Under Construction

The Excavation

Our house rests on a cut in a gentle hillside. I assumed the earth on which the addition would sit was undisturbed--that is, solid dirt, not loose fill. But when I extrapolated the slope across the footprint of the addition I began to wonder. Could our pleasant little lawn mask some danger below? I stomped around. Seemed firm enough. Better call the previous owners, who had built the little house in the first place. They'd know.

The Purported Grade

I talked to the Daigles the next day. Oh no, they said, no fill at all; just good, solid earth all the way to China.

That should have been warning enough. Because if you dig straight down from where we live, you'd pop out in the middle of the South Pacific.

Time to explore.

I rented a front-loader with a toothed bucket and leveled the building pad. Strange, no topsoil. Not anywhere. Not even under the pleasant little lawn.

So I rented a backhoe and dug holes here and there like some demented prospector. No topsoil within the first two feet of depth. This, I remember thinking to myself, spells Trouble.

The Actual Slope

I grabbed some string and my levels and projected the slope to the end of the addition. Based on my crude calculations I'd have to dig ten feet down to set the pier firmly below undisturbed grade.

Hmm. Pick-ax + posthole digger + shovel = Tboy?

I don't think so.

Time to hire a professional.

I picked Lonnie Oliver out of the local phone book. Random. And fortunate. He had a backhoe with a 36" wide bucket, perfect for my 36" diameter piers. His was an ExtendaHoe, a model famous for its telescoping neck. He figured he could max out at about ten feet of depth, also perfect for my most southern piers. I'd set my batter boards and pulled string to mark exactly where my piers would go.

He walked the lines, muttered about this and that, then said he should be able to do it for me. I asked when? He said, Oh, let's see, guess I'll be startin' tomorrow 'bout seven.
Excavation
© yer everlovin' Tboy productions, 2003