Excavation continues

Following the Easter weekend (no work done) and due to some melting from the recent snow we lost a day during muddy conditions, but our excavator was back today loading and hauling dirt. He had stockpiled and prepped enough such that loading could be done just by a skid steer.  This is another advantage of frost free conditions (soft material allows some excavation to be done efficiently via skid steer).  Dumping had been pre arranged at another jobsite fairly closeby, saving a long and wasteful (costly) haul to the landfill.  Tomorrow the wall shoring job begins, this will form the basis of our next blog post.  While we don't view the shoring as necessary on this job, we are obliged to do so anyway to keep the government at bay.  Our post will detail the techniques we have used to attempt to cut cost on the job while still remaining in compliance with our obligations.  Our homemade shoring job will hopefully work out and form the basis of a significant cost reduction to the excavation job vs. using the conventional technique of shotcrete (i.e. the quick and easy way to outsource the job fully and absorb the cost of a $12,000 bill).

just the skid steer and gravel truck on site today.  One operator running both pieces of equipment means  our excavation company incurs less cost

The skid steer can fill the capacity of the truck in just a few minutes longer than the  full size track hoe, but at much lower operating cost

Our building footprint dwarfs the 60 year old neighbour.  This is one of the consequences of rebuilding Calgary from the inside out.  Three new houses will have to take up more space than a quaint cottage footprint.  In a few years (if the economy is good) we expect most of the remaining houses on the block to be removed.