Ugh... Dead Grass...
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So folks. This weekend I thought I'd try and ease back into life (after major back injury) and see why I have about 6 rather large and very dead spots in my lawn that is now in it's 2nd summer. So I spoke with a few experts who said to get a hand aerator and aerate my lawn first. They said the process will reveal one of two problems. Really hard soil that isn't absorbing water in which case the aeration will help or construction debris which is preventing the grass from growing down in the soil. So I started hand aerating and guess what I start finding. Huge chunks of wood siding, sections of shingle and other debris at most 2 inches below the surface.:wtf: So now I get to call the builder and see if he has enough class to come and fix the problem. I'm not hopeful as we bought from a "spec home" builder who hasn't been super helpful with other problems unless they were just blatant screw-ups on the construction side of things. But seriously... to find huge slabs of shingle less than 2" under your ground. What were they thinking to just roll sod right on top of that!?!?!?! GRRRR!!! It's a good thing I'm mostly sedated right now or I'd totally lose it on some poor defenseless farm animal right now.:eek: I wonder if the builder will have any class or not... Totally dreading the conversation...:sigh: Among the other issues this isn't helping.:((
on the bright side, you'll have a nice crop of mushrooms once it all starts decaying
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So folks. This weekend I thought I'd try and ease back into life (after major back injury) and see why I have about 6 rather large and very dead spots in my lawn that is now in it's 2nd summer. So I spoke with a few experts who said to get a hand aerator and aerate my lawn first. They said the process will reveal one of two problems. Really hard soil that isn't absorbing water in which case the aeration will help or construction debris which is preventing the grass from growing down in the soil. So I started hand aerating and guess what I start finding. Huge chunks of wood siding, sections of shingle and other debris at most 2 inches below the surface.:wtf: So now I get to call the builder and see if he has enough class to come and fix the problem. I'm not hopeful as we bought from a "spec home" builder who hasn't been super helpful with other problems unless they were just blatant screw-ups on the construction side of things. But seriously... to find huge slabs of shingle less than 2" under your ground. What were they thinking to just roll sod right on top of that!?!?!?! GRRRR!!! It's a good thing I'm mostly sedated right now or I'd totally lose it on some poor defenseless farm animal right now.:eek: I wonder if the builder will have any class or not... Totally dreading the conversation...:sigh: Among the other issues this isn't helping.:((
I think most construction companies assume you're going to haul in 2-4-6-8 inches of topsoil over their mess. I've dug up old 2x4s while trying to plant trees, and didn't think much of it until I dug up a circa 72 coke can, at which point I thought I hit a time capsule! Further digging yielded nothing but rocks :-) Rip out the shingles, replace with topsoil, sprinkle some grass seed, and water, water, water. You'll have your lawn back in no time.
- S 50 cups of coffee and you know it's on!
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So folks. This weekend I thought I'd try and ease back into life (after major back injury) and see why I have about 6 rather large and very dead spots in my lawn that is now in it's 2nd summer. So I spoke with a few experts who said to get a hand aerator and aerate my lawn first. They said the process will reveal one of two problems. Really hard soil that isn't absorbing water in which case the aeration will help or construction debris which is preventing the grass from growing down in the soil. So I started hand aerating and guess what I start finding. Huge chunks of wood siding, sections of shingle and other debris at most 2 inches below the surface.:wtf: So now I get to call the builder and see if he has enough class to come and fix the problem. I'm not hopeful as we bought from a "spec home" builder who hasn't been super helpful with other problems unless they were just blatant screw-ups on the construction side of things. But seriously... to find huge slabs of shingle less than 2" under your ground. What were they thinking to just roll sod right on top of that!?!?!?! GRRRR!!! It's a good thing I'm mostly sedated right now or I'd totally lose it on some poor defenseless farm animal right now.:eek: I wonder if the builder will have any class or not... Totally dreading the conversation...:sigh: Among the other issues this isn't helping.:((
code-frog wrote:
But seriously... to find huge slabs of shingle less than 2" under your ground.
