What was your most challenging job?

[dumptrucker]

What was your most difficult or challenging job that when you finished the job you looked back and couldn't believe you did it and that it turned out so well. I know everyone has at least one of these.

 

[surfer-joe]

Working every day from the middle of April to midnight the 31st of December on the night shift at Stewartsville Dam in New Jersey. Shifts for me as Equipment Superintendent ran from 3 in the afternoon till 6 or 7 in the morning. No days off cept one for weather cause I couldn't get to the project. Big job, lots of large equipment, tough union, bad weather, and a looming deadline. But we finished the major dirt at exactly midnight the 31st and thus saved the company and the owners from very large financial penalties. We held a somewhat joyless celebration as everyone was exhausted.

This doesn't count surviving three tours with the Seabees in Vietnam. Those were a special case in each instance, and there are thousands of guys here in the states with the same story.

In construction, particularly the larger projects I have so often been associated with, you often wonder that so many diverse people can come together and actually produce a finished job on time and within reasonable distance from the budget.

 

[LowBoy]

What was your most difficult or challenging job that when you finished the job you looked back and couldn't believe you did it and that it turned out so well. I know everyone has at least one of these.

Elementary. The day I bought my last Ford F-150 pickup from Rountree Ford. Left that morning with a white '97 regular cab, returned that evening with a teal, 2001 extended cab 4X4, no phone call home or anything...

That taught me a valuable life's lesson; "It's easier to beg forgiveness, than to ask permission..."

(Not exactly anything related to a construction project, but believe me...it falls under the "finished job" category for sure.)

 

[Construct'O]

In the the past having worked on interstate and large dams there were several challenges.

As an owner operater doing landimprovment work some things comes to mind.
Being the owner operater in a small business may not seem a challenge to others ,but for me that alone is a big one!!!!

Cleaning out silt filled ponds,and trenching in drainage fieldtile through wet ground, winching all the way.

You have to be thinking about what is going to go wrong and getting stuck most of the time.

 

[dumptrucker]

That taught me a valuable life's lesson; "It's easier to beg forgiveness, than to ask permission..."

(Not exactly anything related to a construction project, but believe me...it falls under the "finished job" category for sure.)

AMEN!!!!!!!!!:iagree

 

[sbrem]

pickup from Rountree Ford.

Thats where I bought my pickup as well. I had never really thought too highly of them but they had what I wanted on the lot (6 speed manuals are kind of hard to find) so I bought it and everything went better then I thought it would.

 

[CoolRide]

"What was your most difficult or challenging job that when you finished the job you looked back and couldn't believe you did it and that it turned out so well."

Getting married at 17.

Delivering both my kids at home by myself, miles from anybody. No elec. water. phone.

Celibrating 20 years of wedded bliss this fall...

I dont know how ANY of that came together.

Sammy

 

[RonG]

"What was your most difficult or challenging job that when you finished the job you looked back and couldn't believe you did it and that it turned out so well."

Getting married at 17.

Delivering both my kids at home by myself, miles from anybody. No elec. water. phone.

Celibrating 20 years of wedded bliss this fall...

I dont know how ANY of that came together.

Sammy

Bless all of you!!!
I am one (#10) of 19 kids and we were all born at home,sometimes before the doctor got there.We had electricity but no phone and one of us kids had to hoof it to the nearest phone one mile away to call the doctor when the time came and sometimes he didn't make it in time.Ron G

 

[LowBoy]

Thats where I bought my pickup as well. I had never really thought too highly of them but they had what I wanted on the lot (6 speed manuals are kind of hard to find) so I bought it and everything went better then I thought it would.

I bought 2 from them, both times were painful. I swore to the moon & stars I'd never buy a 3rd from them, but they solidified that promise by going out of business last year, so I won't ever be tempted again.

They bragged about the "lifetime free annual inspections" at time of purchase. I called them on that 11 months after I bought this '01 F-150. I brought it to them, and sat in the waiting room till the service mgr. came out 45 mins. later with a clipboard, with a full page of things wrong with the truck, and a list of safety problems to accompany his reasons why they couldn't pass it. The parts to fix it was $425.00 not incl. labor."Is it something you'd like to do today", he asked. I just chuckled and said, "Wayne, I just want to know one thing...will this DEATH TRAP make it back to my house, you think? 11 months ago, this was the BEST truck on the lot. Driven by an old lady to church on Sundays only when the sun was shining, garaged the rest of the week...Now all of a sudden, it's a rolling wreck"...

The truck was in mint condition, with 42K miles. I took it to Bennington the next day, and left with a sticker after a full, complete legal inspection...Nice guys, huh?

 

[LowBoy]

What was your most difficult or challenging job that when you finished the job you looked back and couldn't believe you did it and that it turned out so well. I know everyone has at least one of these.

