Commercial construction work pictures

[skyking1]

not loading, getting pea gravel out for the plumbing. I used about a half box there and the rest at another job about an hour away, but it was not quite enough. I grabbed 4 tons of washed sand yesterday afternoon to finish that one this morning.

 

[skyking1]

Yesterday started out with about 2 hours of sleep and 4 hours of carpal tunnel pain/numbness/burning. I went into the office and dropped the hammer, I was broken and needed fixing. I called a couple of my operator friends and one came through for me.
The high point was my friend and fellow operator showed up, and working with him for a few hours before leaving the job to him.
The day before I was working by myself, off and on the excavator and doing the grading and shoveling in the ditch, back on the machine, repeat. I blistered my hurting hand doing the shoveling and that probably was the last straw on the carpal tunnel.
I am running the work from home, via pictures and video and texts. He is doing OK.
The jobsite is as bad as I have ever seen. The material is completely unsuitable for backfill. I hit a greasy mud layer 3 feet down at the end of the deeper dig, and that slop was what I blistered my hand on. I cleaned it up to a firm base and put down a few inches of pea gravel and graded it yesterday.
nobody else was going to do it right, so I got in the ditch and my friend brought me the gravel at my direction.

 

[emmett518]

That’s the problem with you construction guys.

“Jesus. That excavator just ran over your leg!”

“It’s just a scratch. Just dump some gasoline over it and push the bone back inside.
I got a job to finish. “

 

[emmett518]

Get well soon, and rest God damn it. Your body is telling you to slow down.

 

[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.

Kind of like that final scene in Dr Strangelove.

 

[emmett518]

OK I forgot, but now I have a fancy Liebherr to take pictures of tomorrow. It rolled in today to get set up and assemble the tower crane. It looks pretty stout, it had a 5 axle jeep under the boom.

You guys are artists!!!!

 

[DMiller]

Ain't a Spring Chicken anymore!! I had carpal surgery Right hand in 2018, BEST thing I had done to cure issue with numbness inability to control fingers on tools, pain etc. Get it fixed, leave someone on the machine until FULLY heal then can go back to beating yourself as hard as I normally beat myself up!!

 

[skyking1]

I thought about it, and I think those 3~4 days beating that concrete hot tub apart with the hammer was the beginning of the end for me. It makes sense.

 

[Tugger2]

Some pretty nice looking work you do there. Makes me feel like a true hacker on my excavator.

 

[John C.]

Time for you to stand aside and just tell the kids what you want done and how to do it. The joint damage is like arsenic. It just accumulates and never goes away.

Good Luck!

 

[skyking1]

My work can be very physical and I inflamed my carpal tunnel the other day and filed a claim on it.
I took the paperwork to the employer today and they asked me " can you dig (operate the excavator)?", to which I replied, " I'd better not" due to the claim.
They are likely wondering if I am of any use to them, and I don't think they realize I am thinking the same thing
It was not my plan to retire at this moment, but it may be the right thing for me.
We are rallying around my sister in her last weeks or months, we really don't know how long she has but it seems to be going fast now.
It is nothing like retiring from mega-corp, I am an hourly union guy. I can just quit for a while, then call the hall later in the spring and they can find me some work.
Will it be as nice as this job can be? Probably not. I have a company truck and a few pieces of equipment to operate and take care of, and a whole lot of freedom. I can use the equipment on my upcoming house build, for example.
The other side of that is I won't have to work alone and beat myself up on and off the equipment, doing two guy's jobs at the same time. That is how I got hurt and the likelihood that it will happen again is tipping the scales.
I called in a friend who is operating for them on the next few jobs. I don't have to make this call today or this year, for that matter.
The company equipment thing might save me ~$6,000 in rental fees. That is small potatoes in the big picture. It was more about convenience than anything.
I was shooting for late 2023 in my latest set of plans. It will mean ~$340 a month less, and whatever money we save in that period if I bail in January 2023.
I had to get that off my chest. Thanks for stopping by.

 

[John C.]

You have a ton of options plus the advantage of time. The only hard thing you have to do is make the decision on which path you want to take. Hanging out here is a good time waster anyway. Good luck to you what ever you decide.

 

[colson04]

Taking some time off sounds like a good thing for you right now. You can always go back to work after you get the carpal tunnel resolved, if you feel you need to.

And we're always here to listen when needed.

 

[DMiller]

Between a round of Wuhan Flu, the damnable vaccine had to take due to license class and age I am having some serious rounds of issues with Psoriatic Arthritis these days. Hands are really angry with all the joint inflammation where get hard to handle tooling, neck started acting stupid tries to lock at spots and at odd times where have a appointment at ortho shop that installed last two discs, knew needed at least one more in Cervical section of spine at C4/5 but insurance would not allow at the time five years ago. Arthritis may be too far along to get that currently. Knees are angry, right hip is REALLIY Pizzed off and anti-inflammatory meds are about useless. Again, appt. at Ortho will determine much of where I go from here. At least managed to get the KW Done with all this going on.

 

[John C.]

A fountain of youth would sure be nice.

 

[skyking1]

I figured out what I can do is get this hand figured out, and then retire. I can work up to 50 hours a month without kicking myself out of my retirement. They have very little work right now ahead of them and I can probably cover it with the 50 hours. That way I get to collect my pension and a little bit of money and add to my pension and add to my medical bank.

 

[crane operator]

Sorry about the health issues skyking1.

 

[dust eater]

Sorry to hear about the health problems Skyking1. Retiring before your ready can be tough, I watched my Dad do it three times. I personally pulled the pin in May at 60. We can more than live off my pension and there is enough money in the R M I account we won't have to pay for insurance until our mid 80's. What good health you and your Wife have left means more than anything. That being said I couldn't stomach leaving any of my pension money on the table, but we're both in good health. We travel for 6 to 8 weeks at a time and come back for 4 to 6 weeks at a time. It's a good laid back life that didn't take long to get used to.

 

[skyking1]

I ran the numbers. It is going to be really messy with me building a new home from scratch. Lots of moving parts in the next year. The numbers are really messy, but I took our current spend and will need to supplement the pension and an annuity that will pay out until I am 70, with a little from savings. My wife can take SS in 4 years. We'd be plus at that point. I will hold off till 70 for the maximum.
She won't retire until I get the home done to occupancy.

 

[Camshawn]

Skyking:
Take the time to get your carpel tunnel feeling better before deciding to retire. Collect whatever benefits you can while getting better then return to work on a graduated program if you can. Possibly a helper to help with the banjo work (shovels were called banjos by the old timers here) may help you make another 6 months or a year of pensionable service. I don’t know your individual circumstances but in mine, a few months made quite a difference in the bottom line once I retired. Cam