A few projects I have done recently

[CM1995]

Nice demo job CM, looks like you are getting the frequent rains too. Are you going to get the grading too? I'm sure you had some scrappers lurking around as you were doing the demo.

Thanks fastdirt. Yeah the rains have been tough. On this project I have erosion, demo, grading and storm. These pics were taken back in Dec of last year. If the rain stops long enough to finalize a proof roll of the parking lot, the pavers can dump base and we can finish up the fine grade. I have a lot of pictures during, just haven't loaded them up yet.

Yeah, in this part of town scrapping is a way of life. I had to keep some nasty scrap like old chain link fence or a couple of twisted bar joists to lay on top of the 40's to keep them out of the cans. One rainy day we were loading out a 60 yard dump full of C&D and I was loading some heavy scrap into the loader bucket. Out of the blue this guy steps between the hoe and the truck - while my operator is loading it - and asks "can I have that scrap". The scrap I was obviously separating and loading by hand.. By this time we had no less than 5-6 people ask everyday if they could have the scrap we were meticulously separating from debris, so I just laughed and said "No, this is MY scrap".

Since this was in a rough area of town we did strike a balance with two of the local scrappers. One guy goes around everyday with a shopping cart picking up whatever he can find. We would lay out a few pieces by the curb for him to get. The other guy makes his rounds in his S-10 picking up scrap from some of the local businesses. We have given him a lot of scrap, setting it to the curb or he'll come by and ask if we have anything.

Also at the start of the project, I went over and spread a tandem load of stone in the parking lot of a hand car wash. The guys were spreading it by hand using a bucket and garbage can. One guy came over one afternoon and asked how much I would charge to spread it. I took a look and told him I would spread it for one truck wash. When I finished it up, they were all so happy they told me they were doing 3 truck washes.

I don't know this it had anything to do with it but "knock on wood" nobody has touched my machines in 3 months.

 

[CM1995]

Did you say a few x rated words when you put that dent in your 320 platform???? Just couldn't resist.

Oh yeah..

I was waiting for that one. It was me.

There was a short 8' section of interior CMU wall 10' tall in one of the buildings. It had a wood framed roof attached to a bond beam on top. I was removing the wood roof trusses and one truss was attached pretty good to the nail plate. Long story short, one damn 8" block fell close enough to put that shiner on the 321.

Truth be known I was too close to my working area...

When I get it back to the shop, I am thinking of fab'ing a new section of skirt under the cab out of thicker metal as the factory pieces are pretty thin. BTW - Cat wants $2200 for that piece!

 

[Colorado Digger]

Something about being in a zero tail that makes you feel like you can go anywhere. I did the same thing to mine on the other side when it had about 1000 hours.

 

[kshansen]

Something about being in a zero tail that makes you feel like you can go anywhere. I did the same thing to mine on the other side when it had about 1000 hours.

Kind of like a guy I knew when he bought a new pick-up people asked him why he didn't get four wheel drive. He said all four wheel drive does it let you get futher off the road before getting stuck!

 

[CM1995]

Time to update this thread. I have a lot of pics from the past year and I'll go through them and post up a few.

Same demo job. Had a nice surprise when we started taking up the slab, copper A/C lines were run under the slab.



Fought a serious amount of ground water on this project. This is the undercut portion of the new building pad. We had several dewatering holes and pumped constantly. Temps were in the low 30's and setting up a mud pump in those conditions sucks.



Finally talked the geotech and owner into putting an under drain under the pad to help drain the water out. Simple but it gets the job done. Luckily the new storm drain line was low enough to allow positive drainage for the 4" ADS pipe.



I charged enough in the change order to add another branch to the drain, which it needed. Actually the whole pad should have been covered with geo-fabric, 1' of #57 stone and another layer of geo-fabric but the developer was a tight ass.



Undercutting the remainder of the pad, the layers looked like a tiramisu. We had to undercut and fill the pad in sections, keeping it sloped towards the under drain due to all the rainfall we get in winter.

 

[CM1995]

Same project. This is in an old city and you never know what you are going to run into.