About a decade ago I had a similar episode with my house then. It had been several years trying to grow something, anything, in the section of land between the curb and the sidewalk, which you are required to maintain as part of owning a home.... Now, mind you, this house was made in the 60's, we bought it in the 90's, so it had been there a while.... We finally got desperate trying to figure out why nothing would grow there, and were tired of complaints from the city for not doing so (and threats of fines, etc). So I dug it up... Try concrete! Now wood or shingles is one thing, but try pulling out 12 inch chunks, 4" thick of concrete from a tiny section of land less than two feet wide and the length of the house. Not sure who, but someone was using the area to dump either an old sidewalk or some other concrete slab and then just covered it up with dirt.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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So folks. This weekend I thought I'd try and ease back into life (after major back injury) and see why I have about 6 rather large and very dead spots in my lawn that is now in it's 2nd summer. So I spoke with a few experts who said to get a hand aerator and aerate my lawn first. They said the process will reveal one of two problems. Really hard soil that isn't absorbing water in which case the aeration will help or construction debris which is preventing the grass from growing down in the soil. So I started hand aerating and guess what I start finding. Huge chunks of wood siding, sections of shingle and other debris at most 2 inches below the surface.:wtf: So now I get to call the builder and see if he has enough class to come and fix the problem. I'm not hopeful as we bought from a "spec home" builder who hasn't been super helpful with other problems unless they were just blatant screw-ups on the construction side of things. But seriously... to find huge slabs of shingle less than 2" under your ground. What were they thinking to just roll sod right on top of that!?!?!?! GRRRR!!! It's a good thing I'm mostly sedated right now or I'd totally lose it on some poor defenseless farm animal right now.:eek: I wonder if the builder will have any class or not... Totally dreading the conversation...:sigh: Among the other issues this isn't helping.:((
Er... as it is wood... have you seen the film poltergeist? (http://spanish.imdb.com/title/tt0084516/[^]) Now, being serious... try to talk with him, who knows it can be that his/her workers are not clean, but normally if the workers are not clean is because the company owner is not clean... Let's hope that when you talk to the builder he will want to repair that... Regards Rex, and good luck with everything... :rose:
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So folks. This weekend I thought I'd try and ease back into life (after major back injury) and see why I have about 6 rather large and very dead spots in my lawn that is now in it's 2nd summer. So I spoke with a few experts who said to get a hand aerator and aerate my lawn first. They said the process will reveal one of two problems. Really hard soil that isn't absorbing water in which case the aeration will help or construction debris which is preventing the grass from growing down in the soil. So I started hand aerating and guess what I start finding. Huge chunks of wood siding, sections of shingle and other debris at most 2 inches below the surface.:wtf: So now I get to call the builder and see if he has enough class to come and fix the problem. I'm not hopeful as we bought from a "spec home" builder who hasn't been super helpful with other problems unless they were just blatant screw-ups on the construction side of things. But seriously... to find huge slabs of shingle less than 2" under your ground. What were they thinking to just roll sod right on top of that!?!?!?! GRRRR!!! It's a good thing I'm mostly sedated right now or I'd totally lose it on some poor defenseless farm animal right now.:eek: I wonder if the builder will have any class or not... Totally dreading the conversation...:sigh: Among the other issues this isn't helping.:((
Reminds me of a friend who bought a house on a new development, the builder was still on site completing other houses, he found a full pallet of house bricks buried in his garden! As in the UK it was nearly bonfire night there was talk of the residents using the builder as the Guy!
"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it." - Ellen Goodman
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I think most construction companies assume you're going to haul in 2-4-6-8 inches of topsoil over their mess. I've dug up old 2x4s while trying to plant trees, and didn't think much of it until I dug up a circa 72 coke can, at which point I thought I hit a time capsule! Further digging yielded nothing but rocks :-) Rip out the shingles, replace with topsoil, sprinkle some grass seed, and water, water, water. You'll have your lawn back in no time.
- S 50 cups of coffee and you know it's on!
Steve Echols wrote:
You'll have your lawn back in no time.
