Monday, March 18, 2013

The Big Dig

Howdy Y'all!


Lots goin' on! Trees are starting to bud, the weather is creeping back into the high 70's, the evenings are wonderful, and the pleasant sound of hammering is in the air! 


As a parallel effort to the foundation work underway, one of the challenges of building in a rural area is electric power distribution. For most of us (particularly Jan and me), previous home building projects in a neighborhood simply meant hooking the new house to a power meter out on the street, or calling the local electric company. Well, that doesn't work out on the ranch. We learned we are responsible for coordinating the process of bringing power in from the street about 800 feet to the build site. In our case, we decided that we did not want overhead power lines, so we opted for an underground electric distribution system that eliminates power poles on the ranch. That's where the fun starts.


The process involves contracting with a trenching company and coordinating with the power company to bring power into the property to a transformer and power distribution panel. After the power panel, you can then connect power to the house. Sounds simple, but as the following pictures will indicate, it is really quite a process.
We also learned we are right in the middle of the Balcones Escarpment, which is the geologic barrier that separates Texas hill country from the coastal plains to the southeast. This escarpment is a geological marker, where millions of years ago the surface of the Earth cracked and slipped. The central hill country around Austin bears the rocky remembrance of that event, and utility contractors working in Austin have to know how to dig successfully in these rocky conditions.


Dolomite limestone, basalt rock, and flint rock up to 30,000 psi-hardness are only a few of the layered seams that utility contractors have to succeed in. Elsewhere in the southern 48 states, hard rock sediments such as dibase (a basalt rock in Virginia); limestone in Missouri and Tennessee; granite; sandstone; and caliche in the Far West challenge contractors — but the Central Texas rocky conditions are the meanest. The layers change frequently from tough to tougher ground conditions.

The Big Kahuna
This puppy is known as a Rocksaw. It has one function, and that is to create a 10 inch wide trench by using the diamond-impregnated steel teeth to grind away anything in its way. In our case, that is 800 linear feet of rock and dirt, but mostly underground limestone. Note the teeth - they weigh about 4 pounds each and there are roughly 100 on this wheel. The wheel measures 8 feet in diameter, and for all of you engineering types, spins at about 1000 rpm. It is driven by a 400 bhp turbo-diesel. Way cool! All it needs now are flames painted on the side!

We assumed that the Rocksaw could basically make the entire cut in about a day, but after standing and watching for 10 -15 minutes, I learned that it was moving at a breakneck speed of about 1 inch every 10 seconds, which calculates out to about 6 inches per minute, or roughly 30-40 feet per hour depending on what it is cutting through. 

The Big Dig
At the end of the first half day, the Rocksaw had cut a trench about 150 feet, and 50 inches deep. Just another 650 feet to go!

What you see stacked on the side is ground rock, or basically gravel, that the Rocksaw has pulverized in the process.

The orange "X" marks where the only power pole will stand on our side of the property connected to the power lines on the other side of the street.


This backhoe (above) follows the Rocksaw and digs out anything that remains in the trench so that the 50 inch depth is perfectly maintained. Our other worry was that the cattle would try and cross the trench and possibly get stuck, particularly the newborn calves. So far, we haven't had any mishaps.

If all goes well, the trenching should be completed today, pipe laid in the trench (tomorrow), power lines pulled through the pipe and connected to the transformer, and trench backfilled no later than Friday. And then, it is just a matter of turning on the lights!

Firewood!
Meanwhile, work continues on the site as grading and some tree removal is critical before foundations can be set and poured. This was a small stand of Live Oak that was growing in what will be one of the guest rooms. We assumed our friends and family would not want a tree in the middle of their bedroom.
We are now official!
This was delivered just as we were leaving the site yesterday, and you could hear the sigh of relief (pardon the pun) from the troops as one of the most important building products was lowered off of the truck. Really blends into the landscape!

More grading to level out some of the terrain irregularities. Mother Nature apparently isn't familiar with foundation regulations.









We have our first piece of furniture on the property!









This is the newly cleared area that makes up part of the long driveway into the ranch. The driveway will be one of the last items completed, but we hope to be pouring the concrete driveway in October or November!



Dude, what's with all of the noise around here?
Really, ya gotta love the life these animals live around here. Just walking around eating all day long; how good is that?


This has been a tough week, and a bit of a slow start with the placement of the foundation and grading, but I think the architect and the engineers now have it resolved. It can best be summed up by a pic that was recently sent to Jan from one of her best friends....





Some days, things don't always work out the way you thought they would!








See ya next blog!
- John and Jan - 











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