OT: Building in isolated location

[spro]

Back to first. Not. You Pete and others here may have saved at least one life. It is further interesting when I flip through the channels of airwave TV. Bob the builder and stuff for children see these immense machines and want to be there. It sticks as with Firemen and their huge trucks and saving lives. Over and over there is something else which makes us tick.

[seal killer]

All--

Here is a brief video compiled from a couple of short video clips and some stills showing our recent progress. Nothing earthshaking, but the lower floor walls are poured and curing as is the safe room, which was poured as part of the walls.

This week the upper level floor trusses will be placed.

I still have that giant pile of material removed during excavation with which to contend. (At this point, mechanicalmagic would have hammered me for my insistence on correct utilization of the the language . . . I still miss him.) My 75" Bradco rock bucket works well on the front of the Komatsu, WHEN the material is dry. When it's wet, the soil just clumps and refuses to fall through the tines. It has been wet for quite a while, now. Maybe this summer it will dry out, but I had planned to drill the well about where the debris pile is sitting.

QUESTION: Can I place the well across the driveway and run the line beneath it to the house without worrying about damaging it? If so, I can relocate the well and worry about moving the debris pile later.

My wife and I are finding fossils! After only about ten minutes of looking, we found two prasopora. These marine animals lived LONG ago. To illustrate, the first dinosaurs developed about 230 million years ago. The first prasopora developed about 488 million years ago. Of course, the simple prasopora cannot hold a candle to a T-Rex (65-70 million years ago), but there are no dinosaur fossils in the Missouri Ozarks since it was covered by a sea during their time. We are also finding fossilized coral, but they are not quite as exciting. (Among the OTHER things I need to do is bone up on correct fossil hunting and preparation.)

Prasopora picture; mine is on the left, an internet picture of one is on the right . . .

(Credit for internet picture above: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kansashor ... 017675152/)

Here's the construction progress video . . .

https://youtu.be/8Wm0O5mws6o

--Bill

[pete]

I fully understand you want to preserve as many trees as possible Bill, and the video may make them appear closer to the house than they really are. Any trees that got damage to the roots while clearing the site will probably die in the near future. And I hope you haven't backfilled up around any of the tree trunks. They will die due to that.The ridge top where the house is will have higher wind velocitys because the wind will speed up as it's pushed up the slope. Any tree within distance of hitting the house might be worth some second thoughts about them being safe enough. Forest fires and trees close to the house aren't usually a good idea either.

[seal killer]

Pete--

Yes, the video does make them appear closer. However, my plan is to remove any that are within striking distance of the house. I do not think there are any left that would fall on the house or within ten feet of it, but I will check. The trees on the slope which I have removed and will remove have been cut, not dug up. The stumps will remain on the slope.

--Bill

[Harold_V]

I still have that giant pile of material removed during excavation with which to contend. (At this point, mechanicalmagic would have hammered me for my insistence on correct utilization of the the language . . . I still miss him.)

As do I! He was truly a gentleman.

Nice progress on your place, Bill. Thanks for the report.

Harold

[Glenn Brooks]

All--

but the lower floor walls are poured and curing as is the safe room.

This week the upper level floor trusses will be placed.

QUESTION: Can I place the well across the driveway and run the line beneath it to the house without worrying about damaging it? If so, I can relocate the well and worry about moving the debris pile later.

--Bill

Bill, did you ever receive a reply to your question regarding running a water line under your driveway?

If not, there are two factors involved you may wish to consider/research. Firstly, buried lines get damaged generally from the weight of heavy equipment compressing the soil and backfill over the top of the line. As I remember, the area of compression extends downward and outward as a cone of compression. So a dump truck loaded with dirt or gravel that crosses the line may well crush the pipe.

Which suggests using heavy wall steel pipe that will withstand heavy loads, rather than light weight plastic pipe.

Second thing, which I cannot recall clearly is the depth of bury and type and size of crushed rock backfill might act as a cushion against compression e.g. 2" rock maybe.... might protect the water line, if buried 2 or 3' deep under the surface of your driveway.