Yeah, sure. ;P
If you truly believe you need to pick a mobile phone that "says something" about your personality, don't bother. You don't have a personality. A mental illness, maybe - but not a personality. - Charlie Brooker My Blog - My Photos - ScrewTurn Wiki
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So folks. This weekend I thought I'd try and ease back into life (after major back injury) and see why I have about 6 rather large and very dead spots in my lawn that is now in it's 2nd summer. So I spoke with a few experts who said to get a hand aerator and aerate my lawn first. They said the process will reveal one of two problems. Really hard soil that isn't absorbing water in which case the aeration will help or construction debris which is preventing the grass from growing down in the soil. So I started hand aerating and guess what I start finding. Huge chunks of wood siding, sections of shingle and other debris at most 2 inches below the surface.:wtf: So now I get to call the builder and see if he has enough class to come and fix the problem. I'm not hopeful as we bought from a "spec home" builder who hasn't been super helpful with other problems unless they were just blatant screw-ups on the construction side of things. But seriously... to find huge slabs of shingle less than 2" under your ground. What were they thinking to just roll sod right on top of that!?!?!?! GRRRR!!! It's a good thing I'm mostly sedated right now or I'd totally lose it on some poor defenseless farm animal right now.:eek: I wonder if the builder will have any class or not... Totally dreading the conversation...:sigh: Among the other issues this isn't helping.:((
My parents old house had a nice 120" urban garden with a bit of rubbish in it, at least that's what we thought when we moved in. 18 steel window frames, >100 house bricks, several square feet of intact reinforced glass, 1 bicycle frame 3 feet down, kids toys, >20 coins going back as far as 90 years, >1000 carpenters nails, half a dozen complete items of crockery, a dozen broken paving slabs a complete 1960s glass coke bottle, about 10 kilo of broken glass, several square metres of chicken wire, assorted items of cutlery and 15 years later we pretty much had it in shape shortly before they moved out. Life throws us these curve balls sometimes but it could be worse. We didn't find any bodies or toxic waste and we didn't even puncture a gas main getting that bicycle frame out ;) I hope in all seriousness your gardening woes are the worst thing that happens to you this year or in the future.
Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.
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So folks. This weekend I thought I'd try and ease back into life (after major back injury) and see why I have about 6 rather large and very dead spots in my lawn that is now in it's 2nd summer. So I spoke with a few experts who said to get a hand aerator and aerate my lawn first. They said the process will reveal one of two problems. Really hard soil that isn't absorbing water in which case the aeration will help or construction debris which is preventing the grass from growing down in the soil. So I started hand aerating and guess what I start finding. Huge chunks of wood siding, sections of shingle and other debris at most 2 inches below the surface.:wtf: So now I get to call the builder and see if he has enough class to come and fix the problem. I'm not hopeful as we bought from a "spec home" builder who hasn't been super helpful with other problems unless they were just blatant screw-ups on the construction side of things. But seriously... to find huge slabs of shingle less than 2" under your ground. What were they thinking to just roll sod right on top of that!?!?!?! GRRRR!!! It's a good thing I'm mostly sedated right now or I'd totally lose it on some poor defenseless farm animal right now.:eek: I wonder if the builder will have any class or not... Totally dreading the conversation...:sigh: Among the other issues this isn't helping.:((
It could be worse. There was a small hotel / pub on the piece of land next to our house, but it burned down about 3 years ago (well, it burned, but since it was brick with concrete, it stayed up mostly.) About 2 years ago, I watched a bulldozer dig a hole, maybe 2 or 3 meters deep, and push it in. Imagine buying that property and trying to dig holes for foundations or to put a swimming pool in. I reckon there were reinforced concrete beams 5 meters long under there.
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It could be worse. There was a small hotel / pub on the piece of land next to our house, but it burned down about 3 years ago (well, it burned, but since it was brick with concrete, it stayed up mostly.) About 2 years ago, I watched a bulldozer dig a hole, maybe 2 or 3 meters deep, and push it in. Imagine buying that property and trying to dig holes for foundations or to put a swimming pool in. I reckon there were reinforced concrete beams 5 meters long under there.
normanS wrote:
There was a small hotel / pub on the piece of land next to our house, but it burned down about 3 years ago (well, it burned, but since it was brick with concrete, it stayed up mostly.) About 2 years ago, I watched a bulldozer dig a hole, maybe 2 or 3 meters deep, and push it in.
