A few projects I have done recently

dirty4fun said:

Some more great looking workmanship proud of what you do, CM. As you should be, but to many don't seem too!

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Thanks dirty. It takes a team effort we all want to do the best work regardless of what it is. Unfortunately I agree that some contractors lack the craftsmanship.

Metalman 55 said:

Nice Pics there CM! Like that new B6 too! I purchased a new B6S late last fall & have it fitted on my 289D. Haven't used on any jobs yet (tried it out on some concrete chunks only at the yard here) as up here we have a long cold winter up here but hope to use it this spring/summer.

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So far the little B6 hits pretty hard. We have a couple of site demo jobs perfectly suited for a mini with hammer so I pulled the trigger on buying one. Renting one enough that it made sense to purchase plus we don't have to either pay for delivery/pickup or go to the rental store to pick it up.

CM1995 said:

Wacker parts on the other hand are a few clicks away on the 'net and I've already downloaded the entire parts manual direct from Wacker. There is a guy in Wake Forest that repairs trench roller remotes...

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In my experience, Wacker parts for the older units are getting hard to find.....and are fairly expensive. Do you mind sharing the link/s that you use for your source/s?
So far I've been able to source Bomag parts at a local eqpt. dealer who sells/supports Bomags. Another nuance I seem to notice about these walk-behinds is that (in my opinion) the Bomags work better compacting soils and the Wacker (at least the older units) seem to compact aggregates (3/4" ABC in particular) better. Have you noticed this as well?
I've also used that repair service for my Wacker remotes. Unfortunately, he last time he installed a joystick that has a glitch in it. The machine will stop if one pushes too far forward on the stick

CM1995 said:

D3 coming in on a Landoll. Landoll's rock ya'll!

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I agree! I've heard that their purchase price reflects that as well!! I use a transport service when I need to haul either of my larger excavators as they weigh too much for me to legal on public roads. The service that I use has a couple of these Landoll Haul-Alls. The ability to slide the axle forward, effectively shortening the wheelbase, is very handy for getting in and out of tight places! I usually use the term "lowbed" when referring to eqpt. trailers but I wonder if these are technically lowbeds, or not. The deck is higher than other lowbeds as the deck is above the back axles. I also notice that they feel more tippy (I feel the trailer leaning/tilting to the side) when spinning the boom around to set on the deck after I crawl on the trailer. Are these things "lowbeds" or "deck-overs"?

DGODGR said:

In my experience, Wacker parts for the older units are getting hard to find.....and are fairly expensive. Do you mind sharing the link/s that you use for your source/s?

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Here's a link to the owners and parts manuals -

https://shop.wackerneuson.com/eparts/#/en/

Wacker does a good job IMO with their parts diagrams, easier than SIS.... Have your SN handy and it helps speed up the process of finding your iteration of machine.

I just find the part number then do a search of the part number to find a seller. I've ordered from many different places including fleabay and Amazon.

The Bomags do hit harder than the Wackers but if we can't keep the Bomag running and have a hard time tracking down parts it doesn't matter. Just run the Wacker over it another time.

DGODGR said:

I usually use the term "lowbed" when referring to eqpt. trailers but I wonder if these are technically lowbeds, or not.

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The term here is lowboys regardless the trailer - deck over, Landoll or detach. I'll call them whatever the driver wants as long as he shows up when we call.

One towing service has a tri-axle Landoll we'll move our 320's on, they won't move the hoes on the tandem axle's.

CM1995 said:

One towing service has a tri-axle Landoll we'll move our 320's on, they won't move the hoes on the tandem axle's.

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My service only has tandem axle units. I wonder if he might be a bit "overloaded" as my big hoes weigh 60k & 64k respectively.

Seems like I've seen tandem axles with inside duals so there are basicly wheels the width of the trailer. Maybe I'm mistaken?

Welder Dave said:

Seems like I've seen tandem axles with inside duals so there are basicly wheels the width of the trailer. Maybe I'm mistaken?

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I have only seen those on Murray and Cozad Trailers. I think that they called those "16 tire expandos" because the width could also expand. I'm not sure if this is the case but I think that they may only be legal in Ca (that the only place that I have seen them). I'm not sure if the additional tires will assist on the bridge gap equation.

