Now, I know the water has to be pretty deep because freeze threat and the gridner won't go more than a foot deep, but I still think if is hilarious that there are 3 utilities under this very stump.
Now, I know the water has to be pretty deep because freeze threat and the gridner won't go more than a foot deep, but I still think if is hilarious that there are 3 utilities under this very stump.
In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :
Somewhere I have a picture of a locate I called in for what I thought was a simple job. I felt bad for the poor guy that did the locate. It must have taken him hours.
You'd be surprised the bullE36 M3 that locators locate. And the things they don't.
Did Julie say "I'm not Lisa" upon arrival?
How does this work now? Aren't you supposed to hand dig if you're within 5ft of buried utilities? Is the stump guy expected to chop the stump out by hand?
Even worse thought: the utilities are now buried WITHIN the stump as the tree grew.
mtn said:Did Julie say "I'm not Lisa" upon arrival?
Is the stump grinder ready?
Let's begin.
STM317 said:How does this work now? Aren't you supposed to hand dig if you're within 5ft of buried utilities? Is the stump guy expected to chop the stump out by hand?
I have no idea. Still need to talk to stump guy again. He mentioned that depth is also a factor, so maybe that helps? There was another stump on my property I was going to have ground at the same time, but it had landscaping rocks around it. Stump guy said I needed to remove the rocks first, and in so doing the stump was found to be soft so my pickaxe chopped it up quite easily. That stump is only 1 year older than this stump in question, so if I have to wait a year or two then cut it out myself that's ok. But I'm still not loving swinging a pickaxe near a gas line!!!
One thing struck me as really odd. Our house is about 60 years old, and I haven't counted the rings on that tree but it has to be close to 60 (it was a huge tree). So that means that someone planted the tree when the house was new or very close to it. I really hope they didn't know about all the utilities when they planted the tree, otherwise they are a-holes. I can't imagine the utilities were placed here AFTER the tree was planted...
. I can't imagine the utilities were placed here AFTER the tree was planted...
That's a distinct possibility if the roots haven't berkeleyed with the utilities at all.
They could also have wrong markings. Back when I was burying FIOS one of my crews broke an unmarked gas line, and I found tons of buried power after the State One Call people had been out to mark.
Locate services are a cluster. They are nearly useless to contractors.
We call for locates on everything because we are required to. Honestly, the best scenario for us is when they fail to mark anything at all. Then we are not liable (if we have called).
The markings are very little help at all.
Yep, locate is a CYA that's more often useless than not. When I worked excavation, I had NUMEROUS opportunities to find out exactly how inaccurate and just plain wrong they often are.
RevRico said:. I can't imagine the utilities were placed here AFTER the tree was planted...
That's a distinct possibility if the roots haven't berkeleyed with the utilities at all.
They could also have wrong markings. Back when I was burying FIOS one of my crews broke an unmarked gas line, and I found tons of buried power after the State One Call people had been out to mark.
Well, we have the sewer rodded every year and they always tell us they cut out lots of roots. But I'm sure that's not just this tree/stump.
Mezzanine said:Yep, locate is a CYA that's more often useless than not. When I worked excavation, I had NUMEROUS opportunities to find out exactly how inaccurate and just plain wrong they often are.
I totally understand - I've watched them do the locates and have always wondered exactly how it all worked.
But I also watched them dig down to my water buffalo box to shut it off before some work a few years ago, and I know that it is marked accurately in the picture (within a couple feet at least - I don't know EXACTLY where it is by memory).
mtn said:Did Julie say "I'm not Lisa" upon arrival?
Good question. I wonder if her eyes were blue.
Who's Julie? Our locate mascot is a beaver or gopher or some other type of rodent.
I thought I might have spelled it wrong.
We here in Virginia are a little more formal--I think we still call her "Miss Utility."
Michigan has Miss Dig
Florida is just "Dial 811." So boring.
Last year we called Miss Utility to mark our property. The guy from the town that marked the water line used divining rods. He said the town was too cheap to buy the equipment to find the lines underground.
Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:That stump is only 1 year older than this stump in question, so if I have to wait a year or two then cut it out myself that's ok. But I'm still not loving swinging a pickaxe near a gas line!!!
It depends on the type of tree it was.
You could also just get a Forstner bit or spade bit and just drill most of it out. Fill the remaining cavity with whatever your favorite stump-eating compound is.
hobiercr said:Florida is just "Dial 811." So boring.
Ours is just "Dig safe", not any more fun than Florida's.
In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :
I've called it Buffalo box since I worked for a contractor in high school in 1977. Most people are like - huh?
Colleague of mine told me the GC building one of the high rises in downtown Tampa (believe it was 100NT or maybe Bank of America, I've forgotten) called in a locate and they marked a couple things.
When they started digging they found a marking tape with an unknown phone number on it. They called and a couple minutes later several Jeep's came screaming up. Seems the line through the site was a main department of defense fiber line to MacDill AFB.
Locate service didn't know about that one either.
Four years ago bought a 33 year old home.
A few days in we discovered a huge pine growing through the septic tank. When we cut it off at ground level before removal it had 31 rings. A previous owner must have said, "Here is a nice place for a tree."
I have a current customer that built their home in 1974. Last week they lost one leg of their 220 v underground service. Break appears to be under a huge tree. Owner said, "Oh, that was a field when we moved in." Trees grow fast in Florida.
You'll need to log in to post.