Where I grew up, in Kempton Park, South Africa, there was once a fire that gutted a perfume factory. This close to 1981 or so, and the site still stands unusable. The heat was so intense the foundations were irreparably damaged, and the cost of removing them outweighs the value of the land. Now that I think about it, it was quite a fire. They bought in earthmoving equipment to damn up a small river, to provide enough water. We were at a school athletics meeting about 4km away when we saw the ball of fire mushroom up into the air. We went down on bicycles to go and watch the spectacle, and I bought a 1 litre coke on the way, from a shop 1km away from the fire, and on opening it it fizzed out gloriously from being shaken by the blast.
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So folks. This weekend I thought I'd try and ease back into life (after major back injury) and see why I have about 6 rather large and very dead spots in my lawn that is now in it's 2nd summer. So I spoke with a few experts who said to get a hand aerator and aerate my lawn first. They said the process will reveal one of two problems. Really hard soil that isn't absorbing water in which case the aeration will help or construction debris which is preventing the grass from growing down in the soil. So I started hand aerating and guess what I start finding. Huge chunks of wood siding, sections of shingle and other debris at most 2 inches below the surface.:wtf: So now I get to call the builder and see if he has enough class to come and fix the problem. I'm not hopeful as we bought from a "spec home" builder who hasn't been super helpful with other problems unless they were just blatant screw-ups on the construction side of things. But seriously... to find huge slabs of shingle less than 2" under your ground. What were they thinking to just roll sod right on top of that!?!?!?! GRRRR!!! It's a good thing I'm mostly sedated right now or I'd totally lose it on some poor defenseless farm animal right now.:eek: I wonder if the builder will have any class or not... Totally dreading the conversation...:sigh: Among the other issues this isn't helping.:((
code-frog wrote:
Huge chunks of wood siding, sections of shingle and other debris at most 2 inches below the surface
Kind of makes you wonder if the builder was getting late into the project and starting to think "I know we had more supplies here some where.. Anyone seen them?"... :)
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: Linq - One-to-One issues? Latest Tech Blog Post: Microsoft Surface!
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So folks. This weekend I thought I'd try and ease back into life (after major back injury) and see why I have about 6 rather large and very dead spots in my lawn that is now in it's 2nd summer. So I spoke with a few experts who said to get a hand aerator and aerate my lawn first. They said the process will reveal one of two problems. Really hard soil that isn't absorbing water in which case the aeration will help or construction debris which is preventing the grass from growing down in the soil. So I started hand aerating and guess what I start finding. Huge chunks of wood siding, sections of shingle and other debris at most 2 inches below the surface.:wtf: So now I get to call the builder and see if he has enough class to come and fix the problem. I'm not hopeful as we bought from a "spec home" builder who hasn't been super helpful with other problems unless they were just blatant screw-ups on the construction side of things. But seriously... to find huge slabs of shingle less than 2" under your ground. What were they thinking to just roll sod right on top of that!?!?!?! GRRRR!!! It's a good thing I'm mostly sedated right now or I'd totally lose it on some poor defenseless farm animal right now.:eek: I wonder if the builder will have any class or not... Totally dreading the conversation...:sigh: Among the other issues this isn't helping.:((
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normanS wrote:
There was a small hotel / pub on the piece of land next to our house, but it burned down about 3 years ago (well, it burned, but since it was brick with concrete, it stayed up mostly.) About 2 years ago, I watched a bulldozer dig a hole, maybe 2 or 3 meters deep, and push it in.
Where I grew up, in Kempton Park, South Africa, there was once a fire that gutted a perfume factory. This close to 1981 or so, and the site still stands unusable. The heat was so intense the foundations were irreparably damaged, and the cost of removing them outweighs the value of the land. Now that I think about it, it was quite a fire. They bought in earthmoving equipment to damn up a small river, to provide enough water. We were at a school athletics meeting about 4km away when we saw the ball of fire mushroom up into the air. We went down on bicycles to go and watch the spectacle, and I bought a 1 litre coke on the way, from a shop 1km away from the fire, and on opening it it fizzed out gloriously from being shaken by the blast.
