Here’s my project from the “Culvert Construction” thread. Alberto took out the driveway to my house (finally former) near Raleigh. I called 8 paving contractors and got one bid for $5100, one email saying it was too big for them, one who said they only do commercial, two who said they would take a look and give me a bid and I never heard anything and three who didn’t feel like returning my call. The guy who bid never heard of plastic pipe. Now I can see preferring corrugated steel but having never heard of plastic DOT approved pipe made me seriously doubt his qualifications. So I hired my neighbor with his bobcat and dump truck, rented a JD 310 and tamper and Got-R-Done! Luckily the JD controls (particularly the backhoe) work pretty much like my Allmand 325!
So, $3000 and two days later, here it is!! The money broke down as $500 for the JD, $70 for the tamper, $900 for three pieces of 20 foot, 24 inch culvert, $50 for the couplings (pipes needed to be 25 feet long) and the rest for my neighbor which included 70 tons of crusher run.
Thanks much for all the guidance I got here on this and many other subjects. You folks are the best.
Steve.
Replies
> Alberto took out the driveway to my house ...
Now this Alberto guy -- Are you sure he had his green card? ;-)
-- J.S.
Either way I'm still going to kick his butt all the way out into the middle of the Atlantic if I catch him!Steve.
Going to rip-rap the banks around the culverts to prevent undercutting?
Was Alberto a hurricane or a tropical storm?
The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
I think it was a tropical storm when it passed through Raleigh, but 7.5 inches in 8 hours was enough. As Murphy's Law would have it, the storm hit one week before I put the house up for sale (in the loader pic you can see the sign in front of the front tire). So I fixed the bridge, much nicer than what survived for 29 years, and now it belongs to someone else. I STRONGLY encouraged them to let the fill settle for a while, put a 4" roadway on top and then sheath the sides in concrete. But further work is up to them.Steve.
Just a little rain, eh? I think El Paso just got A Little Rain. Points out the advantage of living on high ground - and what is that debris up in the tree?
@@@
I've seen concrete aprons and wings undercut in deluges. Riprap is somewhat self-adjusting in that situation. Another use for busted up concrete chunks.
Gabions are interesting to work with, but, as you point out - it's their problem now. The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
My opinion is that the culvert capacity is much undersized. The whole thing will wash out again with heavy rain. Anybody with some knowledge of hydrology will recognize it and will ask for a drop in your asking price to cover a replacement.
Virginbuild
Not my site.
I am on my boat in the San Juan Islands, WA, engaged in total lethargy. Even better, it's in the 70s here, not XXX. Not humid, either. Must be why I do it.
Having not seen the site or what was the original installation - which, he noted, lasted +20 years - I was not going to raise the issue of capacity. Certainly more is often better in culverts as debris washed down can plug them and cause overtopping and erosion in a storm. No trash rakes seen.
I doubt the average buyer would raise the issue.
We often did a catchment basin to collect debris and started the culverts some distance up the wall of the basin in what is hopefully cleaner water. The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
Actually, it should be fine. I guess it helps to know all the facts before leaping off to conclusions.Steve.
Jumping to conclusions is the only exercise some of us get.
http://jhausch.blogspot.comAdventures in Home BuildingAn online journal covering the preparation and construction of our new home.
Why did'nt you do it like this? Just kidding.