Day at Work digging, Mowing, & bidding 2 Big retaining Wall Failures

[Music] all right we're gonna start Monday morning good morning the actually the makita stuff yeah it goes down in the lower barn I can just leave it right here for now Sam hey you guys clean that entire driveway how much juice did you go through how many batteries did you go through so we've got a jam-packed day today we're gonna be going on to a number of different job sites and then we're also gonna be looking at a bunch of potential upcoming projects let's check this thing out first surprised how well that's doing on this two weeks worth the baked on dirt [Applause] now I gave this thing a 0% chance succeeding and cleaning up this driveway because it's battery power and it's a powered loop and I figured it would drain the batteries down so fast that it wouldn't accomplish anything before it died but I was long that's doing way better than I thought dude I would have never guessed that that would clean this driveway that good [Music] [Applause] one and a half like one and a half set yeah okay so you still have like half a set left right I mean half a juice left so that lasted a lot longer than I thought it was gonna be as all I'm saying yeah I would have never guessed it what it done it all right are you guys all cleaned up on that job site yeah all right we're where are you guys moving on to next where's that so this is that pool demo that Tim technically forgot about well he didn't forget about it he just forgot what the address was and we've got a video coming out on how we actually remove a swimming pool because I don't know about seven maybe 10 years ago we systematized the process for removing a swimming pool and then I'm gonna be actually shooting a video on exactly what that system is how we do it how we break it down into its different components where everything goes what the steps are and in what order that we do it so make sure you stick around for that video because that one if it hasn't already come out will be coming out really quick [Music] better access there we're tied over there we'll have to grab that and remove it [Music] so the idea here it's not to just go up to the dump truck and just pull them crash the material into the bed because we would eventually rupture through the bottom of our dump truck the idea is to go up and to just gently lay it in there John dropped off a load of dirt now this is structural fill soil that we use and before it actually goes into the pool we'll use it as a ramp so we can get up there we don't need it to get our material in but it just makes feathering it into the bottom of the dump truck that much easier where's-where's Blaine head next yeah what is it the house trying to get everything from the back of the house to go down the south side and out the side see I take the dirt down however far to make the pitch so you need the laser but we're gonna take all the dirt it's there put it behind the wall and build that area up trying to direct water from around the patio or get it up go around the patio and sit through the patio and then he said he'd take the dirt rest of the dirt on site somewhere so the retaining wall project that Tim is referring to is a brand new one that we're just going to get started but it's going to end up looking a lot like this one where we were dressing up the front yard we ended up tearing out an old retaining wall and just putting in some Boulder settings and some little tiny Boulder retaining walls to the front yard and just give it a little bit of curb appeal and so the next project will be similar but different than this one to us as I love about click hello trip on that now Blaine's leaving are you going on vacation this week - yeah Thursday how long are you gonna be gone for Pearlie hey you know if you leave you only can come back if you have treats and treasures right oh wait a minute we shouldn't say that he might not come back who's taking over Todd are you taking over a while Blaine's gone we got a bunch of small little jobs to do you anticipate Blaine he'll be done with his job site before this week and then we got plantings and sod for the last one then we got maintenance to do too so we got to go through like the mowing trailer the skid steer trailer make sure all the hubs are greased and the big trailer yeah big trailer we're gonna have to get somebody down there to look at what's wrong with the big trailer [Music] well the lights aren't working but it bet one big deal needs to be readjusted because it got some guys this one's kind of funny Jake is riding we've got a new gravely 61 inch sit down zero turn and Jake is using it for the first time right now and this is a guy that does not use sit down zero turns so let's watch him you just looks like it ducked out of water he just looks awkward on that you guys we've always used stand ups on the other signal uses the cup cadet with the steering wheel which oddly enough he liked look at his eyes when he comes by next time just look at him he looks like he's try to write left hand what he's writing I gotta say you look awkward as all get-out on that cake sit down bars are not my place I was just telling these guys I'm I bet it's like you trying to write left-handed when you're a righty I know you do I know you've always advised except for the Cub Cadet you really like that thing yeah and that can come back to my house all these mowers can go to my house cuz I got a chute I gotta do testing on all of them and with them down at the yard it just doesn't work too well so we'll just bring them over this one included well how do you like the cut quality and other than the fact that you're awkward is all get out on it okay all right well I just thought I'd come out and see how you're doing and yeah you look as awkward as I thought you'd look but but the cut quality is pretty damn good the cut quality is pretty damn good so after you get used to it a few times I want to then get an update from you so Alex back here on the monster mower see it just doesn't tear up the graphs when you do them three-point turns those Tweel's are a lot more forgiving right has a dual wield lower but they have in production but it doesn't have the Tweel's most wheels make a world of difference watch this would be interesting with beer right now nice this grass it wasn't be rained all last night that's pretty cool let more I'm gonna have to tell edge right it got stolen something you're sorry good your mower got stolen they'll be like why is it keep showing up did you notice we're missing a rough front roller roll it on the ground one day and also like this really yeah you're stretched