Many years ago I worked for a large regional water utility and remember something about depth of fill mitigating possibility of compression damage. But alas, the mists of time have errorded my working knowledge of water engineering. Maybe call your local town water company and find out what they recommend!

You mentioned building a safe room. Do I infer this is a storm cellar of sorts? We lived on Oahu for some years during the time everyone was retrofitting their house structure to mitigate hurricane damage. Everyone, us included, installed metal Simpson strong ties to hold the roof rather to the walls, and also strong ties to hold the wall studs down to the foundation. They were supposed to withstand 100 MPH winds and strong. We never had to find out, fortunately.

Just curious if wind storms are a concern in your area, and if you are Comtemplating such things as strong ties for the floor trusses and roof rafters on your new place?

Enjoy reading your write up! Envious!

Glenn

[pete]

I live in a northern climate so burying water and sewer lines well below any average frost line is a requirement. That pretty much takes care of protecting the lines from the weight of vechicles. However in the last couple of years were having constant problems with line breaks simply because they did such a shoddy job of properly installing those lines. I suspect they went cheap on the sand bedding used above and below the lines. Building codes for services are still only the bare minimum allowed. Where you're building Bill I doubt they come into effect. Overbuilding any suspect areas will almost always save you money later on. It's time consumeing, a pita, and a lot of expense to go in later and redo what should have been done correctly in the first place. Spend the money once and you can forget about it for 50-80 years. If your using proven long life plastic lines for water I'd run that through that larger diameter heavy walled steel pipe Glenn mentioned to protect the line under the driveway. You also want the bare minimum of joints and fittings that get buried. Sooner or later they always seem to become a problem. Measurements from something fixed like the house foundation and even a large tree that you know won't ever be removed can give you a set of coordinates if you have to dig up a joint or fitting later.

[seal killer]

Glenn and Pete--

Pete, Plan A is to drill the well about 40 or 50 feet in front of the house. Nothing will drive over it at that location. The problem is that the debris mountain from the excavation is sitting right there and I have not been able to move it due to the weather. I want to sort the larger rocks out. Wet material doesn't sort well! But, I MIGHT have sorted enough and moved enough of the remainder to get the drilling rig where I want it. I'll have to get the well guy out to take a look.

Plan B is moving the well location across the driveway. I really don't like that plan, but I would like to have an option if push comes to shove. If it does, then I will wait until all heavy trucks have finished their work.

Glenn, the 15' x 18' safe room is concrete; walls, floor and roof, and it was poured monolithically as a single structure and integrally with the lower walls of the house in a corner. (All but the floor which is part of the lower floor slab.) It is a bit larger than a guest bedroom in front of it. Not only does it have rebar in all the walls and roof, but rebar ties the roof to the walls, plus all concrete that gets poured is first mixed with Helix in the truck.

Thank you both for the ideas about the water line.

--Bill

[neanderman]

Nice to see the updates. In these Northern climes, I think water lines are typically 4' down; at that depth, I doubt you need to worry about crushing. Of course, that may be a challenge in the mountains.

The safe room should keep you out of harms way. I hope it's never needed and that it's never tested by the New Madrid fault.

[seal killer]

neanderman--

We are over 200 miles west of the New Madrid fault. I built the safe room for tornadoes and, in the case of last resort, forest fires. Plus, truth be told, it will be a man-cave.

--Bill

[warmstrong1955]

Grizzly buckets don't work so well when the much is wet....sounds like you found that out already!
We used 'em in SE Alaska, but it just took longer....smaller loads at a wack, so they wouldn't just plug up.
(If you wait for it to stop raining in SE AK, you will never do anything)


Other Bill

[neanderman]

It's not my intention to be a harbinger of doom, nor am I looking for an argument, but the New Madrid Seismic Zone is no joke. The 1811 quakes rang church bells in Boston.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... gleich.jpg