Inside Third & Bond: Week 49

Last week’s logo discussion/voting was incredible feedback. Per Brownstoner, the over 630 votes cast was impressive and we only voted ourselves once, or maybe twice. For this week’s posting, we’re back at the site to talk more about what is happening there. We’ve driven 21 timber piles and we have over 180 left to go. Ran into a little bit of a problem: not all of the piles driven are fetching the required capacity. And we don’t mean that the piles are getting prettier and prettier. As the piles are driven into the ground, an inspector takes measurement of the blow count and uses that to deduce when the pile is at the required capacity, meaning when it can be counted on to hold up against a certain amount of force, e.g., 30-tons; this is fetching.

We have a couple of different ways to solve the capacity issue. The first thing we want to try is to drive the piles a little lower and see if they meet capacity at a greater depth. The tops of the piles are peeking up out of the ground now, but that ground is still 5′ to 8′ higher than our fully excavated grade-to-be. In order to drive the piles deeper, the piles subcontractor needs to put a different tip on the rig so that they can be driven into the ground while it is at its current grade. If the piles were to fetch at that deeper, final depth, then we are good with those piles.

If that doesn’t work, then we can drive longer piles near to the non-fetching piles. The longer the pile, the greater the cost so we want to use the shortest piles that work. We had asked our sub to start with 45′ piles, and have some 50′ and 60′ available in case those didn’t work. He ended up starting with some 40′ and some 45′ and now we are waiting for the longer piles to be delivered. While his rig is sitting quiet on our property, it isn’t making money for him elsewhere. That should speed up his return. On the other hand, he hasn’t had the quickest response when we’ve encountered issues.

The piles that we are driving are long tree trunks shorn of branches and bark. They’ve been treated with a form of (yuck) arsenic to fend off termites and have also been pressure treated. We wondered briefly if there were LEED points available for using timber rather than steel one being an easily renewed resource that takes less processing energy and is lighter to ship. Plus, our timbers come from a company located in Warsaw, Virginia, which is just over 300 miles away (500 miles is local for LEED). But the arsenic treatment means we are introducing an inorganic pesticide to the environment and that also makes it hard to reuse waste material. Plus, we don’t know if the timbers actually come from Virginia or are shipped in from who knows where so there isn’t a great case for the timbers being really green.

In reading the Consumer Safety Information that comes with the timber, we were struck by the completeness of the list of things we aren’t supposed to do with wood treated by the EPA-registered pesticide CCA, which included the highly relevant to us: After working with the wood, and before eating, drinking, toileting, and use of tobacco products, wash exposed areas thoroughly. As well as the less relevant, Do not use treated wood for the construction of those portions of a beehive that may come into contact with honey. No beehives planned for Third & Bond, but good to know all the same.

We are looking to be back to driving piles by the end of this week and to finish completely with the timbers during the month of August. Maybe by then we’ll also have finalized the logo.

Inside Third & Bond: Week 48 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 47 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 46 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 45 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 44 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 43 [Brownstoner]

From our lawyers: This is not an offering. No offering can be made until an offering plan is filed with the Department of Law of the State of New York.”