Thought some of you folks might enjoy hearing a story from one of our deliveries yesterday.
One of our truck drivers called in on the radio, saying he had a customer complaining his crane wasn’t big enough. (Most of our cranes are around 65′ long) We didn’t get the full story until some time later, and it went something like this:
Truck driver is getting close to the jobsite. He’s driving a semi with a crane mounted on it, and pulling the load of trusses on a trailer. The trusses are for a complete house – NOT an addition.
Someone in a pickup comes up alongside him, waving franticly and yelling at him excitedly.
He stops the truck to see what the guy wants. Turns out it’s the homeowner. He’s REALLY upset that the crane the guy has isn’t bigger – He says it won’t be able to reach the house.
The driver has been doing this long enough that he knows the trusses aren’t that big, and he shouldn’t have any problems setting it. He does this all the time. But the homeowner just isn’t buying it.
Finally the truck driver convinces the guy to let him drive on down to the jobsite and look the situation over. Once he gets to the jobsite he realizes what’s going on – The homeowner wants him to be able to set up in the street and set all the trusses from there.
The homeowner doesn’t want him to mess up his yard – It’s fully landscaped and sodded.
Replies
I wonder how they are going to put in the septic/waste or sewer system, if they ever get that far.
How about a helicopter?
This was on the edge of town, I think - Probably has city water and sewer already in place.
But how's he gonna get the rest of the building materials in there? Park the trucks in the street and hand carry everything in? Roof plywood, 12' drywall, etc? Is he gonna carry the shingles up his driveway, then up a ladder and scatter 'em out on the roof?
What about construction debris in the yard? Trampling down the sod wile you're siding it?
But the guy is his own GC - Think of the money he's saving............(-:By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to work twelve hours a day. [Robert Frost]
Wait till the roofers get done with his sorry butt.Who Dares Wins.
Catapult. Just aim really well.
Use a big enough one and you can save on the cost of transport. Just take aim directly from the factory. Saddam Hussein was working on a super gun, a giant potato gun, prior to Desert Storm I. It was designed to launch a five ton projectile into earth orbit so a truss should be no problem. Maybe you could store the inventory, really save on the warehousing, in low earth orbit and deorbit them onto sites world wide.
Don't know how they get down in one piece but this is a minor technical problem that I'm sure a bright guy like you can easily solve. I'm thinking big pillows. Of course returns could be tricky. Disgruntled GCs lobbing trusses back at the plant could make the job interesting.
Stop!!!!
My ribs hurt too much!.
Excellence is its own reward!
Lets keep it ecologicaly friendy. Use a big sling shot, or a catapult.
Man, you are on to something here. We got timber framers,engineers, CAD guys,.....
We'll put those boom trucks out of business.
The catapult idea might work.
But we'll have to come up with more aerodynamic sections for the lumber. If we taper the leading and trailing edges to make them more like a plane wing, you'll lose some nailing surface.
Need to go down to the jiggle room and give this some serious thought. (While DW is still down in Florida)I'm very pleased to be here. Let's face it, at my age I'm very pleased to be anywhere. [George Burns]
> How about a helicopter?
They used one here to replace some HVAC equipment. Did it on a weekend, and they closed several surrounding buildings. We got a memo saying we couldn't come in on the weekend because of it. Probably a bit more expensive than the landscaping.... ;-)
-- J.S.
Helicopters are less expensive that most people think, but you're still talking about $2-4 grand for a one-time lift of a truss package, depending on where the nearest bird is based relative to the site. How does that compare to the cost of re-landscaping the joint?
How does that compare to how much this goof-ball is 'saving' in not hiring someone who knows what he's doing to supervise the project?
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
We have used helicopters many times in the construction of power line transmission towers. You are right. They aren't cheap.
I don't think this bozo will have very many subs work for him very long.
Can you imagine the loss rate for all the material that is going to get dropped at the curb? Heck, there are some areas around here that I won't even park my truck on the street, even if I think I can see it from the job!
Save money? I bet every quote he has is going to be renagotiated.
