WVBill
Veteran Member
So as I mentioned in my other thread on Basic Backhoe Operation http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/97247-basic-backhoe-operation.html , I'm building a Quilting Studio for my wife. It will be a one-story 24' x 24' stick-framed building on a foundation over a crawl space. The Attic space under the 12/12 pitch roof will be used for storage and office. I want the first floor to be post-free so I'm using 14" wood I-Joists for the attic floor joists. First floor will be 2 x 10 joists with a 12' span.
Ground breaking for the footers was last Saturday. I rented a Bobcat excavator and followed the advice I got from tlbuser, Eddie and MossRoad in my other thread for the layout.
I used marking paint to lay out the digging path and grade stakes alongside. The tops of the grade stakes were level. After I carefully dug down to my planned depth and put the bucket flat on the bottom of the hole, I noted a point on the excavator boom that was level with the grade stake. Then I just eyeballed this point to the tops of the grade stakes as I moved along.
Although I never got to the point where that last bucket at the bottom was second nature, I did learn how to combine small movements of the boom, stick and bucket so it worked out pretty good. I ended up with a bottom that's within a few inches of level around the whole perimeter.
Here's links to the pictures:
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/SiteView.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/Thelayout1.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/ExcavatorDelivered.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/Digging.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/Lovinthatpower.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/Viewfromtheoperatorseat.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/firstsidefinished.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/done.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/IntheDitch.jpg
I did discover that my batter boards were WAY too close to the digging path. As a result, I couldn't straddle the digging line with the excavator for more than the first half of each side. That's where the articulating boom on this excavator saved the day. I was able to nose up and hang out over the trench, put the blade down on the other side for stability, swing the boom over and dig.
This weekend I planned to clean up the bottom of the trench and put down my footer forms but it's raining buckets and the whole site is a mud bog. Oh well - next weekend.
WVBill
Ground breaking for the footers was last Saturday. I rented a Bobcat excavator and followed the advice I got from tlbuser, Eddie and MossRoad in my other thread for the layout.
I used marking paint to lay out the digging path and grade stakes alongside. The tops of the grade stakes were level. After I carefully dug down to my planned depth and put the bucket flat on the bottom of the hole, I noted a point on the excavator boom that was level with the grade stake. Then I just eyeballed this point to the tops of the grade stakes as I moved along.
Although I never got to the point where that last bucket at the bottom was second nature, I did learn how to combine small movements of the boom, stick and bucket so it worked out pretty good. I ended up with a bottom that's within a few inches of level around the whole perimeter.
Here's links to the pictures:
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/SiteView.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/Thelayout1.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/ExcavatorDelivered.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/Digging.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/Lovinthatpower.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/Viewfromtheoperatorseat.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/firstsidefinished.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/done.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/wvbills/Quilting%20Studio/IntheDitch.jpg
I did discover that my batter boards were WAY too close to the digging path. As a result, I couldn't straddle the digging line with the excavator for more than the first half of each side. That's where the articulating boom on this excavator saved the day. I was able to nose up and hang out over the trench, put the blade down on the other side for stability, swing the boom over and dig.
This weekend I planned to clean up the bottom of the trench and put down my footer forms but it's raining buckets and the whole site is a mud bog. Oh well - next weekend.
WVBill
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