Krinsky Report
Day 1 -- July 10, 2003 (2 persons)
We arrived on the job in tandem with a 2-day storm that was about to cross the region. After a few hours of rain, I decided to try to put a line into the ground. It worked well until it began to create 4-6" ruts in the sod. We were forced to fix this, and then began working on all of the odds and ends of the job--going under things, putting in hand dig lines, etc.
Day 2 -- July 11, 2003 (2 persons)
We once again were greeted with another day of rains, but nothing hazardous. We finished up all of the odds and ends, and brought the total heads fit to roughly 20. The days gave me time to formulate an attack plan based on which the rest of the job would be executed. Even in the rain, we were able to remain at say, 90% productivity (or more.)
Day 3 -- July 12, 2003 (4 persons)
We arrived on the job at roughly 9:30am and fit 43 heads and a series of pipe junctions, including connecting roughly 10 of the heads we already fit. We brought two zones to the point where valves were only required, and half fit another. At the end of this day, only slightly more than a zone's worth of heads were left to be fit on top. Total count in the mid 60 range, all mist heads.
Day 4 -- July 14, 2003 (3 persons)
We began the day by finishing off the front of the house. Roughly a third of it was all hand dig, which we already had fit in the first two days, but the rest was all tight areas and resulted often in one swing pull per head. But this was still done extremely efficiently, as we moved down to fit the rotors below around 2pm. Left up top still were all of the heads from the utility service panel back to the air conditioner (roughly 15). We then installed the rotors in the very soft sod and deep mulch beds. Either way, I was confronted with a problem. The mulch was essentially unpullable, to the extent that you didn't rake back at least 6" of it. The sod was even softer, as well as newer in so far as installation date is concerned, than the sod above. None the less, we fit the additional mist heads that were sold, as well as 13 rotors.
Day 5 -- July 15, 2003 (2 persons)
We began the day by tying up down below, bringing the zone so that it was a feeder ready for the valve. I also had to patch the electrical line that was drug up at around 6", more than 20ft away from the little house It was at least 12 ft out of the way from where would have been straight, and there were no obstacles--no reason for it to be there. It was taken up while I was putting in a 1" line just so that we could begin fitting heads. The builder told me it was put in at 30" with an excavator. 30", 6", what's the difference, right? We finished up top by tying off a few more odds and ends, and opening up the driveway to connect the center island. We did not work very late, at least relative to the other days.
Day 6 -- July 16, 2003 (2 persons)
We took the mainline from where the first valves were, through the 6-8" of mulch that had to be raked back, up 140' to where the road was. But there, the 410sx met its match--the blade could not keep itself done. I then had to work over it with the plow and slowly trench it down. We got that pipe in, up to the woods, dug up to where it would be fit with the pipe we fed down from the top of the cliff. After burying this, we fed 120ft of 2" down an incredibly steep angle without any sort of safety device. The trees were no thicker than 2" in most case. This perilous task, combined with trenching in the pipe route through the roughly 10 pine trees planted, took us through the rest of the day.
Day 7 -- July 17, 2003 (2 persons)
We brought the mainline from where we had finished it off at the top of the hill, trenched as far as I could and then pulled it out to the road area of the house by the garage. We spent the day hooking up the valve to the zone, installing the additional 8 or so heads in tight areas that were left, and finishing essentially everything except for the tree bubblers up to the front of the house. At this point, the mainline was from the water up to the garage, with the 3 valves installed, 3 to go.
Day 8 -- July 18, 2003 (3 persons)
This was the day in which the drain was installed, and the, quote, "30 inch" septic line was hit. It was chowed up pretty good by a stroke of bad luck, in my view too bad for duct tape--a view not shared by some others. The sleeving for the driveway was installed, as well as 2 of the valves hooked up. Although it says 3 people came, only a few man hours of the third person were used on the irrigation install. We arrived at 10am (landscaper's for landscape clothe took some 20 or 30 minutes) and I could not leave much later than 6. Combine this with the hit stinky line and this was not the kind of day I had anticipated, as far as work done. With a landscape crew (as had been said would be given when the original final day count estimate was given) that didn't have any, you might say "prior obligations", I planned to have easily tied up the whole top area, leaving only the pump below and a bit of wiring, in addition to whatever grass work might remain--that, in addition, was earmarked for the landscape crew, but never happened. But none of that happened, as it has been shown, by no real fault of my own. We got as much done as you could possible expect within the timeframe.
