My Sky Color

A forty something Dad, Husband, Engineer guy living in Western Oregon. Reflections on all things in life. A few technical things and whatever else comes along.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Shop 7

I finally made the inspector happy. Well not really. I had to go to Gresham City Hall and get the city structural engineer to sign off on the changes I had made. After getting approval to pour concrete I had to get a pump, finishers and concrete trucks all lined up for Saturday. It is Wednesday when I got the inspection approved. The hardest part was getting the concrete. The ready mix companies are really independent and charge like there is no competition. Most of the batch plants have to have 100 or even 200 cubic yards minimum before they will run on a Saturday. I ended up having to go with a "mobile mix" company. The only batch plant that was running wanted $75 per truck extra for Saturday.

Mobile mix is a truck that has a hopper of sand, one of gravel and one of cement. There is a big water tank too. The concrete is mixed in the shoot by an auger. Lesson learned: If you are pouring more that 8 yards make sure to get ready mix. The mix on site is not consistent and isn't well mixed. The finishers hated it. The other problem is the trucks are not back to back. The finishers left at 8 PM! We started pouring at a theoretical 10 AM, with the first truck being 35 minutes late.



With all of the troubles it still turned out pretty good. I am working on stripping forms right now. I have to do a little leveling work where the posts bolt down.



My Uncle Greg is coming home from a job in Minnesota and is going to help me haul the building kit from Sandy, OR to my place. That should happen next week. Onward and upward. DMP

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Saturday, August 18, 2007


Shop 6
No concrete yet. The inspection on Friday didn't go so well. Much to my chagrin. My additional reinforcement baffled the inspector. He thought it would compromise the structure. My opinion is he didn't know what it was for, therefore, he had to question it. The real issue was the footing on fill. Also he wanted me tohave electrical and plumbing permits for the simple stub in pipes.
I have spent the day digging out the footing and backfilling it with gravel and compacting it. I had to take out a bunch of rebar. I will reschedule all the concrete people and equipment for next Saturday, and the inspection for Wednesday. This gives me Friday for a re-inspect if it is required.
I was a let down bummer after getting everything setup to have the inspector trump all the plans. Keep your fingers crossed! DMP

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Shop 5

Nothing fancy here. I am working from daylight until dark every day (9 of those hours are my day job). Getting the dirt work done was a chore. I am having an inspection tomorrow, Thursday the 16th. The plan is to pour concrete on Saturday. I have a couple concrete finishers on tap to make it right. The dirt work and concrete portion of the project are ending up as 30% of the project cost.

I got the heavy concrete embeds set last night. I have a 3x3 angle in the door way to protect the edge of the slab. Welded to that are two 4" wide flange I-beams that run 10 feet into the building. This should protect the floor and support the weight of any tracked vehicles I want to pull in to work on. I got the crane base set as well. I have to get both of these items leveled up tonight and tied into the slab reinforcing mesh. The area around these heavies is thicker concrete.

I have some piping stubbed in for main power, water (someday), and an extra electrical for a phone (someday). I will try to get some pictures posted soon. I don't have much free time right now. DMP