16 tires are legal in most of the southwest when they expand to 10 foot there legal for 60 thousand they only get I think 52 at 8 foot width

They got popular because California didn't recognize 3 axels not sure if that still true but they do have less tire scrub than triple axels and Murray and cozads are awesome for excavators and dozers but they suck for small iron

Friday the crew moved all the old RCP over the adjoining lot and started stripping the lot of topsoil. The topsoil on the adjacent project we completed earlier was as thick as 1' in some places.

Luckily the topsoil on this lot is averaging 4-6".


The old RCP is in the back ground behind the silt fence. There is a little clearing for a retainer wall in the slope.


A little R&R over the weekend, A-Day on the plains. It was frigid cold for an April in AL especially in the shade. Better 1/2 was miserable so we left at "half time".

More importantly we were able to spend the weekend with friends and enjoy some mighty fine ribeye steak tacos at our tailgate on Saturday. One of our tailgate group is a food broker so we can get any type of protein at no cost. Last year we stopped by and picked up a case of skirt steak. So for A-day we opted for ribeyes as they are easy and forgiving to cook on a large scale plus they are delicious.

Being able to socialize with all the friends we've made over the decades is the primary reason we enjoy Auburn so much - the sporting event is always secondary.


Sorry no pic of the tailgate - too busy eating.

I'm kind of amazed at how these bigger jobs get accomplished. How do you know where to start? Does an engineer figure it out and it's in the bid spec?

Learn to read plans with varying information that may not even be useful and probably lacks any organization to the plans then bid in detail to what's on the plan

When you get awarded the job send an rfi for every thing that's missing and stand by with change orders with any luck the gc qont understand your scope of work anyway and couldn't tell you if you have done it right or wrong

Welder Dave said:

I'm kind of amazed at how these bigger jobs get accomplished. How do you know where to start? Does an engineer figure it out and it's in the bid spec?

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It's pretty simple actually. Some civil drawings are better than others just depends on the engineers.

Typical plans consist of:

Title sheet - lists all parties involved in the project usually with utility company contacts.
Survey/existing conditions and topo
Site Demolition - shows all existing improvements to be removed.
Erosion control - can be primary, secondary and final
Site Layout - shows all proposed buildings, pavements, etc
Grading plan - shows all existing and proposed grades to finished surfaces
Drainage plan - sometimes combined on grading sheet, shows all storm drainage pipes
and structures.
Utility plan - shows all utilities required
Off site work - any DOT and ROW work for turn lanes or road widening
Detail sheets - typical details from silt fence to back flow preventers

Larger jobs will also have a spec book that goes along with the plans.

Scopes of work are usually defined by the plans pages above, that's how I structure my bids so the page numbers can be referenced in the bid.

Thanks for that. I figured there were pretty good plans. That's why they usually have a good idea how much the project should cost or a range the bids should be in.

Do you have any further updates on the job where the tree fell on the building and the shingles had to be replaced?

Welder Dave said:

Do you have any further updates on the job where the tree fell on the building and the shingles had to be replaced?

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The only update I have is the retaining wall guys are supposed to start this week, which is about 3 months behind schedule. As their luck would have it it's the same week we need our 533 compactor on the retail job we started last week.

It's just how this stuff goes - the roller sat there for 2 months waiting on the wall crew. Our other jobs didn't require our big packer and the chicken shack was a cut job. At this point they will have to build the wall and backfill what they can with stone as we'll be tied up for the next two weeks.

I have not heard the final say so on the roof but next time I talk to the GC I'll ask him.

Sometimes we contractors have to not only build the job but design it as well.

This is the grading and drainage plan for the paint store in the pics we're clearing up thread.

The red arrow is a triple grate inlet on top of a round manhole structure. Obviously there is no way to make work without some sort of cast in place structure which is labor intensive and we don't like to form and pour concrete..




So my pipe supplier came up with a custom pre-cast option. The only other option was to pour a bottom and brick it in place which was not an attractive option labor wise.

The 11' inside and 6" walls will accommodate the three EJ frames and grates with 2 metal filler strips between the frames.

