate the roof because it is near the end of its life expectancy

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I was wondering about pro-rating the roof since it is 20 years old. The GC likely learned a valuable lesson too.

savman said:

re: the roof; I'm curious how close the trees were when you bid job?

Is the building that was punctured the one way off in the background in post #2102? I know you said you priced it for a tree guy to fell the trees....was that only because you were too busy or did you think it was unsafe to fell them with your excavator regardless? Were you going to dig the stumps, even the ones close to the building, after they were felled? I've had some that I was worried about a root popping the foundation if I pushed it they were so close.

I ask because it can be tempting to do too much with an excavator clearing imo. Especially when the customer waits until everything is built and then decides they want that big monster they were 'saving' down. I had a similar situation this weekend....it wasn't real bad, but all I could think about was this kid landing it through the roof. Had my confidence rattled, that's for sure.

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I priced the job with a tree guy using his all terrain rubber tracked lift to take the trees closest to the building down from the top. Wasn't worried about the stumps as the trees weren't that close to the building and it's a poured foundation, no cmu.

Since the job required several trees to come top down and the overall site was rather small it made sense to sub the entire project out. All the brush had to be hauled out and the job was too small for a grinder so a grapple truck is the most efficient means of disposal.

The trees that close and specifically the one that hit the build should've been taken down from the top as there was also the 3 phase overhead power the tree missed by 4-5'.

Long story short the 308 couldn't handle the tree and we wouldn't have attempted to take that tree down with our 321. The tree that hit the building needed to come down top down.

I learned on an old L9000 and it was so slow it was almost unsafe on the road lol..reliable as all get out tho and great to learn on

Big trucking aint fast. If you are in a rush take a car. We have a 8.3 that gets 16 ton loaded into it daily and all it does is make money. In the c13 i drive might get 1 or 2 loads more in a day then the 8.3 but i use twice as much fuel and more tires and brakes. In a dump truck application i am sure those little engine trucks make more money.

Mon and Tuesday were perfect this week with highs in the 50's and blue sky then rain on Wed, tornados with rain on Thurs and freezing temps with drizzle on Friday - just a normal winter week in the South.

We were able to get a little something done on clinic job despite the weather this week.

Area 1 grubbed and stripped of topsoil and the wall staked out. Side note - we filled up a 30 yard with roots and tree debris from area 1 the kid left.

Hooded grate inlet basin set with 18" RCP and headwall installed. The wall contractor will build the segmented wall in front of the inlet and around the 18" RCP. We had to install first as there is no way to install this HGIB after a segmented wall with grid and stone is constructed.



The new segmented wall ends at the orange stake to the right of the 279. The wall will meet the cross tie wall at that point and that small portion of tie wall will be demo'd for the new parking lot.

The segmented wall will be approx. 2' in front of HGI structure. Plans actually called for 9' of 18" pipe. RCP comes in 8' links so laying an 8' joint then 1' piece is not feasible. Since we had to order 16' of pipe to make 9', we just installed the entire 16' and will backfill with all the excess topsoil we stripped. This is a natural area so it didn't matter where the head wall was place as long as the water runs downhill.



The remaining part of the first wall in Area 1. Our scope included cutting the wall back for the grid length embedment and stockpiling the dirt. The cut back was 9' at the longest lengths of grid so the entire wall is cut 9' from face of wall.

Ordered CL 1 rip rap which is melon size rocks but we got CL 1 to CL 3 which goes up to wheel barrow sized rocks and fines. Quarry was running low so we got what we could get which was the clean up of the old CL 1 thru 3 piles. This will be used as scour protection at the two headwalls so it's no big deal. 50 TN's total, 2 loads.

You have to just love the engineer that calls for 9 feet of concrete pipe. For Pete's sake use commercially available lengths. Or at least a 4 foot piece. But one foot???

CM1995 said:

Does anyone need or want a mechanics special Bomag trench roller cheap? I'll load.

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I'll bite as well, whats cheap?

Raildudes dad said:

You have to just love the engineer that calls for 9 feet of concrete pipe. For Pete's sake use commercially available lengths. Or at least a 4 foot piece. But one foot???

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These "seasoned" engineers who are supposed to check what these kids are drawing just aren't doing their job either.

I guess it's just the signs of the times. . Usually we'll value engineer items like this when they come across depending on the project, GC and owner. However there are some projects and owners where your told to "put it in like the plans" in which we do. Many of those times we get a CO to fix it.

movindirt said:

I'll bite as well, whats cheap?

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HA! PM sent.

CM1995 said:

These "seasoned" engineers who are supposed to check what these kids are drawing just aren't doing their job either.

I guess it's just the signs of the times. . Usually we'll value engineer items like this when they come across depending on the project, GC and owner. However there are some projects and owners where your told to "put it in like the plans" in which we do. Many of those times we get a CO to fix it.



HA! PM sent.

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OMG!! I thought maybe I just was expecting too much! I have an infrastructure plan (utilities and road prism) for a short section of new road to access about (8) new houses. The details don't match, one page indicates one size of pipe, and another page indicates the same pipe as a different size (and there are more than one of these conflicts). Details are called out that are not included in the plan set, no manhole heights, no details for main line tap/connections (not even an AWWA, or ASTM reference), and even conflicting pipe materials. My list of errors is probably not even complete. I've had to call the engineering firm (3) times so far. The plan shows initial for who drew them, and another set of initials for who checked them (mind you these are college educated engineers, with P.E. stamps that they are so damn proud of, who are paid to think about all this and put it on a plan set so others can actually build it correctly), and some dumbass dirt jockey is the one who catches the omissions and errors? What was the name of that Dion Sanders segment on one of those TV NFL shows called?....."COME ON MAN!!" (?) certainly comes to mind right now. It's pretty frustrating to live in a world where it is not PC to expect others to simply just do their jobs. Take some pride in your work people! I guess this is where someone calls me a dinosaur for having such high expectations. If I did my work that way I fear that I wouldn't get paid (let alone how embarrassed I would be, and bored to death doing something that I had no real investment in the way that it turned out). I think that the weight of this dinosaur just crushed the soap box that I was standing on so now I will shut up!

I rarely get plans worth the paper they get printed on.

My favorite jobs are ones we design/build in house, I say **** show a lot less lol.

My favorite is when you get halfway dugout and they realize there using the wrong set of plans

Idiots are a prolific species within the human race, many even come with a college degree.

and when it all gets drawn on a computer....they can screw sooooo much more in an 8 hour day than was ever possible with a pencil and t-square.

Ed

Back when I started 50 years ago drawing with a pencil and paper, you could think about what you were drawing. Now days it just click and snap points as fast as you can. No time taken to think about what their doing.

Speaking of pencils ..............