Rebuilding a Collapsing Driveway and Retaining wall

be careful how he pulls this out because he doesn't wanna rip out Guinea in the driveway yeah all right you guys well today's job is definitely not a big one but it's not an easy one this site I don't know how else to put it it's just so you know what let's go back to the beginning before we even started this project we're up against these are some big boulders we got to replace this retaining wall here plus we've got electrical lines in so these stumps gotta go man we've got what a challenge dude what a challenge no room stumps growing a raft or those roots are wrapped around the utility lines big-time whoo see you later Tim have fun on that job what are you gonna do about these stumps cuz when those stumps rot out that's gonna settle out the wall this wall is already decimated look at this I was kind of pushing for modular block you can put the spray on there and I've seen like three to five years spray helps both being on a driveway and salt it they just get even though technically supposed to reapply the spray every year well yeah realistically every year when older is gonna last a hell of a lot longer I don't really ever see boulders getting destroyed cuz of salt I don't notice that ever happening nope so that's the reason we decided to do that here and they do better with with stumps under we're ripping these out yeah you ripped that stump off those roots are gonna wrap right around that got take it out grind it down or take it out flip out the one you're standing on um that's gonna probably chip away at it a bit I don't even know they'll meet a wall right there don't so we're gonna stop they were gonna move this box but they never did so imagine that or it's just not gonna happen it's a ways out we don't have time to wait so we're gonna put our wall you only need something up to here and then this can be some dirt let's just the other the end of the drive who's not gonna hurt nothing okay and what about crossing the property line from the driveway no I mean it what about like right here you're just gonna move it out as much as you can towards you keep it about eight inches from the property line so could you get bigger boulders next question oh yeah yeah I could have but um anybody stop it this side so the boulders themselves really aren't big boulders they're not like five or six foot boulders they're anywhere from two to three we do have some bigger than three going closer to four bulbs it's the relationship of the size of the boulder to the size of the job no this isn't a big job it's a small job it's just a tight job and I want to be very conscientious about the size of the boulder in relation to the project because sometimes when you use these massive stones on little jobs it doesn't look right and then vice versa when you use little teeny tiny boulders on a very big wall that really doesn't look right so you wanna balance it just perfectly and right here Tim's just trying to pick through all of the undergrowth to make sure that he doesn't have any stumps left behind but let's take a look at this project to this area before we started to do anything this is not a giant project it's just not an easy project the white line property line driveway right behind it we're gonna have to cut that driveway out underground utilities wrapped around buried stumps you name it the challenge is on this site now we're gonna cut out the driveway so that when we remove the wall beneath it in case any of that just collapses we don't get this weird jagged edge into the driveway or cause stress fractures to go any deeper into the driveway than we have to by putting in a saw cut and removing that we just have a very finished polished edge and an easy place to work back up to to pageant so we don't have to remove a lot of the driveway but we do want to remove enough that it gives us space to place the boulders in awesome to brace up the backfill even though this is a very small wall and we're using very large boulders we're still gonna stick filter fabric and geogrid reinforcement behind and the reader caning law because there's a surcharge from that driveway surcharge beats an extra ball and Condit wall itself and that geogrid is very cheap insurance but it also means we've got to do a few extra steps to get the grid in place and one of them this driveway out at the driveway gun it's time to start building some bolder walls now I'm really lucky you guys opinion what do you think of the size of these boulders in relation to the size of the driveway I actually think they work pretty good I do like some of the things that you're gonna see to do on this wall and that's break the pattern up I really like it when you just have a little bit of variation in the pattern and not just the standard basket weave going throughout the entire project and you're gonna see that today [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] now we're going to be picking through this retaining wall because we're gonna actually be recycling a lot of this material this concrete these retaining wall blocks that are coming out right now will go to a recycling plant and be reused as class-five then we're not wasting this stuff that's not going into a landfill and just taking up space it's going to be reused so the way the recycling plant makes these blocks usable again is by grinding them up pulverizing them down to about 3/4 inch in size and then they keep the fibers in it and this turns this material into a highly compatible material that's actually excellent as broad-based we call it recycled class-five it's no not really a lot different than regular class-five except that it's all made from recycled materials a lot of it is from asphalt concrete and any other forms of materials that have been brought in crushed up pulverized and prepared to be reused [Music] so we don't have a truck sitting and waiting on us we're gonna be doing all of the removals first stop filing all the material after we get it removed into one big giant pile call the truck in then just load that truck up but then it gives us the ability to rebuild this retaining wall instead of trying to do it on a just-in-time basis and what I mean is a lot of guys may say well the smart thing to do is I have a truck there and while you're demolishing the retaining wall loaded up into the truck yeah but those guys aren't actually paying the hourly bill of having a truck sitting while you do the removal if you do the removal first stick it all in a giant pile when the truck gets there you can mount it in a matter of minutes and get the truck on down the road it's just slightly faster more efficient but it takes more space this way that we're doing it does mean that we have to work in the front yard which is fine in this case because we're gonna be ripping out the whole front yard anyway Andry landscaping that as well so why not save a buck while we do it [Music] [Applause] [Music] another thing that we do is not remove the entire driveway all at once and then start to rebuild the entire driveway the reason we're not working that way is because imagine what would happen to that driveway if we get it all removed and then a monsoon comes