Comments

Episode-2140- Expert Council Q&A for 1-5-18 — 5 Comments

  1. I think a 500 sq feet foot print home is great for 2 people. Loft 2 bedrooms at each end and have the entire 500 sq feet for living space, storage and bathroom.  If done right and you make every inch count, you could come up with an amazing home.

  2. Until I was in my mid 20’s maybe longer just about everyone of my family member especially the older ones had a gun case if they were younger maybe a gun rack in the living room, If you were an elder statesman and had more guns you owned a gun case for all to see and everyone admired it, if you were just building a collection you had a gun rack you probably made in wood shop LOL Hell I made one as a project one year in 8th grade, I never see gun cabinets or racks any longer, I guess it’s started in the late 80’s or so when  everyone moved them to the closet and then to gun safes but it was always awesome to see those old guns on display as far back I can remember guns were on display in the house

     

    • This was the way of things in PA when I was in school.  I built actually multiple hang on the wall cabinets in shop class, as I did two years as a “shop apprentice”.  These cabinets hung on the wall and held 8 long guns (gun rack style but each gun facing opposite the last) and numerous hand guns, had a pull out drawer for ammo, cleaning stuff, etc.

      I build the first one for myself but my uncles friend offered me 600 dollars for it.  I had about 150 into it, so sold.  Over the next year I built 5 more, three from pine all sold for the same 600 and two from walnut that sold for over 1K, this was in 1980s dollars.

      I don’t think I could sell one today.  And while the reason has become “safety” I don’t think it stated that way.  See my grandparents home, had no working locks when I was a kid, they were such old door hardware they rusted open (the lock parts) some time around the great depression.

      The first time I visited my father about 2002 after moving to Texas he wasn’t home, I figured I would let myself in and was actually shocked to find the doors locked.

      As drugs like heroin moved into our small towns theft came with it, guns were first taken from the cabinets for security not safety, given what a famous founder said about those things (security and safety) it is quite sad to think about.

  3. “What to do when a new baby is coming as a prepper – Mike and Sue”

    “When I first read this I thought it meant”,

    What do you do when your new baby or new baby grandchild start hoarding loads of baby food, dippers, cuddly toys, spare buggy wheels, plastic soothers etc , filling every drawer in the place  in preparation for  possible future supply shortages in baby gear (:)

     
    Looking forward to listening to the show tonight.

  4.  
    Regarding road construction across wet soil…
     
    It is not a DIY project, but it can be done. Irvine California does it all the time. It’s not pretty. (Note: Many years ago I worked as a soils inspector in Irvine and other problem areas for earth work construction.)
     
    Whatever you do, do NOT use heavy equipment with rubber tires. (Your pickup truck is not “heavy equipment”. A backhoe is not. A dump truck is. An earthmover is.)
     
    Rubber running over wet soil tends to create a pumping action that brings water to the surface and turns it to mush. It will not stabilize for weeks, so don’t let it happen in the first place.
     
    Use track-based equipment. I suggest a bulldozer no heavier than a CAT D-6 (about 18 tons). Larger than that will need swamp tracks. The work will go slow. Sorry. If you try to hog this job out, you might bury your equipment to the axles.
     
    Your job (as with any road) is to build a bridge across unstable soil. This is done normally by using aggregate base, but if you just pour the normal base onto this wet soil, the base will become saturated. The base itself will sink into the mud and be lost. You need something for the base to sit on at least long enough for the base to be compacted.
     
    I suggest using chunks of concrete about 8 to 12 inches. I’ve seen larger pieces used but the idea is to crush the concrete pieces and push them into the wet soil, making the soil stable. You have seen this at the ocean where breakwaters are built using large stones. Have a track bulldozer rolling over the concrete and pushing it out. (Watch for rebar that will puncture dump truck tires.) Little by little, a truck-load at a time, you are building a bridge across the swamp.
     
    Check this out with your local soils engineer, usually an older engineer. A younger engineer just out of college will lose his nut, but a guy or gal who has seen some crazy stuff work will think about it. If you can talk him into it, you will have earned the love of builders all around you. They are paying money out their butts dumping old concrete at the local dump. They will haul it to your site for free!
     
    You are building a rough bridge. On this bridge you will lay the normal aggregate base and compact it. That creates a structure. If the base is moving, you don’t have a structure.
     
    Alternatively you could mix cement (not concrete) with the soil and create soil cement. You could also mix cement in with the base. This is not a DIY project, but the bulldozer could probably do it. BUT, I have seen this fail causing weeks of delay before it can be tried again.
     
    There is also a soil mesh than can be used to spread the load across the wider area. This is all done so that the base can be compacted.
     
    I am only giving you hints. I left a lot of things out. You need an experienced road builder to make this happen if it can happen at all. I think it can, but a lot of it depends on the type of soil you have. Clay is the worst. Sand is the best. You can figure out the inbetween.
     
    Good luck.
     
    I mean that.