"You're gonna need a bigger boat" or Our Building vs. The Jackhammer

Jackhammering

It is almost a year since my madman and I moved to Dubuque to begin what we anticipated would be the project to end all projects. We were right. This property has been and continues to be tenacious. The property is quite content in its present state and it does not yield anything without a battle royale. Yet another example occurred this weekend.

In January of this year, shortly after we came to Dubuque, concerning the 2nd floor of the smaller building on this property, the space that is to be our residence, Scott said to me, "The building is winning, but I am determined." Within a month, he told me, "I've got the building on the run."


We've now been working on the larger building for almost 6 months since it took at least 6 months for our seller and his family to clear out their belongings - let's say the place functioned as a chock-full, small warehouse. The smaller building was a beast to tame, but it has proved to be nothing compared to the larger building.

Those parallel lines? The saw cuts for the trench. 

Now back to this past weekend. To trench out the concrete slab for the bathrooms and kitchen on the first floor of the larger building, Scott went to our local hardware store and rented the electric jackhammer, the gas-powered 14" concrete saw and the diamond blade (instead of buying possibly 20 concrete blades). One would think these tools could handle the job. WRONG!

The concrete saw handled fine and most of the needed cuts seem to have been made. The rented diamond blade may have seen its last day cutting through this slab.

The jackhammer trying to create the trench

our building vs. the electric jackhammer? The building won, hello! Our friend Tony is working this particular task with Scott, he's worked serious construction, and he was flabbergasted. The electric jackhammer went back to the hardware store shamed. It was no match for the 9-inch slab which does not even have rebar, but is just straight concrete slab on grade. It took an hour of jackhammer insanity just to yield a foot (apparently this would qualify as "career work").

Next step: renting a pneumatic jackhammer and the diesel-powered air compressor needed to run it and another friend with a real truck to haul them to and from the rental shop across the Mississippi.

All Shall Be Well.