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Stuck between driven posts and concrete footings on a rocky lot in Flagstaff
I had a job last month on this lot near the mountains where the ground was pure caliche and basalt chunks. I spent two days trying to decide between driving steel posts or digging holes for concrete footings. I went with driven posts because I figured it would be faster and I didn't want to haul in a mini excavator. Man, I bent three posts on the first day and had to rent a rock auger anyway to pre-drill pilot holes. It ended up costing me an extra $400 in rental fees and two more days of labor. Has anyone else dealt with that kind of rocky ground and found a better way to pick your footing method?
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michael80324d ago
Eh, it's just a few hundred bucks and a couple days. People act like every wrong call is some huge life lesson, but sometimes you just pick the wrong tool and move on.
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the_hayden24d ago
...and the thing is, that's the same trap I see people fall into with all kinds of projects, not just construction. Like, my buddy tried to save money by fixing his own car's transmission, then spent three times as much on specialty tools and a month of his weekends. It's that urge to pick the 'obvious' faster way without realizing the ground you're working with, literal or not, is gonna fight back. You think you're saving time, but you're really just trading one kind of headache for a bigger, more expensive one. Maybe it's just me but the real trick is spending that first hour really looking at the specific problems instead of just jumping at the first solution that sounds good on paper.
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