Excavation at the Pub

As I stated in my first blog, A new Irish pub in Blacksburg, I was going to be back this week to see the excavation process for the outside deck at Castle's Kettle and Pub.  I arrived on site around 1:30pm and the ATR Construction crew was about a quarter of the way done with the excavation of the back part of the property.  For those of you that aren't familiar with what excavating is, it is when you are removing rocks or soil from its origanal location. I learned my Principle of Construction class that there are three different types of excavation, open (large or deep), trench (utilities or footings), and lastly pit (one column or elevator shaft).

My assumption is that Joe, the owner of Castle's Kettle and Pub is going to eventually have a parking lot in the back part of the property. The reason I think that is because he did not just excavate the part for the deck he did the whole back area.

I attached a picture below to show everyone what I saw when I arrived at the site.  The employee was on a bobcat compact loader (also shown in previous blog) moving soil around.  The picture also shows the main entrance to the pub.            

The picture illustrates the weather conditions.  The previous day Blacksburg experienced the usual storm of heavy rain, strong wind, and dark clouds.  This is very typical Blacksburg weather, that could cause some problems for the constructions activities in the area.  Rain will not help Joe and his crew to start digging the footing for the main frame work of the deck.  

The clouds stayed heavy throughout the day with the temperatures being around 60 degrees Ferhenheit. 

Here are some additional details that I collected while I was on the site. 

I show above (in my site notes) the subcontractors that were involved on site and what they were doing. There are a few minor things that I think is important for me to take notes on.  While I was on site it seemed like all the electrical, HVAC, and plumbing crew all were irritated with each other.  It just seemed that all the workers were very tense.  There were about 10 laborers crowded together on the main floor. The electricians were trying to lay wires, while the plumbers were right next to them trying to finish the bathrooms and other minor details.  The other thing that I noticed was that the plumbing crew was not being very productive.  They seemed to be moving into and out of the building a lot.  They would send someone to the truck and he would return and they would have a short meeting.  It seemed like nothing was accomplished by the plumbing crew.  After I saw thia happening, I looked over the schedule, which was posted on a wall on the main floor.  The schedule showed that the plumbing should have been started a day ago.  

Below I am posting the Construction Activities that occurred while I was on site. 

There was one more that intrigued me, which was the fire excape that was being framed on the side of the Pub.  I included a rough sketch of what I think it would look like and later I will add and discus the fire escape once I see it when it is completed.

Below I have shown a sketch of what the deck may look like once it is completed.  It is just a sketch of what I thought would be the easiest design for the deck. 

 

The other thing that I included was a rough drawing of the site.  This is just to show where everything is located, such as the equipment, vehicles, materials, and construction activities.  This might be irrelevant but it is important to note where everything is situated.  The reason for that is if Joe needs to bring more material he needs to know where it can be placed, or the other thing is so that if construction goes on outside that it does not cause obstructions or delays. 

Once again I want to thank Joe and his crew for letting me on his site.  He has really been a great help and I have learned a lot from him thus far. 

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed everything. Please let me know if there is anything else that I need to discus more of in my blogs. 

All the best,

Mic