The Putzmeister BRF 36 is a boom-mounted concrete pumper (see Day 17, but I digress). I found out a bit more about it, the process and prices in case you ever need to have concrete pumped on your building site. This Putzmeister is about 10 years old and cost $800,000 new, probably worth $400,000 or less in the current market. It has a 90-100 ft reach, Brundage-Bond owns it, and it comes out of Poulsbo, that cute little Norwhoovian town across the Hood Canal. (With this baby, you could fill your neighbor's pool full of whatever and leave no sign of entry.) The current rate for this intermediate-size model is $140/hr plus $2.5/yd of concrete pumped (the wear factor). So today, the Putzmeister left Poulsbo at 10:30 am, drove for an hour (at the $140 rate), pumped until about 4:00 pm (47 cubic yards), and made it back to Poulbo at 5 pm, just in time for the Simpsons (seems appropriate).To make my business friends Ken O & Colleen happy, here is daily accounting:
Putzmeister @ $140 x 6.5 hrs plus 47 x $2.50/yd = $1027.50 (+ 8.4% tax) = $1113
Concrete @ 47 yds x $92/yr (delivered) = $4324 (+ 8.4% tax) = $4687
Add these together (~$5800) and the net cost for a yard of concrete on our lot is $123. $125/yd sound like a nice round figure if you plan to enter into such a folly in the Port Townsend area. By the time we're done pouring the foundation, we'll have laid 90 yards of concrete for about $11,250. However, don't forget the additional $25k for a half-mile of rebar, about 100 anchors, hundreds of 2x4 braces and concrete forms (2'x8' panels), and our concrete guys skill and hard labor (3 guys for about 45 total days). PS, Washington taxes everything, even labor.
Since this was such a blessed occasion, Nancy and I placed a 2008 Washington dollar coin in the foundation. Where you ask? Well at the entrance of course. It will be under a 2x8 sill plate, some BCI 5000 joists, Warmboard, and the front-door threshold, but that's only 15" so maybe the good luck will exude upward into each and every visitors feet. The second reason we put it here is because this is a little tribute to Mikael Brostrom, our structural engineer. It turns out that in this 8 ft section of the concrete wall there at 12 (yes TWELVE) hold downs. Four Simpson SBBTs and eight regular sill plate anchors. That is one anchor per 8", the highest concentration anywhere in the house and maybe the state of Washington.
When the building inspector asked me "How many SBBTs (Simpson tie-down anchors, in photo) there are in the foundation walls, I proudly said 42!" He countered with "I think that's a record for me as an inspector". He's retiring from the Jefferson Co. Building Dept. in two months, so I think this record will remain intact.
