Chimney cap

Jim worked really hard all yesterday to get ready to pour the chimney cap.  He started back up first thing this morning - had to run to Home Depot for cement and misc things he needed.  He took the truck to Home Depot for its first official job as a construction vehicle - they were able to load a pallet of cement bags right into the back of the truck.  Made that job much easier!

The truck's first construction job!

Jim had to finish getting the forms set, do the flashing, rebar, foam expansion joints around all 3 flue pipes...and tons of other jobs that I don't even know enough about to write.  With hardly a lunch break, he worked through early afternoon getting it all set. 

All the prep work's done

Mike once again came over to lend a helping hand.  They used the Bobcat cement mixer (aka The Pumpkin) to mix the cement.  Once they got it mixed, they filled up the 5 gallon pails, wheeled them back in the wheelbarrow, and then used a hoist to lift them up to the top of the scaffolding.  Then Jim had to carry them up a ladder that was laying on the roof, harness himself back to the chimney, and place the cement...to be repeated dozens and dozens of times.

Using a hoist to bring up cement buckets

Jim climbing up the ladder carrying buckets of cement

 

 

I had to go to the dentist this afternoon and run to Staples, so I missed most of the work.  By the time I got home about 5:00, Jim just had a few more buckets to place.  The weather was gorgeous, but the work was hard and they were beat.

 

Of course with concrete work, comes lots of finishing work at multiple times in the process as well as massive cleaning up afterwards.  It was probably 8:00 by the time Jim came in.

 

 

In the midst of this, when I got home I saw that the shipper had left a message.  Jim called him back and he wants to pick up the equipment at 9:30 tomorrow morning!  So no rest for the very weary...Jim has to spend tonight getting everything ready for the transport and will have to leave an hour or so after the shipper leaves to go to NY and meet him to unload!

 

While I'm extremely thankful that somehow Jim managed to get this immense undertaking of the chimney cap job finished in these past two days and was blessed with great weather, one more day in between to rest mind and body sure would have been nice.  But the goal was to get the cap done while the Bobcat was here, so mission accomplished. 

 

Jim will take the 4Runner to NY to make it a quicker trip.  He'll probably spend Thursday working on the land a bit with the Bobcat.  He needs to do some site work before the well guy can begin, so he'll start on that.  But he'll also have to deal with insurance.  It will be a whole new worry because now we'll have equipment there with no one around.  But getting  the equipment up there is a major milestone toward making this all a reality!

 

Last steps...Jim had to take the foam out and do some caulking - he's really happy with how things turned out.  Now he's drawing plans so that Bryan can laser cut chimney caps. Then that project will be all done!