Broke ground on a new building last week - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

pritch · 11-08-2008, 11:39 PM

It's a 48,500 Sq. Ft. two story 1st & 2nd grade addition to an existing school. The company I work for mostly builds schools. This is a little bit strange, as it is a good hundred yards from the main building. Phase 2 next year will be a kindergarten building in front of this one and some re-modeling in the existing school.

First step, grubbing off the lawn and top soil. This will be about 1/3 on the existing play field and 2/3's on the hayfield next door that the district bought:

It is always stressful working around kids. Got to keep the fence in good shape at all times. Soon it will be too cold out for outside recess, so that will help. This is a real windy site, and they don't let the kids out if it is colder than 20 degrees windchill:

This excavator sub has a dozer, but it is unavailible. Slow going with a trackhoe, but the operator is pretty good at what he does so it went fast:

This guy made out like a bandit. He gets paid for this dirt twice. You see, he owned the land that the school bought-paid once-and all this top soil is his to sell-paid twice. Good work if you can get it

:

This will be a nice little job, but it is a real tight schedule. They want it done for school next year, some eight months from now. I think July 15th is our turn over date, but the bottom line is first day of school. I'll post a couple pictures each week and let you guys know how we're doing

**Cole** · 11-08-2008, 11:48 PM

Beautiful Scenery you have there my friend!

Looks like a fun job.

cleveman · 11-08-2008, 11:48 PM

Thanks for the fotos. Keep them coming.

TaitINC · 11-09-2008, 12:10 AM

I'm looking forward to watching the progress.
Hopefully the weather doesn't interfere with your schedule

Spencer

tgeb · 11-09-2008, 08:30 AM

Nice project.
Beautiful area.

Keep us posted on how you do with that tight schedule.

pritch · 11-09-2008, 04:37 PM

We got the footings dug out Thursday and Friday, and proof rolled. Great matierial, looks just like about 4'' minus pit run. Soils engineer said to roll it and once and build away.

Our footing & foundation crew comes Monday. I hope to have all the footings and some wall done by next week. There are some challenges on the foundation. It might take longer than we would like. Lots of elevation changes that don't work to well with our plywood & whaler system.

pritch · 11-15-2008, 10:16 PM

Great. 3 days of rain, now the site is a mud bog.

We lost 1 day, but made a footing pour on wednesday. In a drizzling rain. 2 degrees colder and it would have been snowing. We were lucky to get the mixers in. Only 1 got stuck bad enough to need a pull.

pritch · 11-15-2008, 10:26 PM

We use these footing forms:

They are an all-aluminum modular system. With a full crew and trailer (I have 1/2 of each right now) we can easily pour 400 feet a day. This is what they look like-kinda shows how versitle they are:

The plumbers got started on their underground also this last week.

Funny, I can't hardly even remember what we did before the mini-X!

pritch · 11-15-2008, 10:39 PM

What a difference a couple dry days make. We got in another good footing pour on friday. This makes almost 50% of the exterior footings, plus the elevator pit.

I usually don't put on bar caps until the next day to keep from moving the dowells, but since this was friday afternoon, I figured we better get them on. Hate to come monday and find some kid impaled.

We're right under an Air Force base. It's hard to concentrate with these guys flying over all day. They don't show up until you're on the phone. I wonder what would happen if I lit one up with the Total Station transit. I probably won't find out.

It's a race now. We got to get out of the ground before that snow level is 4498.5 feet. Thats finish floor elevation. That snow is about at 6500' right now.

MALCO.New.York · 11-16-2008, 12:39 AM

I have such a Problem and Difficulty Working, Concentrating and even Walking properly whence a 15 or 18 is In my line of Hearing!

Hill AFB I assume. (Google)

DanTheMan9727 · 11-25-2008, 01:19 PM

Ugh, I hated when my old sites would get rained out.

pritch · 12-06-2008, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MALCO.New.York

I have such a Problem and Difficulty Working, Concentrating and even Walking properly whence a 15 or 18 is In my line of Hearing!

Hill AFB I assume. (Google)

Good call! Yeah, it's hard to concentrate when they decide to put on a little airshow!

We're making good progress, made the last footing pour yesterday, now the rest of the foundation. It's all done, except for some parts that will show. Corporate only gave us enough MDO plywood to do about 50 feet of wall, until monday when the rest of it comes free from another job.

We have this little bit of radius wall to do, we will form it 12' tall, it pours 10' tall, with the top 8' showing. This will be fun.

All, well 95%, of the underground elecrical and plumbing is done, just waiting on theexcavators to do some more backfill and compaction. We are pushing to get the first floor slab poured before the 19th of Dec.

maxmechgroup · 07-30-2009, 01:30 AM

Nice Place to work on good Project.

i am working with construction company, which provides construction equipments in Russia, UAE and Africa.