Brady Kelly wrote:
Where I grew up, in Kempton Park, South Africa
Uuum. Are you thinking of a fire at the NCP factory at Chloorkop? They produce what passes for perfume in Kempton Park, don't they? OK, I confess, I lived in Kempton Park from 1983for about 5 years, and worked at Atlas Aircraft / Denel Aviation from 1983 off-and-on for almost 20 years.
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Brady Kelly wrote:
Where I grew up, in Kempton Park, South Africa
Uuum. Are you thinking of a fire at the NCP factory at Chloorkop? They produce what passes for perfume in Kempton Park, don't they? OK, I confess, I lived in Kempton Park from 1983for about 5 years, and worked at Atlas Aircraft / Denel Aviation from 1983 off-and-on for almost 20 years.
No, it was in Spartan, in Kelvin Road to be precise. You probably had quite a lot to do with the air force. I was there between 1988 and 1996, and we had a lot to do with Atlas / Denel. We even had quite a few of your guys actually posted at the bases.
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My parents old house had a nice 120" urban garden with a bit of rubbish in it, at least that's what we thought when we moved in. 18 steel window frames, >100 house bricks, several square feet of intact reinforced glass, 1 bicycle frame 3 feet down, kids toys, >20 coins going back as far as 90 years, >1000 carpenters nails, half a dozen complete items of crockery, a dozen broken paving slabs a complete 1960s glass coke bottle, about 10 kilo of broken glass, several square metres of chicken wire, assorted items of cutlery and 15 years later we pretty much had it in shape shortly before they moved out. Life throws us these curve balls sometimes but it could be worse. We didn't find any bodies or toxic waste and we didn't even puncture a gas main getting that bicycle frame out ;) I hope in all seriousness your gardening woes are the worst thing that happens to you this year or in the future.
Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.
Tops the mess at my parents. There was a dump out in the woods that dated back to before their was municipal trash collection in the area that included a rusted out truck frame and at least on major appliance. We hauled out everything we could find bigger than a beer can (and I collected a bunch of those too), and buried the rest under several feet of fill: powdered limestone from redigging the well and ash from the burnpile mostly.
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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It could be worse. There was a small hotel / pub on the piece of land next to our house, but it burned down about 3 years ago (well, it burned, but since it was brick with concrete, it stayed up mostly.) About 2 years ago, I watched a bulldozer dig a hole, maybe 2 or 3 meters deep, and push it in. Imagine buying that property and trying to dig holes for foundations or to put a swimming pool in. I reckon there were reinforced concrete beams 5 meters long under there.
Burying problems for others to deal with later is a problem everywhere I'm afraid. They took down a petrol (gas) station about a mile from us when I lived near London. They carefully removed the tanks before bringing in the heavy diggers but didn't notice the old ones from the 1950s buried underneath. When the JCB driver put his shovel through one of the old tanks we heard the blast a mile away. He was very lucky most of the force went length ways into pushing up a ten foot mound of earth and it only blew out the glass on the front of his cab. The shovel looked like a piece tin foil that had been scruched up and thrown in a fire. As I don't remeber it making the news I guess the driver was OK. If it was me I reckon I would have died of shock.
Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.
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code-frog wrote:
ease back into life (after major back injury)
:confused: Didn't you post a few weeks ago about how much exercise you do and how healthy you're feeling? :confused:
Yeah, and after that I was helping my wife life something and I used my lower back to come erect instead of my legs and WHOA! My lower back threw an unhandled exception which kept getting thrown higher and higher until it was finally caught by the emergency room. Several hours of Toradol, Valium, Dilaudid, Hydromorphone and MRI's later I was sort of comfortable. They sent me home with stuff to handle the pain that might as well have been tic-tacs. Right now I'm a royal mess but I'm going to start exercising again today to see if light activity would help. I really seem to respond better to light activity. I was pulling weeds and hand aerating my yard yesterday and felt really good the rest of the day and even today I feel better. But dude that back spasm was so intense I couldn't lift my left leg off the ground to walk. Some guy at the hospital had to lift me onto stretchers and he had to move me around. I was in so much pain I couldn't pee so the same gorilla had to humiliate me with a catheter and for some reason none of the pain meds helped with *that* pain. It was the most horrible pain I've ever been in. Because of the situation we are in I knew we couldn't afford an ambulance ride so I drug myself into the garage and my wife's car using dining room chairs to crawl, crutch myself out. Once in the car I was on my hands and knees hugging the passenger seat like I was hanging off the edge of a cliff. I'm still in excellent shape and enjoying the perks but my hamstrings and low back are a tad tight and *cough* very tender. What a PITA this has been and that's a literal PITA my @$$ has never hurt so much. Oy!!!