enough that was literally just rolling right on the ground well we've been pretty damn hard we've been we've been really hard on this more doing crap we should have never done but I hear now you don't want to give this up am I gonna have to rename the fan fancy cake Alexes that's a her here in a purse you didn't like it though yeah I love this thing once you get used to it all right well I'll let you keep going alligator so while Blaine is gone since you are mechanically inclined let's get you doing some of the maintenance yeah todd todd knows this crap backwards okay but we need a we need a punch list I know we don't want to just leave so Blaine can you organize a punch list maybe communicate with Tim write down things that you know and you guys can write it down so when you're gone yeah yeah that makes sense that way when you're gone Todd can just go through and check everything off we get a list and he's on cruise control so that's that's one of the that's one of the things we have we have aren't we always behind yeah I mean that's the way we run the company so we're behind I mean we never want to be caught up because then we'll be like holy crap for the past what six years we've always kicked off right about 4th of July so we're right on target for the past 10 years we've been actually booked out about a year and a half to two years ahead of time but speaking of which I'm gonna go look at that massive retaining wall there's a big one coming yeah in the pod in the pockets in the pond so that'll be interesting I'm gonna go look at take a closer look at that one today all right guys that retaining wall right about there is in a state of failure and what's happening is the soil under is coming in from underneath the wall and actually going into the pond the bottom of that wall is actually blown out and so the soil is coming from the parking lot so the parking lot behind the wall is starting to settle down there's three solutions to this problem okay so if we look at the pants line we can see right where the wall is failing see how it takes that dip that's cuz it's taking the parking lot with it the fence is showing it but we'll walk a little closer you can see right here we'll take a look see this stress crack right here this is where this parking lots already failed because all of the soil from licit Holt zone has dropped down that's why we've got a crack here it's just showing it right there and the wall is showing it as well so this whole parking lot has to be cut away from this point forward to repair rebuild this retaining wall it's just a long process so we saw cut the parking lot haul that out dig this soil down about 12 14 feet or so stockpile it on site probably over in the corner there we're gonna end up hauling some ox it's gonna be too wet and nasty to reuse his backfill then we build the road down in here we have to pump the pond down so that we've get it below the footing elevation which is going to be equal to over there so we got to do this on a pretty dry to three-week span if the weather people get their job right and then we got to do a soil correction underneath the retaining wall saw in this wall right here was that wall the soy the footing that's underneath there we would build up about two feet of just pure rock and pyramid that out so we'd have a pyramid of rock up to the point right where the first block begins because that will take the pressure from that block and spread it over a footprint kind of like wearing snow shoes in deep snow then we would fortify that base layer with layers of geogrid and that's going to keep even if you got water even if you've got movement freeze thaw cycle which we have a ton of that geogrid is gonna lock everything and we're gonna use three-quarter inch clear limestone which is an angular aggregate to fortify that base then we're gonna build this wall back up then this backfill zone right here we're gonna use the struck the best structural field that we were able to save remember we put it away over there we're gonna build this back up and then we're gonna probably end up importing Oh can't tell you how many tons we're gonna end up importing but we're gonna end up importing more structural fill soil because I anticipate some of its not gonna be any good so that's one solution the second fix for this would be to come in with sheet piling boom boom boom leave the existing wall in place and sheet pile in front of it sheet piling is to literally taking sheets of steel and pile-driving them down right in front of that retaining wall till we hit bedrock and then just leaving the wall in place leaving the sheet piling there nothing is going to move doing that the band-aid solution is pumping the pond down building a temporary road in front of it excavating the material from in front of that retaining wall and then filling in the void spaces because we're getting a lot of sloughing a lot of void spaces and a lot of material from behind the wall coming down underneath the retaining wall we've got to stop that so we're gonna use concrete or a non permeable material to keep the fines from mitigating into the pond area and then we're going to fortify that zone by backfilling with riprap in the very front of the retaining wall so those are the three solutions that I can come up with what do you guys think down below and you know what while we're taking guesses take a guess what you think the first solution would cost the second solution would cost and what the band-aid might cost yep I'm gonna try to figure out what the hell was that of a job have you talked to that guy lately you know you don't always have to have these insanely detailed formalized estimates you can give them a generalized quote and then if they're interested beyond that you can then get everything put it in put it in detailed writing because I mean a written a good written estimate takes hour to put together at least yeah a good one not you know so this is awesome you guys because for once I actually do have an easy job it is these walls you know normally I get involved in these walls that are such an epic challenge that you just got to scratch your head get engineers involved and get everything lined up but it's these look at this I can work right off the sidewalk just remove them replace some Peck soil it's just basing and putting in new block but what we're gonna do different one of the things that I want to point out is what the salt the salt has killed these walls and led to failure in them we're actually gonna 360 coat these so as we do this job every block is going to be 360 degrees sealed cuz well the initial coat that's the best way to do it