A few projects I have done recently

[CM1995]

Decent size dirt project CM, beats mowing with a brush cutter eh.

Yeah it does Willie, especially when the T250 needs the coils clean. BTW - when is that thread about cleaning the Bobcat evaporator coils coming...:cool2

We have the same skimmer contraptions up here. Seem like so much fun... not. Sounds like your Intel of "good dirt" should have said "contractor's mix" instead. Stockpiles on jobs almost always seem to be a risk like that. The "leftovers" from a previous phase, or just a jumble of junk that couldn't be lost in a borrow pit or used as fill. And it's always what is left to use to finish a job.

That's just what it was Jim "leftovers". We fought that crap from day one but met every compaction test come hell or high water. The salt in the wound was the parcel next to this where they are currently building a bank. I bid the job but was high according to the GC and they had 3K yards of good material to export. We finished filling the pond with the "leftovers" and not a month later they are stockpiling good fill material on an adjacent lot in the development.:Banghead Oh well, that's how this business goes.

 

[CM1995]

My friend in the business had a bad day. One of his tri-axles was dumping dense grade into a road widener on a county paving job. The truck was full and they started on a section of the road that has a slight angle. The road widener operator kept giving the driver the hand signal to go up in order to fill the hopper. The trucks tailgate was chained to keep a steady feed into the hopper. Well the road had a steeper pitch than it looked.....

I got the call - "Hey what are you doing"

Me - "At the shop doing maintenance" (IE - not much of anything )

Buddy - " I need your help."

Me - "Sure no problem, what's up?"

Buddy - "I have a truck turned over on HWY such and such"

Me -"Oh #$%^ is the driver OK?"

Buddy - "Yes, he's fine but the road is blocked and we have a major FUBAR."

Me - "Loading up mini-ex and on my way."

That's just how it happens when you have a good Buddy that needs help calls. You know he would do the same for you.

As the Sheriff blocked the road, I had to take the mini and dig the load out. First thing was beating down the asphalt apron so the tailgate would release. When the truck went over all sorts of things got out of whack. I didn't get to take many pictures since I was operating the mini and traffic was stopped while we uprighted the truck. It was a hell of a day.

This was the result -



The tow truck line was hooked and pulling it over.





The truck is currently at the frame shop and should be back in service in a few weeks.

 

[willie59]

That would qualify as a bad day. :yup

 

[Dualie]

Your sheriff must be much nicer than ours. Out here blocking road = wrecker ASAP and big $$$$$

Other than that been there done that with a friend in need.

my last situation like that was a 6:00AM phone call "where are you and what are you doing? Scratch that drop what your doing and grab your boom truck i got a load of steel laid out on the freeway" I beat the wrecker there and got it all cleaned up in less than 45 min. But people were P.O'ed

 

[CM1995]

Your sheriff must be much nicer than ours. Out here blocking road = wrecker ASAP and big $$$$$

The Sheriff blocked the road for us.:thumbsup

Thought I would update the thread with some projects of the past.

This was an erosion control job we did last Jan. Had to stabilize the site, add rip-rap ditches, silt fencing and seed/hay the disturbed areas. It was a delicate job as what ever we messed up had to be seeded and it was a lump sum bid. We removed about 1500 feet of old silt fencing as well. I saved all of the T posts and have not bought any posts the whole year for other projects. I love recycling.

The property had been 1/2 developed prior to the real estate crash of '08. We had to put new silt fence around the inlets and mulch the disturbed area. We used a T250, 334 mini and chain saws to selectively get to each inlet. There were 5 total.



One of 3 rip-rap ditches we installed.



My old faithful buddy tracking a scent only she knows. This property is located in a heavily developed area but was full of deer. I was walking the property one day after lunch and rustled up a 6 point buck that was lounging in the pines.



My little buddy has had a rough year. She blew her ACL in her left leg, has cancer and turned 13 last July. She is still kicking and goes with me to work every now and then. She is undergoing treatment at Auburn University's veterinarian school for the cancer. She is going in for a chemo treatment on Tuesday, so far the cancer is in remission. The wife and I keep our fingers crossed and cherish each day.

 

[CM1995]

This was a Taco Bell we did in Sept. of this year. Good site, easy job and a great GC. I am currently bidding 2 more TB's with them and they are the preferred contractor for a few other brands.

Set a headwall and curb inlet. That is the first coat of mud on the pipes, we come back with another coat to smooth it out after we pour the inverts.



Running the main rain leader collector out of the curb inlet in the drive through. This is Contech A2000 pipe. First time I used it and I liked how it went together. Lighter than ADS. The headwall and the other curb inlet can be seen in the background.



Connecting an individual rain leader to the interior gutter at the rear of the building by the freezer. The other line is the vent for the grease trap. The plumbers were sloppy so we had to work with what they gave us to tie on to.

There wasn't enough room to attach the fernco coupling from our rain leader to the interior stub out. I didn't have any 4" PVC material there but the plumbers left boxes of fittings strewn around the site so we went through them. Not one 4" coupling to be found but did find a Y and that worked nicely - hence the clean-out for the rain leader. It wasn't spec'd but the super liked it.

 

[JBGASH]

CM, nice looking job. We have done a few Taco Bell/KFC,s for Horizon General out of Texas, they are a great GC to work with & for. They cover many states, not sure if in your area.