I built a pretty large pond for a friend who insisted I do it, even after I sold my machines and got out of the digging biz. A year after that, he calls me up and says he refi'd his house, and wants me to do this job. I begged him to call another contractor, because I had become gainfully employed and was enjoying the fact that I was no longer chasing money, staying awake over finances, etc. He wouldn't take no for an answer, so I caved.

I rented a 270 Hitachi excavator for 5 weeks. This pond ended up being an acre+, with the lower end needing an earthen dike. I built it as an engineer would design one, being 44 ft.wide at the base, and pyramiding it to 10 ft.wide at the top of the dam. A 15" schedule 35 downpipe with a 90 was the outlet, spring fed on the opposite end. I built the dam first, and let it "bake" in the August heat for the entire month, to ensure it would be firm. I hogged out an unGodly amount of spoil, digging my brains out from dusk till dawn, casting it 35 feet to my left, moving over and re-casted it again till it was in position for the dam material. I started to dread the very thought that I accepted this job, because it seemed the more fill I generated, the farther behind I was getting. I wished I'd had a D-8 for just a couple of days to make life easier, but the budget didn't allow it. What a mountain of material I had on my hands.
Then one Sunday, I'm in the middle of this hole getting closer to getting it to look like something, stripped down to hard shale ledge, when a tornado swept through the property. Here I am on an all-steel machine, lightening crashing all around me, golfball-size hail slamming the windows, stuff flying around the yard, laundry and underwear up in trees...man..

The pond instantly took on about 10 feet of "unwelcomed" water, and I wasn't done yet. I had to cut a swath in that newly built dike off to the side and drain it. I went and rented a 6" trash pump to get the rest out. I fought tooth and nail with this mess, by myself, until I finally finished the job. It actually came out fantastic, as I got creative and built a second pond elevated 15 ft. higher than the existing one, with some huge boulders placed in position to act as a waterfall, stepped down with water falling 15 feet. This high pond acts as a silt pond, so the big one doesn't get the junk in it. He's got a ton of trout in it now, a floating dock, and loves it to death. I worked for my money on that one, I will say that...

 

[EZ TRBO]

As a young operator I have not been on alot of projects and for sure havn't seen what some of you guys have but growing up in family biz has shown me alot. I used to think building ponds and dams was quite a chore til I started actually moving dirt on them, we have done so many that it is really like clockwork, just a different location each time. I must say that one of the more difficult projects I have been on was a few years ago, really my first year full time running equipment, at a large dairy farm. First another free-stall barn, so a large building site, then manure lagoon(aprox 35,000 yards of dirt hauled, 2 JD self loaders), then came the flush system for the manure(figured we laid almost a mile of pipe on this project, most comming from the flush system) everything for the entire system ran on a grade, and a very flat one at that(but not too flat to let the sand settle in the pipes), then got a bit simpler, layed out a few large bunker silos(complete with drain tile under each one). I would have to say that was one of the most complicated ones for me, not sure I am going to get anything too crazy at my new job. Mostly just stripping quarries, and digging sand, not a real good thing for someone who likes to have to keep grade and do technical digs, but i guess a jobs a job and it pays well.

 

[sbrem]

I bought 2 from them, both times were painful. I swore to the moon & stars I'd never buy a 3rd from them, but they solidified that promise by going out of business last year, so I won't ever be tempted again.

From what I have heard, the change of ownership was basicly just a paperwork thing and the dealership is still really run by the same people. I don't know for sure, but Ive heard this from more then one source.

 

[bigblueox]

thousand mile harvest '06 running POS JD sts combine cutting popcorn. northwest texas to montana.

 

[LowBoy]

From what I have heard, the change of ownership was basicly just a paperwork thing and the dealership is still really run by the same people. I don't know for sure, but Ive heard this from more then one source.

That could be, although the used dealership lot across the river in W.Chesterfield disappeared, and the other one up in B. Falls was also defunked and seems to be under new ownership. That shows a slight defect in their program, eh?

 

[BrianHay]

I have finaly got the last laugh latley maybe I didnt always make the right choices...but they are working out int the end

 

[CM1995]

This doesn't count surviving three tours with the Seabees in Vietnam. Those were a special case in each instance, and there are thousands of guys here in the states with the same story.

There is no way I can beat that!:usa

 

[Lashlander]

Hmmm, seems to be a bunch of posts missing out of this thread! Did I miss something?:beatsme

 

[Steve Frazier]

Hmmm, seems to be a bunch of posts missing out of this thread! Did I miss something?:beatsme

No, you didn't miss anything at all, in fact you are quite aware of what happened here.

My only response is that we would discourage members from posting when they are in a less than sober state.

 

[Lashlander]

Thats cool, It was a little comical though!

 

[LowBoy]

No, you didn't miss anything at all, in fact you are quite aware of what happened here.
My only response is that we would discourage members from posting when they are in a less than sober state.

That's what the problem is...the drunker you stay here, the longer you get.