Choctaw driveway repair

This project was one of three different projects I've done so far for this customer/new friend.

The young couple is an Air Force family who lives on several acres in a wonderful little house in the middle of the property.  Their driveway had reached the point where their passenger car could almost not navigate it anymore.

When I arrived, here is what I found. The end of their driveway was constantly under water anytime it rained.  The tin horn was also plugged on both ends.

After a few hours of work, the driveway looked great.

Aside from grading the driveway (the customer was not ready to pay yet for gravel), the most important thing I did was build a swale on the uphill side of the road. Flowing water is terribly damaging so we want to keep it OFF the driveway in as much as possible.

Even after heavy storms, this is what the driveway looked like a few weeks later.  When the customer is ready, it'll make a perfect bed for some good crusher run gravel.

Piedmont fenceline follow-up

The primary reason this great customer in Piedmont had me out several times was, among other things, to clear the way for a new fence.

Here is where we started:

And here's the latest view.  Looking good Mr. O!

Downtown drainage project - Phase II

When the customer was ready for round 2, we moved fast to beat the rains that were headed our way that same evening.  It was a definite rush to action and we beat the weather but just a couple hours.

HERE is a description of Phase 1 of the project.

On Phase II, the customer wanted an unsightly hill taken down on his yard.  Turn out, it was full of construction debris and lots of concrete refuse. You can see the hill in red in this picture. He also wanted it to roughly match grade with the blue circled area in the center right of the pic.

After I was finished with the project, I drove by the next day during the rain to see how things looked.  Drainage was PERFECT, just as we'd spec'd out.

The water used to back up and cover almost the entire concrete part of this driveway.

There was no longer ponding in the yard, either.

The view from the street shows a very even flow through the entire area.

Downtown drainage project

Talk about a fixer-upper! This customer's house was built in 1911, not longer after statehood.  It is located just a few blocks from the capital building and is in a very historic neighborhood.

The problem this family was having is that their yard was a little bit higher than their their driveway and water running through their downspouts dumps right on their drive.  As you might expect, this is a recipe for trouble.

Here is a shot of the really cool house.  They've done a great job fixing it up and making it very attractive.

It's important to consider the drainage of the entire property before any dirt is moved. Fortunately in this case, the backyard was not contributing to the problem.

The stain on the driveway next to the trash can is evidence of the water that was being retained and the obvious starting point to moving dirt.

It's important to shoot grades throughout the project to keep a close eye on things.

Mid-project...

The final product...now water can move away from the driveway and out onto the field. As an added bonus, I raised the level of the yard where the water was leaving the driveway.  Now it is being properly re-directed onto the street where the city's storm water system can collect it appropriately.

I. Can. Drive. 55 (post holes)

This is actually the second phase of a project I did for this wonderful customer and now, new friend.

The first phase of the project was documented HERE.

This time around our goal was to dig post holes...and I mean lots of 'em.  In total, we put in 55 post holes with most using a 9" auger and the rest using a 12" auger.  The larger holes were to give extra room for adding concrete around the larger diameter corner and anchor posts.

Per customer specs, these holes were 36" deep.  There were only a few places where we ran into a solid rock layer and once where we sheared a pin on a very large root.  Over the course of the project, we averaged about 11 minutes per post hole.  Many of the holes took  3-5 minutes but, as ALWAYS, there were some difficulties that arose with hidden obstacles.  Even then, we were able to power through and accomplish the task.

The night before...equipment loaded and ready for pre-dawn departure.  Also included were extra shear pins and backup augers, just in case.

The view of downtown on my way to the jobsite.

The 'boss man' pointing to the next location.

The north-south run where we battled lots of tree roots and had to go a little slower in places.

This was the east-west run where drilling, for the most part, was much easier.  It was a mix of top soil, clay and a few spots of sandstone.  We had to relocate one hole by about 8 inches due to something underground that was tougher than we were. Actually, we could have dug it up but speed was more important than that specific location.

This was a precision endeavour, after all.  We had 1ft increments marked on the auger so we could make as precise of placement as possible.

It was a very nice setting for the work and the weather was perfection.  You can't really see it in this picture, but the land just below this pic was very steep and required a little extra attention when drilling. You can also see some of the dirt work and leveling we had to do on the hill.

A quick lunch of leftover pizza, carefully warmed up by sitting it on the engine block for a few minutes!

I can't wait to see the finished fence and the customer has promised to send pics when he's done.  His animals will love having the extra room to roam.

Harrah Yard Levelling Project

Last week in Harrah I made a new yard and a new friend all in one stop.

I forgot to take a before picture but imagine a really uneven, rugged, eroded surface and you'll have an idea how it looked before I got started.  Obviously it had to be bad to hire someone to get the yard ready for fescue sod.

This is one of the great things about the equipment I operate.  Although it has the highest horsepower in its class, it has a pretty narrow footprint.  That came in handy as we moved into the backyard.  I hung the 6ft box blade from the loader and eased into the backyard.  The industrial tires I run are easier on the yard than agricultural tread.

While I was there, the homeowner apologized for the old clothesline posts being in the way and that she was hoping to have someone come take them out........so I just took them out. :-)

The are by the air conditioner condensing unit was horrible but now the sod will have a nice surface in which to take root.

Here is a picture of the finished yard.  We're hoping for very little rain before the sod gets put down so the dirt won't wash out.

Pretty in Piedmont

One of the things I LOVE about this job is sharing with genuine enthusiasm a landowner/homeowner's excitement for where they live (or will soon live).  Such was the case with this project halfway between Piedmont and Cashion.

When possible, I like to start every project at my favorite time of day.  Ideally, I get to work before the sun does.  On these cold mornings, I let the hydraulics warm up while the sun makes its entrance and I enjoy the show.















The driveway started out rutted and rough, to say the least.  These pictures were taken on my first surveying trip to the property.

Notice the hackberry trees there running right through where the landowner wanted their new access.  I removed over 30 trees, a few of which were 4-5 inches in diameter, in 15-20 minutes using the loader.  I'd normally like to use a backhoe for this task but this was one of the many times where we had to call an audible with the project barely underway.

Midway through tree removal.

Shooting some grades with the 360 degree rotary laser.

Let the grading begin.

What to do with all that dirt?  The landowner had a low spot that was suffering from a LOT of erosion.  I used the extra dirt to build about a 2ft swale to re-direct the water off his property and back into the county drainage.  The red lines I added show where the water originally dumped left (in the picture) onto this land.  My hat in the left of the picture shows the elevation change and the tractor is sitting in the middle of the new runoff area. Prior, most of the watershed in this area dumped straight onto his land.

Some before and after pics of the main grading project. The picture does a good job of underestimating just how much dirt was re-located down the hill. It was A LOT.

BozHog rides again to the next jobsite! :-)

New driveway add-on via a retaining wall

Every now and then I get to work on a project that, when finished, the result is something much more than purely aesthetic.

We're not yet finished but with a couple sessions on-site, the results are working out great.

The young man with whom I've been working is confined to a wheelchair due to a freak swimming incident.  He didn't dive in and hit his head on the bottom of the pool but instead crashed head first into the side of an above ground pool.  The injuries were instant and near deadly.  I'll not go into the full details here except to say that it's been a pleasure to meet this young man and help build a spot where he can park his new wheelchair accessible van.

It was almost dark and absolutely freezing when I finished so I forgot to take pictures of just the dirt.

Before:

After - he can now turn his van around at the top of the driveway and not back blindly down the otherwise steep drive.