Since Veterans’ Day is a stated holiday in Monte Sereno, no construction activities could take place on November 11. I was busy quietly putting the HDPE tubing into the remaining five 38 ft rebar cages and several people visited the site.

Bill Brown, who lives nearby, saw the gate was open so he stopped by to check on progress. At the same time, our good friend Madalen Closson happened to be driving by and she stopped in for a quick peak at our progress.

Bill Brown and Madalen Closson Inpect the Site

With the new ‘old’ pickup, I went to one of Matt Jung’s job sites today to pick up some HDPE tubing.

While on job site in Los Altos, I was given a quick tour of the progress and was able to take a look at the various components of the hydronic heating system.

Each heating zone requires a manifold, as shown below.

Manifold for a heating zone.

While the manifolds may be located in the house, the utility room houses the boiler, hot water storage tank, and expansion tanks.

Insulated pipes in utility room, showing expansion tanks.

The most real estate is required for the hot water storage tank. Note the earthquake straps holding the tank.

Hot water storage tank.

The weather was cooperating and it was a great day to be drilling the piers.

You can see the details of the rebar cages and the HDPE geothermal tubing coming out of the cages, protected by the flexible insulation.

Rebar cage in hole with tubing for geothermal.

Soils engineer verifying that hole has been drilled to full 30 ft depth.

Soils engineer inspecting hole for correct depth.

You can see the hole has been drilled to depth and is ready for the rebar cage to be lowered into the hole. Note the water at the bottom of the hole.

Casing in position, ready for rebar cage (note water).

Drilling rig picking up the rebar cage.

Lifting the rebar cage, with HDPE tubing.

Cage to full height, raised to clear west wall of house.

Raising cage over existing wall of house.

When the cage is over the wall, it must be guided into the hole.

Ready to guide rebar cage into the hole.

Cage is almost in position (6 ft to go).

Rebar cage being guided into the hole.

Rebar cage is now positioned in the hole (just the HDPE tubing is visible).

Rebar cage in position in hole.

After the holes were completed, the pumper truck folded its boom and prepared to leave.

Pumper truck folding its boom.

Finished for the day, the pumper truck ready to leave the site.

Of course, after the pumper truck and everyone else left the site, the ‘real’ inspectors arrived! Jo-Anne, her mother, Dode, and Wendy Watkins came to the site and reviewed the progress.

Jo-Anne, Dode (Jo-Anne's mother), and Wendy Watkins (from Australia).

Bryan skates through the inspection (and is quite pleased with his performance).

From his perch on the rebar cages, Bryan beams after speaking with the inspectors.

Swimming Pool Permit in Hand!

The City of Monte Sereno issued the permit to complete the swimming pool today.

It was 24 hours since we submitted the application for the pool permit.

Yippee!

Full Drilling Process

One cannot appreciate the complexity and coordination required to drill 30 ft deep holes with the last 10 feet of that drilling in water.  The photos below illustrate the process.

First, the hole is drilled to the full depth (30 ft in our case), with the 20 inch casing in the hole as it is being drilled.

One drilled to depth and confirmed by the soils engineer, the driller sets the bit aside and puts the 30 ft. rebar cage into the hole, inside the casing.  The structural engineer confirms the positioning of the rebar cage in the hole and gives approval to proceed.  At this point, the pumper truck operator raises the 30 ft tremie and prepares to lower it into the hole.

Tremie at the end of the concrete pumper truck boom, with the 30 ft mark in red.

You can see the operator in the photo below, and the red mark showing the 30 ft length.  Everyone had to be careful to reach maximum depth and not get the tremie snagged on the rebar cage.

Tremie being lowered into hole (6 ft to go).

At this point, the operator calls for concrete from the mixer and starts pumping concrete into the hole.

Ready to start pumping concrete through the tremie into the hole.

As the concrete is poured, the operator raises the tremie, making sure that the tremie is always under the water and immersed in concrete.  The water rises above the concrete.

Raising tremie as concrete is being poured.

When the concrete has been poured to approximately 15 ft (half of the 30 ft), the operator stops pumping and removes the tremie from the hole.

Preparing to remove the tremie, and then the casing.

The driller then raises the casing and removes it from the hole.

Casing being removed from the hole.

Casing coming out ...

The casing is 20 ft long, and here it comes!

Casing being removed (note tremie in background).

And over the wall it goes, safely out of the way.

Over the wall and positioned for the next hole.

The casing is gone and everyone gets back into position to lower the tremie into the hole.

Ready to put tremie into the hole (note auger bit and wet cuttings to the left of the operator).

With the casing removed, the pump operator then lowers the tremie back into the hole and continues pumping.

Tremie goes back into the hole.

Again, the operator raises the tremie as the concrete is poured, ensuring the tremie is under the concrete at all times and the water rises above the concrete.

Raising the tremie as the concrete is pumped into the hole.

On our job site, the water would start pouring out of the hole during the last 8 to 10 ft.  It gets a bit more than messy at this point!

Water emerges as the concrete completely fills the hole.

We started drilling today. Full production mode.

Drill with auger full of cuttings.

Back over the wall to drill deeper.

Drilling on the east wall.

After the holes were drilled to a depth of 15 feet, the pumper truck arrived to get set up for the first pour.

Concrete pumper arrives and starts to set up.

Our soil engineer was present to inspected the maximum depth of each hole prior to placement of the rebar cage. The structural engineer had to verify that the rebar cage was positioned correctly in the hole prior to pouring of concrete.

Steve Duquette (Duquette Engineering) reviewing progress with Tim Newman (Bill Brown Construction).

The operations got a bit messy once the drill hit water and we had to use the casing with the tremie. You can see the first completed holes below.

First completed concrete piers on east side.

The pump operator used a wireless console to control the pumping. This way, the operator could be positioned anywhere on the job site in order to manage the pumping operations.

Pumper operator with console.

Ready for tomorrow’s drilling.

You can see the 30 ft tremie in the foreground with the two 20 ft casings and the rebar cages in the background.

Tremie with casings and rebar cages.

Oh, I did manage to pick up the Dodge RAM 1500 in Antioch today.

Dodge RAM 1500 odometer reading (159,677 miles).

The LowDrill arrived and we started drilling the shoring piers today.

After preparing the site and the rebar cages, we started drilling and seeing what the soil conditions were truly like.

LowDrill arrives on site.

One of the first tasks was to position everything on the site, including the rebar cages that Darren and had worked so diligently on yesterday.

Tops of rebar cages, showing HDPE and spacers.

HDPE covered with flexible conduit.

Close up of rebar cages with HDPE.

It took a while to get everyone in position and then the drilling started. They started on the only hole on the north side of the property and used the auger bit. Initially, the soil was bone dry and they drilled down at to just over 20 feet.

Auger bit full of cuttings.

Give it a spin and drop the cuttings.

Clean auger bit.

Measuring the hole depth.

First hole completed.

Nice, clean hole ready for rebar cage.