and then every year after this you've got to reseal them so let's show you some what let's just show you some areas where the salts really taking these blocks out you can't put salt on retaining walls unless you really hate the person you just got done working for then you put salt all over them and two to three years it only takes maybe two years to do this right here that's a full flat underneath there and that's just gone that whole bottom row it's nice to get an easy one like this because the next one is going to be nothing like this one check this out all right you guys this is more like what I'm used to seeing we've got a garage wall here somebody built a retaining wall a few years back but the walls that are failing are up in there so somehow I've got to be able to get up and over these garages which look like they're about ready to come down anyway clear out all of that tree line and then rebuild new retaining walls the timber walls that are up there I'm going to show you what they look like right now all right guys I'm standing on top of the garage and I want to just give you a closer look at what we've got to do we've got to somehow squiggle our way up behind this garage and then get up at these retaining walls to rebuild them let's take a look at how bad these things have failed we've got one two a three terraced timber retaining wall that pretty much no longer exists now I was called out to build retaining walls but I've got a different plan in mind all right so even though I got called out here to build the retaining wall I'm actually going to offer them a plan that probably has nothing to do with retaining walls what I'm going to talk to them about is tearing down these garages they're already in a state of dilapidation so removing these garages will then open up this space they've got two options from that point they could just create parking spaces back there or we could rebuild garages but here's my plan we're not going to build a retaining wall on that back wall we're gonna use the back garage wall as a retaining wall a multi-purpose wall so if they do decide that they want to rebuild these garages when the concrete guy comes in to build that back wall he's going to build it knowing that we're gonna build it higher than what's currently there because we're gonna also use part of that garage wall as the retaining wall so I won't be doing actually a concrete or CMU retaining wall we're gonna have a concrete guy come in and do a foundation wall on that back one and support that hillside so that's my game plan with this site instead of trying to crane all of my equipment up we're just gonna work right from the bottom and go at it all right you guys this is the jobsite that keeps on giving now we're at a different area on this same project and we've got these retaining walls that are failing for a number of reasons and it's not just the trees it actually gets worse as we get around this corner and we take a look at what's happening over here we've got the hill is sloughing off and dumping soil into the building so what we've got to do is we've got to come in here replace this retaining wall but we've also got to correct the grades so as we look we've got the sill plate of the window right here and you can see where it's filling up and over the next big rainfall that these guys have it's going to damage this whole lower unit because once this one floods the water is going to find its way throughout this entire project here's the thing these trees are good and bad these giant trees are actually holding this hill together but they're shading everything around it so that means that it's allowing all of the silt or the surface soil to wash off now the roots are holding the majority of the hill together but it's not holding the top layer so we've got to clear all of these trees and create wide-open spaces and then be able to plant deep-rooted vegetation on the top of it what that'll do is knit the hill together but also knit the surface soil together because right now we've got one of the two happening but you can see where all of this is exposed and just flop fluffing right into the building so this wall comes out we build a new wall we clear all the trees and vegetation we lay down an erosion fabric on top of it and then we plant it with a deep-rooted seeding vegetation that will grow and take over not trees but something lower and then we'll have a hill that'll hold up long-term that's at least my initial 30 way another thing that I need you guys to do is go in the garage here cuz we're gonna be doing some testing for keen boots so these are I put your names on all of these here's the thing you guys these aren't these aren't free boots these aren't like freebies these are you got to wear them if you don't like them you got a say so if you do like them I need to know what you like about them and I need you guys to beat the crap out of these boots supposedly these are the absolute toughest boots that Keane has ever made period hands down and it's made for hardcore construction hardcore job sites dirt work everything they're waterproof they I think they come in two forms insulated and not insulated of course they've got the polycarbonate toe embedded into them and so there's a lot I think they're called the Philadelphia but nobody's ever had these before nobody's touched these before and so we're gonna be putting them to the test and saying yay or nay to the guys out there to make sure that they're right but I've Ward Keene for years now and they're my favorite shoe hands down yeah just go ahead lean up against the Mustang Tim will you put your boots on just yeah yep just make sure your belt buckle is right on the paint while you're leaning on it I can't read it says John so yeah so please beat the crap out of these boots no mercy so when I when I washed her to walk around in them they were the most comfortable feeling boot that I ever put on like period hands-down they're squishy comfortable aren't they kind of I'm surprised cuz here yeah they got this we got that broken in feeling already yeah they're a little stiff yep is it brand-new but they're already yeah yeah it's hot there oddly comfortable mm-hmm I mean they just got that real squishy I just stealing in the tote room is awesome yeah hey toes can spread out in there and you still got here hey hey Blane and Todd have you guys ever wore teens before so this will be a first time this will be interesting to see what you guys think they are they're they're made because they got a left and a right toe cap where other hard toes have a universal toe cap which tends to squish your toes both sides so good…