Foundation
No matter what the tool, there is an art to using it properly. Ramone of Medoza has an incredible talent for carving the earth with this massive machine. The benching (stepping back of the earth to protect against collapse) is superb and precise.
SClarkson-day-one
Well we started off with a glitch on the very first day. On small urban lots, you are required to install shoring piers so that the neighboring properties don’t cave in during excavation -- and to keep the workers safe too. However, what was to be a straightforward process suddenly proved otherwise. The boring for the shoring piers had to stop due to extremely sandy soils - too much fine grain loose sand at 17 feet to get it out of the hole (and they need to go down 25 feet). So, a casing type boring rig needs to be used, and it’s going to be a more involved process.
The casing is that big pipe in the photo above. They slide it down with the auger and when they hit the sand, it helps to trap it and keep it moving back up out of the hole. When pouring the concrete if the sand continues to cave in, the casing can be used to hold the sides of the hole up while the concrete is poured in. The casing is then eased out of the hole. This is much more involved in that the concrete truck needs to hang around most of the day to be there for each hole as it’s completed.
Let’s hope Tuesday is a better day.
SClarkson-Soils
The borings for the soils test are complete, and they didn’t hit any water or clay! We will keep our fingers crossed until the report comes in....
