Vashthestampede

iTrader: (17)

Excuse the iphone pictures.

The truck dropped this off at the beginning of last week. I figure we'll probably have it tied and ready for concrete by the end of the week.

We're doing the tank for an oil company so its engineered pretty crazy. #7 rebar every 6" for one is pretty nuts. This load was 29,000lbs and that's not even all of it!! This is just for the floor/footings BTW. Walls will have another X amount of steel in them.

This is the 3rd oil tank I've worked on but by far the most steel I've seen. I think some of the 20' pieces are #8. Should be a fun week considering there's only 3-4 of us they'll be tying it all.

400lbs of calcium, blankets and a makeshift tent should be enough to keep the ground from freezing (hopefully). The tent already blew apart once and had to be fixed in the pouring rain. Thankfully I wasn't there that day. lol

Something like 200yrds of concrete going into the base you see pictured (that's 20 mixer loads to give you an idea) and it'll be a dark to dark pour that day.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

I DO NOT envy you one bit. I'm currently playing with 48,000lb of steel, but fortunately I never have to touch it, I just haul it.

Vashthestampede

iTrader: (17)

Yeah I remember you saying something about driving a truck. FWIW, I don't envy you either. lol

If there's one thing I hate, its sitting for long periods of time. If there's a second thing I hate, its driving to and from a place in traffic. I'd probably walk away from the truck my first day on the job.

Well I wasn't at this job today because I KNEW today would be a cluster ---- so I stayed home and worked for myself. Later this afternoon I swung by the shop and saw my dad and bro and asked them how it was. They said that not only did the entire tent collapse and push in all the footing planks, but lots of the steel was cut/bent wrong.

We don't have the means to cut/bend #7 or #8 rebar, so we had them made. Now the steel we need to start the job with is wrong, so that holds up the entire job, seeing we have to work from the bottom up. Needless to say they were pissed.

My brother said the 2x4's that I sledgehammered into the ground were almost ALL snapped in half from the weight of the ice on the tent. He said they spent the whole day redoing everything my dad and I spent doing last week. SO glad I didnt go to the shop this morning. lol

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

Stop taking those vacation days bro.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

I never got a large delivery or re that wasn't wrong, when I used to do construction. One of the last big jobs I did was an elevator pit, and that ---- was a rebar nightmare. Tooks weeks just to get the correct bar on sight. Hope the rest of it goes more smoothly for you.

Vashthestampede

iTrader: (17)

I figured I'd update this with some progress pictures.

We're hoping to pour the floor sometime next week, but we still have a ton of rebar to tie.

The floor has so many different elevations and pitches that we have to keep adjusting the heights between the mats and its a ----------er to do once you have this much tied together. It also doesn't help that the tent is just under 6' tall, so I basically spend my day hunched over picking this ---- up, tying it, breathing in the kerosene fumes.

The 12x12 squares are like leg breakers. You can try to walk up and over each piece or just crouch over and walk on top of them, but if you get your leg caught or fall, you're done. lol

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

Damn Vash, I'm impressed.

Once upon a time, over the summer, I worked concrete construction, and I recognize the techniques, but it had nothing on the level of complexity there. That's crazy!

Faeflora

iTrader: (2)

Interesting engineering. And holy ---- why does the floor have to be so ------- strong???

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

I'll say it again, I do not envy you. Those pictures make me cringe.

Sentic

iTrader: (1)

Now wear good knee armor, many guards used to be adventurers before they kneeled in settling concrete

Vashthestampede

iTrader: (17)

Thanks man. In the almost 10 years I've been doing it, this is by far the most rebar I've seen go into one job.

The engineer is coming to the job sometime next week to check everything out before we have the inspection.

The floor is going to house 3 oil tanks so its going to take some major load. Wait until you see the circle mats that go on top of all of this. The the uprights for the walls still have to go in, the rubber sea, etc. Its nuts.

Makes me cringe looking at them cause all I think about is being hunched over all day long in that god damn tent. lol

My dad is the only guy on the job allowed to wear "knee armor", but that's because his 70 years old. lol

I'm usually not in one place for too long so the knee pads would do me no good anyways. He usually only wears them when we're squaring up a job that's on ledge, otherwise no need.

Today I lucked out and got a shop day! I need to replace the exhaust system on one of the trucks and make a few phone calls, otherwise I'll spend the rest of the day getting some of these oil tank pictures up on the website. I was trying to do it last night but it took me over an hour just to figure out my username/password to get into it. Ohh well, every hour I work today is time and a half so I might as well get paid for it!

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

Exactly my point. Crouched over with a roll of wire in one hand, and a pair of klein's in the other.

dgmorr

iTrader: (4)

Wow, that looks like a lot of work. How much does a job like this cost?

Vashthestampede

iTrader: (17)

I cant say for certain since I didnt see the estimate. Probably close to six figures. That's rebar, concrete, labor, misc materials, etc.

Probably going to pour the first part this week.

I emailed the radio station during lunch last week and requested a song and got the chick to give us a shout out on the radio. Nice little 30 sec advertisement for free! The owner of the oil company even said he heard her talk about us at his place working on 30k lbs of rebar. He thought it was awesome. lol

Vashthestampede

iTrader: (17)

Met with the engineer on Wednesday and he gave us the go ahead. I asked him if it looked as good in person as it did on paper and he said "even better". He was actually quite pleased with our work and said you wouldn't believe some of the jobs he's seen that need to be ripped apart and redone.

The town inspector came late Thursday afternoon and saw the vast amount of steel and just signed the ticket saying "this isn't going anywhere". Plus once the engineer signs off the town guy usually follows suit.

We poured it yesterday and had all 120 yards down by noon. A few guys stayed till dark to keep hand troweling it and cover it with blankets. We'll let it sit over the weekend and start getting ready to put up the walls on Monday.

This was the 1st job I was responsible for ordering all the inspections, concrete, pump truck, etc. Plus since my dad was having a bad week with his hearing I did all the talking with the owner and engineer myself, so it feels good that everything went nice and smooth.

shuiend

iTrader: (24)

Draw MT.net into the concrete and get a picture of it.

Miater

^Yessss!

Nice work.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

damn, and here I thought we used lots of rebar when doing my dad's driveway. this is pretty intense

gearhead_318

iTrader: (1)

Cool build thread.

Vashthestampede

iTrader: (17)

Next pour I'll try and play in the concrete for MT and get a picture. lol

When I have the blueprint in front of me this week I'll try and see what the expected load is for the tanks. I know its something like 30k gallons, but I don't know if that's total or per tank. I'll have to check.

I'd say that a little more than half the steel we started with is now done. The wall mat will go together much faster. Just that this time we'll be setting our forms around it all.

I just talked to another guy on the phone about a 500 yard job in Greenwich that consists of a house, 3 car detached garage and a pool house. Lots of rebar, thick high walls and a ton of concrete. We should get the print this week to start on the estimate. Looks like having a website really DOES help after all.