Glacier Club - The Houston Job

The Houston job set out to be a "shot rock" job (where blasting would be required). Once excavation began, it became clear that the rock was going to be below the foundation in most areas. The soil type on top of the rock was found to be quite suitable for foundation bearing.

There was a small section in which expanding grout was used to fracture some of the rock.  In the remainder of the excavation, we used our hydraulic hammer to break rock where necessary. One of the big challenges of the site was finding room for dirt storage. We had a lot more dirt excavated than what would be needed for back fill, but we also did not have a lot of options for storage either (dirt would be needed for future jobs). We ended up storing the dirt within the trees on the hillside above the house.

This created some challenges not only in putting it there, but also removing it efficiently. The spoils also contained a lot of rocks. We separated them as we worked and then crushed them (on site) to make the gravel that we used during construction. This saved money because we didn't have to export as many rocks for disposal, thus creating a usable product and reducing truck miles, road and carbon impacts.

As with all Glacier Club jobs, the lots are small with big houses on them so space to work is at a premium. We were able to accomplish all of this in a very small space. The site also included building a rock wall, which we created to complete the project.