Of Mud and Men
Monday, October 16, 2006 - Torrential rain, a steady rain really, and in the end, only 1 and two tenths inches in the rain gauge. But this was a soaking. The rain fell all day long on the trailer, and my imagination provided me with the image of a pond where the Heagney basement should be. A crackling fire here in the trailer would have brightened the mood a bit. Instead, a baseboard heater took the chill away and smoothed the feeling of anxiety we in construction feel before slabs are poured. Erosion and deposition. Two words you do not want to hear after deep excavation and before concrete. The site soils are exposed to the constant tap tapping of giant waterdrops, and all we could do was reschedule and prepare for pumping-- a lot of pumping.
Tuesday, October 17, 2007 - Mud. A steady mud. A deep plastic mud. One step on site and your boots disappear. In fact, this is a step-out-of-your-boots mud. We're all laced up tight, but we have to wonder how our boots will ever be the same.
This week our focus is on steel erection, foundation waterproofing and a concrete slab on the basement floor. Only the steel can proceed. The concrete will have to wait until we can get sufficient compaction. The concrete slab is critical, so the mud occupies our every thought until we sleep. At night I have a dream and I see one of my nice fresh pressed oxford shirts floating in a sea of brown mud not unlike a chocolate milk shake. The shirt floats perfectly flat on the surface, its arms outstretched without a speck of mud on the front. I need the shirt, and as I step in to retrieve it, my foot lands on the very front of the shirt and carries it underneath the surface until it disappears and I am up to my waist in chocolate frappe.
On Friday, our testing engineers told us we weren't nearly dry enough to proceed with our basement floor-- we didn't have the compaction we needed. It's not the news I wanted to hear, so I did my own testing in a corner of the basement. This involved a technical method certain construction professionals have been using for years-- the boot test. With a perfect blend of force and gentle prodding, I used my boot to apply pressure to the surface of the dirt (mud) to test for the presence of subsurface hydrolics (water). In some areas I had to back off quickly before putting all my weight into what I could only describe as deep oatmeal. Soft muckiness is not compatible with concrete basement floors. One day of rain, a morning of hard drizzle, and abnormally cold temperatures has turned a rain day into a rain week. Steel erection and waterproofing are proceeding as planned however.
This week our focus is on steel erection, foundation waterproofing and a concrete slab on the basement floor. Only the steel can proceed. The concrete will have to wait until we can get sufficient compaction. The concrete slab is critical, so the mud occupies our every thought until we sleep. At night I have a dream and I see one of my nice fresh pressed oxford shirts floating in a sea of brown mud not unlike a chocolate milk shake. The shirt floats perfectly flat on the surface, its arms outstretched without a speck of mud on the front. I need the shirt, and as I step in to retrieve it, my foot lands on the very front of the shirt and carries it underneath the surface until it disappears and I am up to my waist in chocolate frappe.
On Friday, our testing engineers told us we weren't nearly dry enough to proceed with our basement floor-- we didn't have the compaction we needed. It's not the news I wanted to hear, so I did my own testing in a corner of the basement. This involved a technical method certain construction professionals have been using for years-- the boot test. With a perfect blend of force and gentle prodding, I used my boot to apply pressure to the surface of the dirt (mud) to test for the presence of subsurface hydrolics (water). In some areas I had to back off quickly before putting all my weight into what I could only describe as deep oatmeal. Soft muckiness is not compatible with concrete basement floors. One day of rain, a morning of hard drizzle, and abnormally cold temperatures has turned a rain day into a rain week. Steel erection and waterproofing are proceeding as planned however.
posted by Dan at 12:32 PM
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