Parcela construction woes

[ocum_et_temuco]

seawolf180 said:-

And many of those that dont arrive with a hammer, or other tools, do have them when they leave. The ones they knew you would supply if they showed up empty handed.
DIY if you can. Quite an education.

Hell yes! On my first project I allowed family and friends to freely dip into the tool chest. Seemed ok but then we brought in some outside maestros and had to be away for couple of weeks. Came back and what?! Some classic hand tools gone! This may sound nerdish but I miss my brass-bound hardwood carpenter squares and such like.

DIY -if you can. Quite an education. Aye there's the thing. Who can learn all them skills when needed? Especially when you don't have a background. It's not just the construction itself- woodwork; brickwork; welding; electrics, but best sources for materials. We had to go round several timber merchants and supervise their cutting and planing to get what we wanted. I built stairs but didn't know that they had to be fixed securely at all points immediately. Left them loosely attached and they warped! Then had to straighten them with a car jack. Oh the joys! Live and learn.

[ocum_et_temuco]

I don't have any horror stories but...

OK, in the interests of sharing information I'll confess I do have a horror story.

I don't know what experience others have had with well diggers but on one parcela I later sold, which was at the top of a hill, the well wasn't deep enough so eventually we had to sink deep pipes. The original well had no support on the inner walls but was capped with concrete. The mix of rock and soil help up very strongly no problems but it just wasn't deep enough.

The horror story started when I moved to a hillside consisting of deep red clay. The constructor said that he would dig a well with his jcb excavator. In order to get deep enough he carved a huge ramp into the flat bit of hillside just below our property and was able to hit water ten meters. He finished, leaving a long down-sloping scar across the property with a deeper hole at the end of it. To near the edge of it was to experience vertigo and raised some safety concerns. He said not to worry and we could take our time with installing a lining (pipes) and then he would come back and fill the scar in around them. He claimed that it was a tried and tested method, no worries.

But then the rains came and filled the entire long depression with water-almost to the top. No worries he said-just wait for the water to drain off. So after a couple of days we hear gigantic sploshing noises from downhill during the night. Seems this type of clay soil doesn't hold up when wet. Within a day or so the side started to cave in and more worryingly, fissures were radiating (arcing) out from the original edge. The land between these cracks and the original 'shore-line' then collapsed into the hole and two more fissures appeared which also collapsed. I looked up at the house and shuddered as I imagined the fissures advancing up the hillside.

The next day we got another excavator - having lost faith in the first company to fill in the entire lake and it did take all day. Now I got a flat area below the house - compacted, with no further movement.

Our neighbor went with traditional hand dug well but that also totally collapsed under the heavy deluge we had last June.

So - beware of well diggers. Yes I know you need that water but think on it !

[admin]

Typically thise sorts of "well diggers" take care of themselves. Every so often you see one or two had the walls colapse on them, and they and their machine need to be rescued (or what is left of them).

Anyone without a drill rig, is full of it. There is also more to well digging in most of chile than punching a hole. You need water rights. Now more than ever. No one use to care in the south, now the papers are full of water right registeration announcments. They are also enforcing them to issue building permits and development of community parcelations. Banks are asking for them when issueing mortgages, and so on. You might find the water, but it might not be yours.