 

[CM1995]

Thanks JB. I have heard of Horizon, seen their name on a few bid lists but haven't bid with them yet. The GC for this job was P&C out of Chattanooga. Great group to work with.

 

[OldandWorn]

Thanks for the posts CM. I'll bet your dog really enjoys going to work with you and hoping that she can continue to do so for a long time.

 

[CM1995]

I'll bet your dog really enjoys going to work with you and hoping that she can continue to do so for a long time.

She does, although she doesn't get around as easily as she once did but I still take her on Saturdays or rain days when I am out. She's one of a kind, watches TV and has her favorite shows. Her favorites are anything on Animal Planet (that can get rambunctious so it's limited ), HGTV, infomercials - she loves those and action/drama TV shows like the Person of Interest or the Walking Dead.

Just yesterday the wife and I were watching TV in the bedroom, I had put Sug up on the bed as well. She was watching that Pioneer Woman cooking show and they had a segment where they were clearing old pens and the guy had a nice D6N he was using to clear with. I kid you not, when the D6N was working on the TV, Sug sat up on the bed and watched intently and then turned around and looked at me.

Thanks for the kind words OldandWorn.

 

[JDOFMEMI]

The Sheriff blocked the road for us.:thumbsup

Thought I would update the thread with some projects of the past.

This was an erosion control job we did last Jan. Had to stabilize the site, add rip-rap ditches,
One of 3 rip-rap ditches we installed.

View attachment 112256

CM

Nice ditches. Glad to see some of these sites coming back to life again.

Here is a little tool I whipped up to do those type of ditches with. Makes short work of them. If you do many of those, it pays to build one. In good dirt it will do several hundred feet of ditch in under an hour.



I know that it looks flat on top. For reasons specific to the site, they were supposed to. The grade on the bottom was a nice "V" though.

Some of the finished work:

 

[CM1995]

Jerry that's a pretty slick attachment. Did you make the pattern for a standard spec - width/sides that you run into?

What I run into is the engineers spec all different sizes of bottoms and sides. I just finished a 1500' ditch that had 10' bottoms and 10' sides. When I get some time I'll post a few pics of it.

 

[JDOFMEMI]

CM

I built that for a job with 6,000 feet. I recommended the ditch I wanted to build, and the engineer agreed. I have made many different custom attachments to make jobs easier. Some of my ideas make my guys look at me like I am crazy, but when I get the work done they usually change their mind.

I have considered making a V bucket with adjustable angles, but have not done so. I have had decent luck in recommending alternate size ditches when it makes sense. I would suggest making one for a common width/depth you run into. Mine is 8' wide and 2' deep, so the sides end up at 2:1. My 287 tracks will ride on the slope with no trouble, and due to their flex, they do not tear down the sides much. It may not work for a concrete lined ditch, at least without some handwork, but for a rock lined ditch it is great.

 

[CM1995]

I have considered making a V bucket with adjustable angles, but have not done so.

That's what I first thought of when I saw your attachment. Hitching one up to an excavator would be handy to shape the final ditch. There is a thread somewhere with an excavator with a fixed V bucket cutting ditches.

Some of our soil types wouldn't be conducive to using something like that, too much clay and rock to go through.

 

[JDOFMEMI]

That's what I first thought of when I saw your attachment. Hitching one up to an excavator would be handy to shape the final ditch. There is a thread somewhere with an excavator with a fixed V bucket cutting ditches.

Some of our soil types wouldn't be conducive to using something like that, too much clay and rock to go through.

Put teeth on it?

I have one for a mini excavator also, and use it for concrete lined ditches. Built it for a ditch at the top of a 34' high retaining wall





I whipped this up quick to cut the 6' wide bench at the top of the wall, with the wing to clean the slope at the same time.

 

[CM1995]

That's nice looking dirt. Reminds me of the river gravel fill in Costa Rica.

I like your style Jerry, not many left with ingenuity to come up with a profitable solution to a problem.

 

[DoyleX]

I like your style Jerry, not many left with ingenuity to come up with a profitable solution to a problem.

I second that.

 

[bigshow]

Looks like ya had to knock the pins out to turn around the bucket/couplet in the last pic.

 

[Sawdus22]

I'm sorry if you have discussed this in other threads, I'm still trying to catch up on all the info on here. But could you tell me the background of your company, all the equipment/trucks you own and things of that sort? Thanks CM

 

[CM1995]

I'm sorry if you have discussed this in other threads, I'm still trying to catch up on all the info on here. But could you tell me the background of your company, all the equipment/trucks you own and things of that sort? Thanks CM

Sure, a little background info -

I cut my teeth in the residential building industry, as my father was a carpenter and builder. I have built a fair number of single and multi-family units in my time. The depression that started in 2008 decimated that market and since then I have concentrated on commercial site work. Small sites like fast food joints and other small retail type projects.

We also take on the occasional residential dirt project and other types of projects ranging from erosion control to industrial selective demolition. In other words pretty much anything that involves equipment or Div 2 type work.

Currently we have a 953, D5, 321DL, 420D, CS533E, 3 skid steers, a mini-ex and a ol' blue the Gradall forklift. For trucks we only have two pickups and a service truck. I hire all the trucking out.

The main services we perform is erosion control, site grading, demolition and storm drainage.