Commercial construction work pictures

[Aarons81]

Thats a great picture! A good friend of mine had a saying about the amazing properties of water. " It floats battle ships and moves mountains" I always think of that saying when working around anything associated with water. Was on a job where a 6" ductile pipe was cracked due to a 8" diameter rock sitting against it. The rock broke the pipe, but then the water leak cut half way through the rock. Couldn't say how long it was leaking but it made a cool looking rock just like your valve.

 

[CM1995]

View attachment 240765 View attachment 240766

Wow - that's impressive! That has been leaking for a while to do that much wear on the valve. I guess ya'lls sandy/glacial till soils gave a place for the leaking water to go over the years until it really started leaking?

Our clay soils would've produced that leak to the surface well before that much wear showed.

City is replacing the 6" PVC line that runs down the road in front of my house with a 10" ductile line. The original PVC line was installed in the early 80's and the limestone it was trenched into has rubbed it raw in many places for lack of a better term. Proper pipe spec, installation and bedding is imperative for a long lasting install.

 

[skyking1]

It ran just under the pavement, and made it's way into nearby catchbasin. Nobody noticed that it was lifting up the asphalt 1" in the process!
I should drive by and take a pic of that. The pavement is 1" proud of the adjacent curb.

 

[Aarons81]

Are you guys required to use poly pipe wrap on ductile? We have to use it up here in Ohio, but its not 100% enforced.

 

[skyking1]

this is concrete lined ductile iron water main. No wrap on that. It has a black paint on the outside.

 

[CM1995]

Are you guys required to use poly pipe wrap on ductile? We have to use it up here in Ohio, but its not 100% enforced.

We are not required to wrap our ductile here although I've seen a couple of times in the spec's.

 

[Steve Favia]

We here in Chicago land area have to bag ductile iron water main in a lot of cities

 

[Aarons81]

this is concrete lined ductile iron water main. No wrap on that. It has a black paint on the outside.

.
Yup, thats what we have to wrap up with poly. And tape any cut, or opening in the wrap. They want it as sealed up as possible. We even wrap the valves. Just curious what other areas have for codes.

 

[skyking1]

I've not seen that here and I'm glad sounds like a real pain!

 

[emmett518]

Nobody took the bait on that third picture with the shoring, so Iĺl spill the beans.
Note all the gravel and stuff on that new tank? That was the second time I set it. They decided to daylight that pipe so I did not have enough pea gravel, I ran at lunchtime to get more. Iḿ almost back and get this call, we floated the tank!
They had pumped down the tests on those 3 pipes, but clearly not enough. When they popped off the caps, the water ended up in the hole i had dug, and they were sciencing now
I get parked and there sits that tank, all askew floating in the pea gravel at a 30 degree slant. OK that sucks. Then I hear the story and it s a gut buster. The plumber is standing on the tank, supervising his guys, and it slowly starts floating up. My main helper is watching and the plumber is clueless as to what is happening. Once it started to go, it came up at that 30 degree angle and he is surfing the tank going "WTF is happening?¨
That was a missed Kodak moment if ever there was one
We talk about floating tanks, caution people about filling them, etc, and then they get a lesson not soon forgotten.

As a civilian, I read this, and can't understand half the topics. Talk about specialization!!!

Daylight? Floated tank? Pumped down the tests? Sciencing?

 

[CM1995]

As a civilian, I read this, and can't understand half the topics. Talk about specialization!!!

Daylight? Floated tank? Pumped down the tests? Sciencing?

Well a pre-cast concrete 1000/1500 gal septic tank or grease trap can float out of the hole in high water table soils or a hole water is flowing into in sky's case if you don't fill the tank with water first.

 

[skyking1]

Daylighting is when you dig a trench at the same grade until it pops out of the Earth.
All of the plumbing is put under water test it's filled up with water and then there's a 10 ft pipe so it has 10 ft of head pressure on all the joints.
Plastic tanks like that float really well! You're supposed to fill them up with water, but they hadn't gotten to that part yet. When they released all that water, it went down in the hole I had dug for that tank, and floated it right on up out of there.

