It's Looking a Little Grave....ely Out Here

Monday afternoon (~1pm) the gravel arrived to set the base of our slab.  Matt had to work until later in the afternoon so it was Bethy operating the tractor and starting to spread the gravel.  To help keep the dust down we obviously planned on doing it on a rainy day (hahahahaha noooot); the rain was consistent but not heavy, so the work continued. 

Bethy moving the gravel!

Al was working on the sewer pipe layout that would be installed under the slab. The toilet flange, utility room drain, and bathroom shower drain all needed to be glued up and buried in a trench before we laid gravel and poured the slab. Bob showed up and helped with digging for the sewer pipes and spreading the gravel.  Just before the final truck load of gravel showed up, Matt arrived and took over tractor duties so that Bethy could get back to work. 

Matt takes a turn on the tractor

Josh arrived shortly thereafter and helped dig for the sewer pipes as well.  As Matt continued spreading and starting to get an even edge, the pipe was being glued up by Al, and the majority of the trench for the sewer pipe was dug by Josh and Bob.  

A clean pipe is a happy pipe

However, as we were just starting to see real progress, the skies opened up and the rain became so heavy that we had to call it for now.  We waited in our cars for a short while, but when the rain hadn't stopped we called it a day.

About how we left the site the first day

Tuesday afternoon, with a relatively dry forecast, Matt and Al got back to work.  Matt continued spreading gravel and starting to achieve final grade with the help of some string lines and a level on a stick.

Not too level yet, but we're getting there.

Al continued trenching and gluing up vent stacks.  Bob arrived as well to help with the trenching and cleaning/gluing the pipes.  The pipes were finally all set when we realized that the inspector would need to come out and see them before we buried them, so we gave him a call and he arrived later in the day.

North wall waste lines

Nice Pipes!!

Once we got the OK from the inspector we began to bury the pipes under dirt, taking care to tamp down in small layers.  We then got out the compactor which we borrowed from Matt's uncle Ace (Thanks, Ace!!).  We got it up and running and tested it out to see how much compaction we would get and thus what level we really wanted to be at before running it. 

Testing out the compactor.

We didn't get done completely leveling the gravel, but we like the results with the compactor, so that work will continue later this week. Looks like we'll be working through the holiday!


Updated budget:
+ $320.09 for various plumbing supplies
+ $988.20 for 3 trucks of #1 gravel, 14 yds each
TOTAL SPENT SO FAR: $46,638.80