through and just downpours for two or three days then we could have a lot of potential driveway damage so what we're doing is we're removing a section then building a section then we're going to another section then building another section and yeah this makes the job a lot tougher but it also protects that driveway while we're working the last thing we want for anything more to happen to this driveway it's already in a state of compromised and our job out there it's like to protect it jeopardize [Applause] [Music] another thing that really a lot of people don't even know about is the difference from building a wall from the front meaning you're sitting in front of the wall and looking at it or building the wall from behind which is where Tim is at right now building the law from behind is I can't tell you exponentially more difficult because you can't see what you're doing you can't see the boulders you can't see how they're fitting together and you're 100% relying on a spotter to be able to know where you want it and Tim is super technical super picky and so Sam who's helping Tim out got a pretty tough job because he's got to be able to almost read Tim's mind and know exactly how Tim wants to operate so communication between the ground pounder and the operator in the machine is critical [Music] now as you watch and pick this wall apart look at his position in the cab as he's looking down he has very limited visibility to actually see where any of these materials lives so a lot of this goes by field as well as being able to just kind of tell where things lie because it's so different when you're working from behind the wall then when you're working in front of the wall and have a very clear line of sight it speeds up the process a lot more if you can possibly work in the front but we don't have access on this job to be able to do it which adds another layer to the challenge so right here is those blocks and then material plops down to the bottom they're pretty much out of Tim's line of sight at this point he's kind of guessing where they are so he's putting the thumb down there or total grapple and just going by field to try to grab them without grabbing any more dirt than he has [Music] all right well let's give Tim a little bit of time to work and come back and visit this and see how these boulders go together and here she is pretty much wrapped up never crossed in the property lines and we had underground utilities and buried obstructions right down here let's go take a look at how they ended this wall right next to a mall so right there with stumps wrapped around the utility lines so we'll tell you how we did that in just a minute buried tree stumps and lines run it all through here so what do you got let's get the kind of stumps you got to do you around to loosen them up and the only problem with digging around them is we can't we don't have room because we couldn't do these so you never want to put a wall over a stump right ever because it's gonna rot mm-hmm and settle on you so in that situation we expand it with a big boulder which that's just one rock moving and shifting not a multiple stack of rock so that's something for these guys that take into consideration now you ground this stump down right okay so grinding it down is one way of doing it when you don't have the room to dig it out move it or and haul it away which we didn't have because this was littered with them now you hand dug and located every utility in this area didn't you Sam okay we had trenches we dug along where we were gonna be putting the boulders in and going to put down up to where we're gonna be putting boulders and now you've had a few changes on this job as well okay I'm so glad Sam except for that surprise fall in line that was like an inch under under the grass so you've had a few changes on this job that you've made along the way too right by adding geogrid into the driveway into the into the backfill of the and then I added some fabric on the back and we put class 5 up to the boulders okay so you added multiple layers of fabric really so so let's get this straight so guys watching this can understand what we did to ensure you know the job not only did your fabric behind the wall which is typical but then you fabric behind the driveway or the backfill zone over here and then this backfill Zone in the center you actually fortified with geogrid oh yeah how much it's gonna do but it always helps geogrid is like this magic bullet that makes a huge difference in patios retaining walls we've we've put fabric down and we put different geogrid strategies and swaps holding up retaining walls without doing soil Corrections Habitat for Humanity they always buy the crappiest land possible and then have us go in and build retaining walls on top of it and we've yet to have one single one fail ever nope and I figured since it was a driveway it made sense to beef it up as much as we possibly could well and that you're using oversized boulders for the project so I think you kind of overdid everything I'd say yeah but won't I ever see it go anywhere that's that's kind of your mo I've seen you do this over and over again yeah Chad could drive on this boulders what do you think's Daniel oh this looks I love I love the only thing I'm gonna I'm gonna play devil's advocate Tim hates when I do that now I like here this is kind of a random basket weave right then you've got your your stone that interrupts the pattern and then you went right here with these two boulders and there's sandwiched directly on top of each other instead of having a basket weave pattern yeah the only weak point but these stones themselves are pretty much oversized way oversized for you what you need in this area but the only weak point that I can see is right there yep this one has like a tooth you know so it goes down and back and this one goes back probably a good three feet it's not gonna go anywhere but if we were building a wall eight or nine foot tall yeah would you do that probably that I try to I try to not make the seam double seam like that yep that's the only thing that I'd say could have been done differently but if we're really gonna nitpick ourselves which I think technically you and I nitpick ourselves worse than I think we honestly I think you nitpick yourself worse than anybody I've ever met before and I think you've made me start to pick up that trait so I blame you just keep trying to get better man all right you guys so we wrapped up this super tough job it wasn't a big one but lots of little problems space was one of them utility lines were another one building something that not only was aesthetically pleasing but structurally going to last forever was another challenge that we faced and I think we've got this one wrapped up but we've got one more to go so make sure you guys stick around because now tim has got to do something a little bit more artsy up in the front of the house and a little less structural along the side and let's find out what he does and while you're here you guys check out these other two videos that I'm gonna put right down here god bless you guys and go get them words of wisdom I got nothing it's Monday after fourth of July weekend