And the end of the story is??
Why the heck would you landscape before you done working on your house...idjits everywhere
Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, Professionals built the Titanic.
Why the heck would you landscape before you done working on your house...idjits everywhere
Maybe he's pushed the project too long, and has to satisfy appearance convenants? I've seen this happen in BIL's subdiv--contractor having to rush the yard and grass before drive is poured, etc.
You probably know about this and it wouldn't help in this case but maybe someone can gain something by hearing that plywood can sometimes be laid down to allow fairly heavy equipment to get across soft lawns without too much damage. I have had luck with half inch CDX ripped at two feet. I have had at least one person claim that 3/4 ply used in whole sheets can hold a cement truck on soft ground.
I don't know if it is still available but it used to be you could get Marston Matting, perforated, interlocking, steel sheets. They were used extensively during WW2 for building temporary runways and roads. These are coveted by some off road and heavy equipment operators. I know a heavy equipment contractor that had several truck loads of the stuff. In an afternoon he had a crew lay down several hundred feet of temporary road through a swamp so soft you sunk all the way to the hip. Come morning they were driving heavy equipment across it. Good stuff.
Boy you guys really have it in for HO's who just want to save a little (or a lot of) green(hey a pun!)
If you just sit down with this guy, he could probably come up with a solution.
Surely you could got to Home despot and get a bunch of c-clamps and 16 foot 2x4s and extend your boom far enough to reach from the road.
I hate when you guys who have been doing this stuff for your whole professional life won't listen to superior logic just because the one putting it forth is a HO-GC and is smart enough to keep you from profiting needlessly on his project.
I am giving 7 to 5 odds this guy is an engineer.
Mr T
Do not try this at home!
I am an Experienced Professional!
Home Depot, c-clamps, 2x4's... you my friend have been nominated for the Rube Goldberg award.
No, No, No! You get a big refrigeration unit on a flat-bed truck; bring in a compressor for a jack hammer, and a water tanker.
Hook up the air, cooling coils, and the water to an HKD Snow Economics 35' Lean-Out Tower and shoot about 750 cubic meters of artificial snow.
Bring in a Bombardier BR400MP+ grooming machine, and groom the mounds of snow flat.
Then lay down poly sheeting, and slide the stuff up to the house.
It's easy.
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
I am giving 7 to 5 odds this guy is an engineer.
ROFLOL - And I bet I'll get to inspect it when he sells {Groan}_______________________
10 .... I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.
11 For no one can lay any other foundation than the one we already have--Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:10-11
boss... i've been seleted to be the one to inform you that you have been shouldered with a serious responsibility...
you have to follow up on this guy.. get the address.. do the cruise by.. take the camera.. you know the bit
let's see just how creative this guy can get
inquiring minds wanna no ...Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Boss...what Mike said!!!!!
this could be prime material for the Breaktime Hall of fame (shame)!!!
Mr T
Do not try this at home!
I am an Experienced Professional!
Can we get Retch McSweeney to borrow Stan's gyrocapopter to deliver the trusses one at a time?
Who's got the movie rights?.
Excellence is its own reward!
You guys make this too complicated! Who here has a six-year-old boy? What shape are trusses? Just take the Sunday paper, carefully tape and glue it across the open spaces in each truss, attach string (you can wrap excess around a coke can), and just "kite" it into place!
Comon ProBozo you know tyvek... or is it tar paper shoud be used in case it rains.
Mike
It's O.k. to think out of the box, Just don't walk off of the plank!
Geez, every thread here just HAS to come down to tar paper vs. Tyvek arguement. Well, should I vent it, too?!? ;)
You can vent, but only if the vents are attached with DW screws.
good god almighty!
1/2" plywood laid on the lawn, helicopters, homespun boom extensions made outa 2x4's (from Home depot too!), what next, get Uri Geller to the site and him stare at the package long enough till they float to the top plates by themselves?
All you have to do is roll up the sod, back up the truck, unload, drive the truck away, and roll the sod back down!
I've done it dozens of times <G> !