Forrest Ave. 08/02/05

Drilling piers - 08/02/05

23 foundation piers needed to be drilled, with depths ranging from 20 feet - 30 feet. 3 additional piers 9 feet deep needed to be drilled for a retaining wall at the lower left corner of the lot. The excavator here (shining new, on it's first job) drilled 21 of the foundation piers. The portable drill was used for the other 2 foundation piers (30' depth) and for the retaining wall piers.
There were some very tense moments trying to safely manipulate the excavator on the lot, because of the steepness of the lot and the depth of the loose soil (we have a gardener's dream soil). The excavator had a difficult time going uphill. The tractor treads would simply dig a hole instead of climbing - a 20% gradient and a 35,000 lb. machine on loose, soft soil!

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Excavator with drill supported on the slope by its grading blade.	Lining up the drill.	Drilling a hole. The worker tries to keep soil from falling back into the hole.
Removing dirt-laden auger.	A redtail hawk in the top of one of the redwoods!	Removing an auger full of dirt.
The operator moves the arm over where he wants to dump the dirt, then puts the drill into "washing-machine" mode to shake off the dirt.	Starting the next hole with our eventual living room's view.