First I should say while not wealthy by any means I feel blessed and fortunate to have what I do have and probably shouldn't bitch, the logger and builder probably have more of a reason to complain than I do. Nevertheless this is my deal.

This whole project has been a mess since the beginning mostly due to the never ending rain we've had all year. I had to have a number of pines removed to make room for the building. Then some more to let sun get to the area which was a waste since we've had almost no sun since this damn project started 5 months ago..... rain, rain, rain, 1 or 2 days w/o rain then rain, rain, rain...... all Spring, Summer, and now Fall. Logger tries not to work on soft, saturated, ground but has little choice. He's able to work about one or two days every two weeks and even then it's really too soft and mucky. He's finally done cutting and most is hauled out but have been waiting for the ground to at least firm up a little so he can bring in the dozer to remove some stumps, mash the limbs into the mud, and clean up.











Meanwhile over a period of 2 months the builder was able to work maybe 7 days bringing in fill and getting the area to grade. I thought we were finally getting somewhere, even though the logger still has a mess we'll be able to pour footers and get the building started..... but nope. When digging the footers they hit solid rock under the entire building. Of the total footer length half of it has the solid rock above the frost line which needs chipped down to below the frost line. This is going to add a number of days and the days need to be not raining. So far there've been two that they've been able to chip away with the hammer on the skid steer then it rained Saturday, yesterday, today and except for tomorrow predicted for every day this week so they've had to pull off until weather improves. This has been the situation since the beginning.







I've got motorcycles, tools, and other stuff crammed into an unheated garage and other storage areas. The stuff that was in the garage; tractor, atv, truck, etc is outside or under a car port. I'm now getting the feeling it'll be like this all Winter, what a mess. Builder said in all his years he's never experienced a year this wet.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
When digging the footers they hit solid rock under the entire building. Of the total footer length half of it has the solid rock above the frost line which needs chipped down to below the frost line.

Confused on this part.
Sucks about the rain.

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
When digging the footers they hit solid rock under the entire building. Of the total footer length half of it has the solid rock above the frost line which needs chipped down to below the frost line.

Confused on this part.
Sucks about the rain.

Me too, a little. VERY common problem up here, and unless a basement is required, they just drill holes in the bedrock and pin the footers to the rock.

That looks more like shale tho, and may not be stable enough to pin a foundation to.

Might be shale to be honest I don't know what kind of rock? Basically there's this shelf of rock/shale that slopes from 30" under the surface on the right side (since it's been built up) up to within 16" on the left. On this shelf was clay with maybe 10" organic soil above that (which was removed).

No basement Paul, think we can pin footer to the shale even though half of it is above the frost line?

I feel your pain, I live in PA and it's been non stop rain all summer right into the fall and the ground in my yard is so saturated my push lawnmower was leaving little ruts in the ground. I need to take two trees down but can't get a manlift in my yard because the ground is to soft. Plus I ride a motorcycle and the rain has prevented me from getting any serious riding time in.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:

No basement Paul, think we can pin footer to the shale even though half of it is above the frost line?

Sorry, just now saw this.

I'm not a Civil Engineer, but I would think shale is a game changer. I don't think it would be stable enough to pin a foundation to.

Here on the "rockbound coast of Maine" if it's not a boulder that can be dug out with an excavator, it's bedrock. Pin it and go...

quote:

Originally posted by calugo:
I feel your pain, I live in PA and it's been non stop rain all summer right into the fall and the ground in my yard is so saturated my push lawnmower was leaving little ruts in the ground. I need to take two trees down but can't get a manlift in my yard because the ground is to soft. Plus I ride a motorcycle and the rain has prevented me from getting any serious riding time in.

Same here my mower wheels just mash the grass over in mud. I've ridden less this year than I can ever recall.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:

No basement Paul, think we can pin footer to the shale even though half of it is above the frost line?

Sorry, just now saw this.

I'm not a Civil Engineer, but I would think shale is a game changer. I don't think it would be stable enough to pin a foundation to.

Here on the "rockbound coast of Maine" if it's not a boulder that can be dug out with an excavator, it's bedrock. Pin it and go...

My building site remains about the same with wet clay you can hardly walk on.

The rock does appear like some kind of shale and on most of the left end it was thin enough their hoe was able to get under the ledge and pull it out in chunks. One 20' section, too thick to get under and too close to the surface, remains to be jack hammered down. Naturally it's raining at the moment.