Hot hot hot. Humid, drippy, sweating swamp. Ah the joys of summer in east Texas. On the other hand, our housing market is nuts, jobs go unfilled, and our economy is booming. For values of booming anyway. I am starting to get a little sunburned despite the big straw hat and being in the shade and on a machine most of the day. The sun is so hot that I am noticeably darker tan that when I started the project, just from driving the machine through it.
Did a bunch of stuff yesterday. Was not easier, like I was hoping. The ground beam continues to be a major problem. If there was someplace close, I’d rent a concrete saw (like a chainsaw) to cut the beam. It’s far too deep for my walk behind. 40+ year old concrete is HARD. I am making steady progress, but barring a miracle, I’m not going to be done on Wednesday. It’s a lot cheaper to extend my rentals than to do it again later, so I’ll probably just stay up here and continue working.
Today is more of the same. Break the concrete, scoop it up, put it somewhere, scoop up the sand, put it somewhere, scoop up the topsoil, put it somewhere. Check that we’re still reasonably level and at the right depth. Repeat. Two skid steer buckets of rubble. 3 or 4 of sand. 1 or 2 of topsoil. Transferred by the mini-ex at a rate of twelve+ shovels per bucket. Many more partial shovels of broken concrete as it doesn’t fill the bucket well.
Breaking the concrete takes the most time, mainly because of the effort to weaken the ground beam. The actual concrete patio breaks quickly with the big hammer, despite being 8-12 inches thick. Because it’s in layers, I actually break the top layer, then the bottom layer which is way easier than breaking a monolithic slab. Also fortunately, Old Boy used smooth steel ‘pencil rod’ and not rebar. The chunks do not stick to the smooth pencil rod like they would to rebar.
I got a low fuel light on the skid steer this afternoon. Added 5 gallons and got back to half… so it’s a ten gallon tank, and it lasted 4 days. That’s far better than I expected. I’m running the mini-ex about 3:1 vs the skid steer (technically a ‘track loader’.) Maybe 4:1.
I’m holding up ok, despite the time in the seat. I was a bit ‘punchy’ by the end of the day, and decided I was at a good point to look at the electrical at the dockhouse again.
Today will be more of the same. The dumpster should be switched out for new, and it needs it. It’s full to the top. I hope they get to me early in the day, I’d hate to stack the rubble and move it twice. I’ll do whatever it takes though.
If I have to go to town, maybe I’ll look for the electrical stuff I need. If I have time. Which I don’t.
So stack some stuff for your own projects. And food. Always food.
nick