On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:01:59 +0000, Mark Rand
wrote:

On Thu, 22 Nov 2007 23:01:12 -0600, Ignoramus689
wrote:

What was the most ill-conceived, unsuccessful, and worthless/expensive
DIY style project that you undertook (I would say without counting any
injuries as they could outweigh everything else)?


I'm afraid that it's got to be listening to my neighbour when he suggested
that we could clean up the corners of the pit that we had excavated for under
my workshop, by driving the mini-backhoe into said pit (water table is very
high in my garden). The result cost me a week's work about $3000 and a lot of
stress:-

http://www.test-net.com/workshop/day6.html

Ouch! Now you can see why getting more than one opinion on your
idea and the implementation can be a good thing...

The pit does the job it was intended for, but is neither as big or as deep as
I had planned. If I were to do the job again under similar conditions I would
dig out trenches and immediately fill them with concrete and rebar before the
ground had a chance to move. Once the concrete was hardened I would excavate
the ground from the centre section, pumping as necessary to control water
ingress.

That's a small and odd-shaped lot - I can see why you wanted to fill
every available square centimeter...

No, the nifty trick would have been a small crane with a hydraulic
vibratory pile driver, and some corrugated sheet steel piling - it's
just like driving those corrugated nails with a palm nailer, only
bigger. And the edges of the pile have folded grooves to interlock.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/esc/constru...eet_piling.pdf

I've seen them turn sandy running soil that is impossible to
excavate into a nice square pit for the fuel tanks at a service
station in a half day. They formed and poured a concrete bathtub
inside the piles. Pull the piles, drop in the new fiberglass storage
tanks and backfill with pea gravel. And the next time they go to
replace the tanks it'll go easy and simple.

You would have to clear out all the tree stumps and "stuff" out of
the backyard first, then pull out the fences and make darned sure
there aren't any underground utility lines there.

The crane drives the sheet piling just inside of the side and rear
property lines, and you can either drive it flush and leave it in
permanently, or leave it proud and pull it after the basement walls
set before building on top. Dig the pit and place compacted gravel,
place rebar and forms and pour the walls and footings.

-- Bruce --