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Barndominium or Shopdominium Steel Building Experience?

Would it be worthwhile to rent a trencher and cut through the rocks? I know it doesn't work on all rocks, but if it's softer sandstone, you might luck out
 
BDK said:
Rocks, layers and layers of rocks, mixed with hard dirt. Scraping a few inches of dirt, then hitting bucket sized rocks. This might take a while. It's nice to know the house is sitting on such a hard surface, but what a pain in the ass.
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At least the weather is good now.
 
Pt_Ranger_v8 said:
Would it be worthwhile to rent a trencher and cut through the rocks? I know it doesn't work on all rocks, but if it's softer sandstone, you might luck out
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It's all hard granite type hard rocks. Nobody uses trenchers here, they don't work. I'm thinking about calling the guy who did my water line. He has a medium sized excavator. He had to work at it until he got down the hill a ways and out of whatever this is at the house.
 
45acp said:
I would love to have the rock problem. If you see a rock here, you leave it alone. Somebody spent alot of money to get it here, and rocks are a display of wealth.
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Come up here and I'll give you the biggest rock you can trailer home.

Medium excav sounds like the best bet, that ford is great for small stuff, just not that.
 
BDK said:
It's all hard granite type hard rocks. Nobody uses trenchers here, they don't work. I'm thinking about calling the guy who did my water line. He has a medium sized excavator. He had to work at it until he got down the hill a ways and out of whatever this is at the house.
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You are not on time pressure so just get the best deal
 
The dirt work guys said they usually hit a layer or two of rocks, but this place was all rocks and caliche. Several 4-5' diameter rocks and a few over 6'. They pushed a 8' rock into the S/E corner. It's about 6" below the pad.
 
Levigarrett76 said:
Clean ol ford backhoe:usa:
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It's got its issues, but it still starts right up. The transmission has been leaking from several places. I fix one leak, and then find another. Most of the cylinders have been rebuilt, but a few of them are seeping. Engine has developed a slight knock while idling at low RPM. I'm going to pull it apart and address these issues, but that will be way after the house is finished. A neighbor is a old cowboy and says he knows these tractors inside-out, knows where to source parts, and is willing to assist with internal issues.
 
They put those 201 fords in alot of stuff, they usually pretty hard to kill. and real easy on fuel
 
Septic tank installed. They brought out a Cat 420 backhoe. Now that sucker can dig. He got to within a few inches of the target depth and hit a rock he couldn't work out or dig around, and the hole was seven feet wide. Then, he ripped out all three hydraulic lines that control the bucket quick release. I helped him remove the lines and he parked the backhoe by my 555B.
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He came back in the morning with a 430, said he had to order the lines from Cat. He couldn't get the rock out with the larger hoe, so he moved the hole forward about six feet and got down to a few inches of target depth, and hit more rocks. He scraped and broke some up, and pulled out this bad boy.
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That's a 4" drain pipe for reference

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I think I found the guy to dig my power line trenches. It's mostly fill dirt at the end of the pad.

Finally got the tank set, and started on the drain before stopping for the day. He came out today and we spent half of the day replacing those three lines. Had to drop the bucket, and remove the little ram to get to the fittings. He took the 430 and one of his dump trucks home. Left the 420 and his other dump truck here so he can finish up Monday.
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I'm leaving here Sunday to go back across the iron curtain for the holidays. They should be finished with the drywall sheets by tomorrow. Inspection on Monday. They will wait a week or two to let the house settle before tape and mud. Also to give the stucco subs time to brown coat. Then, we are going to wait until I get back before choosing and starting the finishings and synthetic stucco coat color.
 
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Dethmachinefab said:
That's drywall outside under the porch roof?
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Yes. It's going to be skin coated with synthetic stucco so everything matches. We have to stucco it because for some reason code doesn't allow drywalling unless there is 12" minimum open space behind it and the rafters are 2x10's. If you seal it with stucco, then it's OK.
 
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The synthetic stucco is nice, but I was told it's nearly impossible to patch, they basically have to redo the entire wall, I opted for traditional

But the synthetic is colored and sure looks nice. Like Halle Berry:flipoff2:
 
I had drywall under a porch on a rental house fail spectacularly, I think it'll last 15 years for him then start to delaminate, from wind bringing rain in sideways. He'll only get 12 inches a year, but the afternoon it happens is wild:laughing:

Not knocking it, it's fast and cheap and will last long enough
 
Projectjunkie said:
The synthetic stucco is nice, but I was told it's nearly impossible to patch, they basically have to redo the entire wall, I opted for traditional

But the synthetic is colored and sure looks nice. Like Halle Berry:flipoff2:
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It's colored and has a 30 year warranty. No painting, ever. I'm 61 so 30 year warranties are all I will need.
 
Projectjunkie said:
I had drywall under a porch on a rental house fail spectacularly, I think it'll last 15 years for him then start to delaminate, from wind bringing rain in sideways. He'll only get 12 inches a year, but the afternoon it happens is wild:laughing:

Not knocking it, it's fast and cheap and will last long enough
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This is a very common way of finishing a patio. It could only fail if something else wasn't done properly. We looked into different kinds of wall board, but kept coming back to drywall.

Sure isn't cheap, but it's about 6,000 sq ft of space if you include the residence, garage and patios.
 
45acp said:
I would love to have the rock problem. If you see a rock here, you leave it alone. Somebody spent alot of money to get it here, and rocks are a display of wealth.
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Said this in another thread and someone said I was wrong lol
 
Pony_Driver said:
Definitely an out west thing. Here on the east coast it might last 30 days before being covered in mildew, a year or so before it pulls off under its own weight, leaving the fasteners in the wood above. :laughing:
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Saw that and cringed. But digging a trench with backhoes does too. Shows how what's normal in one region is very opposite of others.

House looks amazing :smokin:
 
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