Todays Project

[picframer]

Although I like excavators my heart is really in CUT work.

So to start this is the mess the excavation company left when they built last fall, the driveway was so bad the wife damaged her car twice and it wasn't her fault, the pot holes were so bad when I backed my 18 foot trailer down it shook the heck out of the truck.

Step one was to fix the driveway which I started around noon and finished at 5, 5 tandem loads of 1/2" crusher run. The goal here was to get a driveway you could drive down as we will be here for weeks.

Starting Friday they want all the dead trees cut and chipped, this will be a three week project for three staff.

Next is to clean up this mess, I will use a rock rake on a 3520 to get the junk out, we will load the junk into one of our dump trailers and haul to a ravine at the back of the property using a 3320 or 2520, whatever is available. We will load using a 50D excavator as the buckets are large and the trailer can hold 5 yards.

Next is to put a proper drain down the driveway, I was shocked at the springs coming out of the bank, one is a good 10 gallons per min, probably the most I have ever seen.

Next will be to landscape along the driveway, they want to incorporate some of the large granite, it's 740 feet long.

We will build a fish pond that you can see in one of the images below where the excavation company tried to divert the water.

What a mess eh? The company that did this quoted $8,000 but charged the builder $32,000 and the builder paid and the homeowner was somehow stuck but legal action is in the works.

Anyhow it was a fun relaxing day, when we are finished we will add another three loads of crushed granite to the driveway and use our ride on roller to compact.

[Steve]

Andy,

This is a very interesting project. You are not only a road builder in this situation, but a problem solver! A hero for the homeowners!

Can you tell us, what the previous company did wrong? Was this simply a case of carving out a road as fast and as cheaply as possible?

[picframer]

Andy,

This is a very interesting project. You are not only a road builder in this situation, but a problem solver! A hero for the homeowners!

Can you tell us, what the previous company did wrong? Was this simply a case of carving out a road as fast and as cheaply as possible?

Excavation can be like a lawyer, license to print money.

They should not have removed the stumps but they did as the excavator for this job would be $125.00 an hour, do it the right way and you might make four grand, dig the stumps out and make a friggin mess and you can make $40,000 and who is going to stop you once you start and the owner is screwed because I can put a lien on the property and they can't get a mortgage until it's settles, what we do is cut and chip the trees all the way in, make sure the owner is happy then cover the area with Road Fabric, I can lay this fabric on a bog and drive a 10 ton excavator across, anyhow add 6" of sand, 24" of 6" quarry rock, 1/2" crusher run, compact and done, I give a 10 year guarantee there will be no pot holes, we would have done this job for about $10,000 start to finish and there would be no mess to deal with. In their case including road costs and now out costs to fix everything, about $90,000, that is why they are suing.

[Steve]

When building a road, why is it best to leave the stumps? Won't they rot over time and create pot holes?

Also do new roads need a proper drainage path on both sides or will one suffice?

[picframer]

When building a road, why is it best to leave the stumps? Won't they rot over time and create pot holes?

Also do new roads need a proper drainage path on both sides or will one suffice?

I built my housr almost 20 years ago, I have dug up stumps that were buried during excavation and they are in perfect shape, mainly because we have so much clay in our soil. The root system of the stumps provide support, you will always get pot holes unless you use road fabric.

Drainage depends on the site and everyone is different, this one only needed one on one side and only for 300 feet so we will fix that also.

[mzlawncare]

Nice work! What size roller do you have?

[Steve]

I can lay this fabric on a bog and drive a 10 ton excavator across, anyhow add 6" of sand, 24" of 6" quarry rock, 1/2" crusher run, compact and done, I give a 10 year guarantee

I was looking up some road fabric pics and it seems that there is some type of foundation laid first before the fabric is laid down and then the rest of the road material.

Does this seem right to you?

What does the road fabric actually do? We see fabric used in mulch jobs to keep weeds from growing but in this case, there must be another reason for the usage.

[picframer]

Nice work! What size roller do you have?

We have a 36 and a 48, we also have a 3 ton ride on viberator roller for driveways.

[picframer]

I was looking up some road fabric pics and it seems that there is some type of foundation laid first before the fabric is laid down and then the rest of the road material.

Does this seem right to you?

What does the road fabric actually do? We see fabric used in mulch jobs to keep weeds from growing but in this case, there must be another reason for the usage.

It's not the way we do it as there is no way on earth on some sites you can get anything down first so we lay it right on the bottom, basically it is structured fabric that distributes weight, some engineer I am sure drempt this up and is now a multi million dollar guy as it works and works well, we are the only company around using it, just another niche:)

[mzlawncare]

What brand of compactors do you have ?

[picframer]

What brand of compactors do you have ?

CAT as Deere doesn't make them