Day 9 -- July 21, 2003 (3 persons)
Rather than working a day to put myself into a position to wrap it up on Friday, and rather than leaving everything in order as it had been, I took the trailer back and did an install on Walloon Lake. Having things put away in every which spot on Saturday as I alone did all of the logistical and technical aspects of the job, I attempted to go finish a job that was really in no condition to be finished, let alone when fettered by the time constraints of a person with a "prior obligation."
But try I did. I set the pump, but this operation was beset by delays, problems and other time-consuming obstacles from the outset that prevented any sort of rapid, miraculously trouble-free, first-time-everything-goes type of installation. Tools were in every which spot (Mexicans putting stuff away as I did all of the work required on the Walloon job that a shovelling Mexican was not up to), not to mention the fact that the wind was blowing steady at 15-20mph (at least). Sand blasting all over PVC fittings just as we were about to connect them. Sand in your eyes. Intermittent light and heavy rains--but just enough to be annoying and slow things down a bit.
Setting the suction line in the conditions that I did was certainly no simple task. The lake is no more than to my mid thigh at probably 700 feet. The only way to set an 80 gallon guzzler, then, with cinder blocks, is to dig them down and set them carefully at level heights, and then tie on the guzzler. This is a tedious, time-consuming task when the water is calm. But I faced waves in the 18" or greater range, making it all that much more difficult to complete.
But complete it I did. Now with the pump in place, however, even if the currently electrical supply setup worked, the job was still in no way ready to be finished. The job is the size of 4 average residentials that I do, in addition to the fact that the mainline had to be brought great distances and through various terrains, through nothing even close to a nice, clean-pulling dirt that we dream of. To make this job ready to be finished the next day, in my view, I would have left at 9pm and returned the next day as early as possible. But again, I had to leave at 6.
Again the third person contributed only a portion of him time to the irrigation job. He spent another 4 hours finishing off the grade on the driveway, and what I would consider a substantial amount of time fixing the 60ft trench that we put in for the sleeving. We finished the day by fixing the grass some up top, as well as fitting the last valve.
Day 10 -- July 22, 2003 (3 persons)
The third person began by preparing the trailer, as we tied up the remaining irrigation things--a head and a few fittings, as well as the drip in the trees. We loaded the trailer, including all of the garbage (something that has to be loaded and unloaded at some point, certainly, and can no doubt be done in a more efficient manner [in so far as total time required is concerned] if handled all at once rather than a few light cargo, slow walks to the dumpster by an unmotivated Mexican.) We put in the drip bits for the flower boxes, although they are not yet finished with the copper lines, and will be tied up when we install the drip on the porch and perhaps the bushes down below. My dad arrived on the job around 2:30pm to install the relay and left around 5. (Proof that such things do not get done instantly--they are laden with many variables which cannot be counted with a cursory glance at what is required. A veteran that did not even have to do much work with the cables or mount the box took more than 2 hours to get it running.)
At roughly 4:30pm we had water. Many of the heads were nozzled, which in the end was quite a disaster, creating much more work for ourselves. Many (6+) 12" pop ups were apparently ruined by the amount of sediment in the bottom, which scratched the seals to the extent that they barely slid freely. The heads are not to this day able to be easily taken up. If done with a screw driver you would much sooner snap off the nozzle than be able to make any of these heads come up.
With the trailer packed, I got the system in a running order and left at around 9pm.
Too much time? How so? 120 heads (20 all hand dig, through grass and a variety of sloping terrains, with various things to go through and order [rock walk ways, rock walls etc.]), 550+ 2" PVC, 1.5" poly--all done in very nice sod, with sand that at times made it very difficult to pull in. 24 man days for the irrigiation from start to finish, not including perhaps another that was spent tweaking and doing the pump. 25 man days, the number of hours notwithstanding. Considering the help provided (unmotivated and without any real concern), the distances involved and all of the obstacles encountered, I can't see any possible case being made for this job being done too slow. It was very easily, in size and scope, 4 average residentials.