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code-frog wrote:
Huge chunks of wood siding, sections of shingle and other debris at most 2 inches below the surface
Kind of makes you wonder if the builder was getting late into the project and starting to think "I know we had more supplies here some where.. Anyone seen them?"... :)
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: Linq - One-to-One issues? Latest Tech Blog Post: Microsoft Surface!
Well, I know who did the shingles and the siding and I know they rightfully tossed stuff into the yard. The person I want to strangle was whoever did the lot clean-up that was *supposed* to happen before landscape was done.
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It could be worse. There was a small hotel / pub on the piece of land next to our house, but it burned down about 3 years ago (well, it burned, but since it was brick with concrete, it stayed up mostly.) About 2 years ago, I watched a bulldozer dig a hole, maybe 2 or 3 meters deep, and push it in. Imagine buying that property and trying to dig holes for foundations or to put a swimming pool in. I reckon there were reinforced concrete beams 5 meters long under there.
Oy! That would be bad.
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Er... as it is wood... have you seen the film poltergeist? (http://spanish.imdb.com/title/tt0084516/[^]) Now, being serious... try to talk with him, who knows it can be that his/her workers are not clean, but normally if the workers are not clean is because the company owner is not clean... Let's hope that when you talk to the builder he will want to repair that... Regards Rex, and good luck with everything... :rose:
Thank you. I have my weapons loaded and sitting on the front porch. When he comes over ... we'll talk.:eek: {Joke} No I think it will go well though.
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So folks. This weekend I thought I'd try and ease back into life (after major back injury) and see why I have about 6 rather large and very dead spots in my lawn that is now in it's 2nd summer. So I spoke with a few experts who said to get a hand aerator and aerate my lawn first. They said the process will reveal one of two problems. Really hard soil that isn't absorbing water in which case the aeration will help or construction debris which is preventing the grass from growing down in the soil. So I started hand aerating and guess what I start finding. Huge chunks of wood siding, sections of shingle and other debris at most 2 inches below the surface.:wtf: So now I get to call the builder and see if he has enough class to come and fix the problem. I'm not hopeful as we bought from a "spec home" builder who hasn't been super helpful with other problems unless they were just blatant screw-ups on the construction side of things. But seriously... to find huge slabs of shingle less than 2" under your ground. What were they thinking to just roll sod right on top of that!?!?!?! GRRRR!!! It's a good thing I'm mostly sedated right now or I'd totally lose it on some poor defenseless farm animal right now.:eek: I wonder if the builder will have any class or not... Totally dreading the conversation...:sigh: Among the other issues this isn't helping.:((
I hope they do the right thing and haul it out and re-sod your lawn, if not I hope they didn't take similar shortcuts with your house. My brother was shooting a commercial for a local home builder and the guy didn't want him to get any of the 2x3s in the shot, but the attic they were shooting in was almost all 2x3s. They definitely don't build houses like they used to, though back in the day they probably would have dumped all sorts of toxic chemicals in the lawn without a second thought.
code-frog wrote:
major back injury
I never had a major back injury, but I did knock my back out digging a small garden. I was really pissed at my body for hurting so much. I mean really what gives it the right. :doh: While I do feel kinda silly putting on white pjs and practicing punches and kicks a few times a week, it has really whipped my back into shape. Last summer I hauled something like 40 cubic yards of dirt and rocks around my back yard building a patio and my back was fine.
I would teach the world that science is not about truth, but is about trying to get closer to the truth. - Kathy Sykes