This was supposed to be a curb inlet that we were going to tie into. The existing line was 24" clay, so that tells you how old it was. We had quite a surprise when we got close to the tie in point. Scratched around the inlet to remove the top and removed the first homemade concrete lid. The inlet kept going. Got down and shined a flashlight and couldn't see the end. Well this is what we discovered after taking off all the homemade lids. Two 8" DIP lines running through a CMU drainage trough. After a month of trying to find out who the lines belonged to and having the water dept. and gas company come out to verify, no-one claimed the lines and the GC's super told us to cut them out. The gas company did tap the lines and they were empty.



Tie in for the 4" under drain under the building pad. Cut some extra slots in the pipe and covered with fabric to allow excess ground water to enter the pipe at the request of the geo-engineer.



Inside shot of the grouted pipe. Used hydro cement.



Laying 24" RCP in the existing drainage line. Removed the old clay pipe. This was fun in flowing water and 40 degree temps.



Setting a grate inlet in the service drive by the building. The spec's only called for an 8" ADS line out of this structure.:beatsme

 

[pafarmer]

Nice job as always CM !

 

[CM1995]

Thanks pafarmer.

Going back to the beginning of this project. It was in a not so great part of town..:cool2

 

[390eric]

I wouldnt even wanna think about what went on in that exotic entertainment center.

 

[CM1995]

I wouldnt even wanna think about what went on in that exotic entertainment center.

Me neither, I was packing when we did the walk-through to make sure the building was clear before tearing it down..

 

[WaterDoc]

Did you at least salvage the pole?

 

[kshansen]

Me neither, I was packing when we did the walk-through to make sure the building was clear before tearing it down..

I hope you washed your hands and equipment after finishing that job.

 

[CM1995]

Did you at least salvage the pole?

I didn't see one, if they had one I would suspect it broke due to overloading..:cool2

I hope you washed your hands and equipment after finishing that job.

I used gloves and we had enough rain on the equipment.

 

[CM1995]

A few pics from the parking lot undercut. It was an interesting job to say the least. Once the previous buildings were removed, we had to undercut the really poor, nasty clay in order to get a suitable sub-base for the parking lot.

Due to the time of the year (winter) we had to undercut and replace sections of the parking lot in order to not have a pond.



This was like an archeological dig. The site has had 4 different uses as far as I can tell. One being the current dollar store, second being the strip shopping center/exotic center tong), third being some sort of housing as we found the remnants of house foundations and personal belongings 2' deep and below that barbed wire at 3' deep or so.



Advancing the chert fill.



Pushing out the undercut material in advance of the chert fill. This stuff was nasty.



Finished pic of the parking lot sub-grade and the new building. I don't think I have ever been as happy to get to this point on any preceding project as this one.

 

[JNB]

Good looking work! More pics of the track loader would be appreciated.

 

[CM1995]

Good looking work! More pics of the track loader would be appreciated.

Thanks JNB, here's a few more -

Undercut complete and importing structural fill for the service entrance



Undercutting a section of the parking lot



Bulking in some fill for the pad



Parking lot undercut -

 

[JNB]

Thanks for the pics!

I've always been amazed at the versatility of a track loader. Dig, load, carry and place...what other single machine can do that efficiently? My typical workload requires nothing larger than a CTL, which is handy since I can move mine with a 1 ton. But I'd sure love to spend some time in a TL.

 

[CM1995]

Thanks for the pics!

I've always been amazed at the versatility of a track loader. Dig, load, carry and place...what other single machine can do that efficiently? My typical workload requires nothing larger than a CTL, which is handy since I can move mine with a 1 ton. But I'd sure love to spend some time in a TL.

That was it's job on this project. Undercut the bad material, load it out in trucks and place the new fill. Worked great as the track hoe was at the pit loading chert. Luckily the pit and the dump was at the same place so we back hauled.

A TL is pretty much a large CTL in it's versatility.

 

[mitch504]

A TL is pretty much a large CTL in it's versatility.

Hence the C for "compact" track loader in CTL, maybe? :beatsme

 

[JNB]

Hence the C for "compact" track loader in CTL, maybe? :beatsme

Kinda...but these dang rubber tracks and loading trucks while looking through the roof leave something to be desired.