Shop drawing for the custom vault. Another lesson on checking shop drawings closely. I was so concerned on the length and width I didn't notice they had 2 holes in the box like it was an inline inlet. No big deal as we'll brick and mud one up before we pour the invert but it sucks to miss something you should've caught.

We have purchased a couple of vaults from Bartow over the years and the quality has always been top notch.





The inlet box was produced ahead of schedule which is unordinary in todays long lead times. Since it was ready we went ahead and took delivery even though it will be 2-3 weeks before it's installed. Good thing we can bill for materials on site.

The miss on the shop drawing - 2 holes in the box.





325FL leaving on the lowboy headed to our borrow stockpile.

Hauling out the last of the clearing debris at the paint store.



Site getting cleaned up after the rain we had mid-week.



Despite 3/4" rain mid-week the crew hauled out all the clearing debris, stripped all the topsoil, proof rolled the site with a passing grade and cut back the area for the modular retaining wall.

All the material in the area of the retaining wall is topsoil with a lot organics. I bid the job assuming this was suitable material for structural fill as there was no geo-tech report. This area figured around 700 CY's of cut.




One of three test pits for the dirt doc. Good stuff for landscape areas but a no go for building support.



Weather permitting we'll start hauling in structural fill to build the 2 building pads on Monday. About 1,400 CY's will be needed to bring the site to sub-grade. Figured hauling in 700 CY's of structural fill and using the 700 on site. Working out a CO with the GC and owner for the addition 700 yards of structural fill we'll need to haul from off site.

Well as the world turns we are back at one of the sites we built almost 10 years ago.

This was a small street extension at a strip center with a regional grocery store. All we did was the fill in a retention pond (pics back on page 3 of the thread) and put in a short section of street with 2 curb inlets.

Stripping the stockpile being used as fill. The dump truck and trailer is siting in the area of the road we built. D5G earning it's keep once again. This pic was taken in 2012.



Fast forward to 2022.

Moved the 325 back in Friday along with 279D 01 with brushcat to mow the grass. We'll be using this stockpile of fill to build the pad for the paint store. This site is about 6-8 miles south of paint store site.



The street we put in 10 years ago today.



End of the street with the remnants of the original spoil pile I was stripping with the D5 in the first pic.



One of the many reasons construction is such a satisfying career for myself and millions more. Nothing like riding by somewhere and saying "I helped build that!".

So a week has passed and we hauled 72 loads out of the stockpile this week. It was a short week since Monday was a dry up day from the rains we had Sunday. Tuesday, Wed and Thursday we had two trucks and today we only had one to finish up.

Fortunately the site dries quickly - hauling out wed. The stockpile was wet so we had to peel, stack, dry then rinse and repeat.



Tuesday the power co showed up to pull in the 3 phase for the new Mexican restaurant being built in the development and proceeded to drive through pretty much every mud hole we had our trucks avoiding.



This site is owned by one of our old school customers, the handshake kinda guy you can trust. Not many of those types left.

We've mowed this project for many years. Slowly it's getting smaller as they sell off the parcels. Brought the brushcat down and put on 279D 01 to clean up the parcel as we hauled out.



Some jackass has been dumping landscaping debris on the lot so the 325 is piling it behind a topsoil pile on site. Hopefully out of site, out of mind and it rots. I hate people that dump crap on other peoples property.

The brushcat does a decent job on grass. The 279D spins it to fast on regular flow so you have to set the RPM's on the auxiliary flow, lock it in and start mowing.

The stockpile was wet so we had to peel, stack, dry then rinse and repeat.
What do you mean by this and why? This is the stockpile from excavation on site? Why not just haul it out wet?

Don.S said:

The stockpile was wet so we had to peel, stack, dry then rinse and repeat.
What do you mean by this and why? This is the stockpile from excavation on site? Why not just haul it out wet?

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This stockpile is being used as structural fill on another site. The moisture was too high in the stockpile to achieve density and compaction on the fill job so we had to dry it out at the loading end and the fill end.

It's a common practice for us here in the semi-tropic belt to have to dry out dirt in order to achieve compaction spec.