 

[skyking1]

I did a little "government job" weekend before last for one of the guys. He wanted to tear up his yard, put in an RV parking area, and keep all the dirt on site. Also, demo and remove a patio slab.
To start, he had a nice little wall that was going to go.

I mobed in on Saturday started at 8, and stripped 1.5 loads of sod off and to the pit and picked up a load of Lynch Creek blue gravel before the pit closed at 1 PM.
I set up the laser and did some shots, and made a constant 1.6% from the back to the ground just through the gate. I hogged out the 13.5' off the fence to that grade minus 3" for rock and piled it next to me as I cut. Then I demoed enough of that slab out of the way and we laid down fabric and graveled.

It was a real PITA but that was how I had to do it. Nowhere to dump the gravel, I had to dip it out of the truck.
Coming through the gate. Notice the power lines? Cable TV?



The concrete proved to be a problem. We had an electric jackhammer, but there was too much and it was a bit tough. They had poured one patio, and later poured another 6" over the top of that. I could pry under it and full expected some breaking, but it was tough and stayed stuck together too. We made a plan for me to get a rental hammer for the mini and I did that Monday.
Sunday I hauled off 4 tons that I could break down to 3' minus, Monday another 8 tons, and I still had 3 tons left. That slab you see was 15 tons! It was 10~11" in most places.
Monday I hauled 4 loads from the back to the front yard, and dug out that wall. I was not going to handle the blocks, so I dug the dirt out from behind it and left the blocks for younger backs.

 

[skyking1]

Clearances
It was no better through he gate either, as that big tree was low.


I suggested that we put sewer water power across for the RV and i had most of the pipe in my stash at home.



There is an existing block wall in front of the fence, and we excavated for putting a new wall in front of that one. I cut it in at 0.5% with steps in the base course to work with the 1.6% road slope. I will return later this summer with the last 6 tons of gravel to finish to that wall, and out front of the gate. He has a lot of work to do, moving that greenhouse, building walls, and a new wider gate.


I had a few tons of sand left over so that is there for him to set the blocks on.

 

[CM1995]

Good call on the sewer/water/power for the RV.

Our RV trailer is at our yard with a 50 AMP plug on the pole but it's not close to water or the sewer so we have to drag a hose out across the parking area. I've got a small sewer ejector pump for our small office but no 50 AMP service near. I've got some trenching and conduit work to do.

 

[skyking1]

I left it behind his gate over the weekend as shown in the "after"picture, and he asked that I leave the door unlocked. Grandson discovered that the horn is powered without the key

 

[Welder Dave]

The dog is thinking damn, this thing could bury my bone in no time!

 

[skyking1]

He's been hard at it, and has most of that block wall started. Then he started with a block border to keep the gravel out of the grass.

 

[skyking1]

I started a grease interceptor install last week. I am putting in a 1500 gallon and abandoning a 10,000 and another odd little round one. The grease was so old and caked the pump truck could not get it all, so I have a vactor truck coming back for the worst of it.
Boss had bid it with me and a helper, but I am picking away at it by myself for as long as I can. I have a core driller coming out to core the manhole and channel it for me, then the structure box is delivered one day and we will set the structure the next.
I can haul the asphalt and gravel to an asphalt plant only a few minutes away, which is huge nice.
My pea gravel is a bit farther at a 45 minute round, and that 10K gallon tank is going to drink about 10 solo loads.

 

[skyking1]

I dug it down to get a couple of loads gone and look for buried treasure. I was not disappointed.

Oddball poly line in a 4" PVC sleeve. Hmm, the mysteries of construction. Note the round lid by the bucket teeth. That is a 4' round 11' deep steel grease tank from 40 years ago.
IF I keep that good pit run clean i can dump it for free.


The tie in is up a walk alley behind the building. i saw cut it the other day, and stripped it out with the 120. I dug that far end with the mini so I would not have to track the old asphalt to death, as there was no spinning in there with the 120.





We set the box Wednesday and the structure yesterday morning and pulled the box by 1100.