Land excavation and development in Southern Utah

What Do Excavating Contractors Do?

Credits for article: By Ralph Heibutzki – Career Trend

 

Excavating contractors are part of the construction equipment industry, which employed 409,700 people as of 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. However, excavators do more than just move dirt. Excavators also are involved in preparing the site, ensuring its suitability for construction and seeing that the work meets safety and code requirements. Careful attention to details and deadlines are prerequisites for success in this industry.

Construction Preparation

Once a building project starts, excavators get the site ready for construction. He must dig soils to the required depth, plus the trenches needed for electrical, gas, sewer and water connections, the Alberta Builder Connect website states. Using lasers and tape measures, he confirms the excavation’s size and depth, and then backfills around the new trenches and foundation.

Heavy Equipment Operation

Construction work typically requires moving earth, gravel and sand, as well as building materials. To complete those tasks, excavators must operate bulldozers, road graders, trench excavators and other heavy equipment outfitted with buckets, scoops or shovels, the BLS indicates. If the job requires it, excavators also run air compressors, pumps and similar power equipment at job sites.

Site and Business Management

Many organizations impose extremely specific site management requirements on excavating contractors. For example, the city of Chicago requires notice of 48 hours to 14 days for any excavating or demolition job, while protecting utility markings and avoiding damage to underground facilities. The excavator also is responsible for ensuring a safe work site and that employees follow regulatory and code requirements.

10 Tips For Safer Trenching And Excavating

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) considers excavation to be one of the most dangerous activities in the construction and utilities industries. This is primarily because the potential for collapse poses great hazards for employees. According to OSHA, “One cubic yard of soil can weigh as much as a car.” Approximately two U.S. workers die each month in trench collapses.

With the right knowledge, regulations, and safety supplies, employers can help reduce injuries and fatalities caused by cave-ins. Below are 10 safety tips that will allow crews to work safer in trenches:

  1. Never enter an unprotected trench.
  2. Park heavy equipment as far from trench edges as possible. Keep soil or other materials at least two feet away from the sides of the trench. If the job site does not allow for two feet of distance, soil removed from the trench may need to be moved to another location until work is completed.
  3. Find out where utilities are located underground before crews start digging.
  4. Inspect trenches daily before work begins and after storms or other events that may cause changes to the trench. OSHA requires that these inspections are completed by a ‘competent person,’ someone with the knowledge to identify hazards in and around the excavation and who has the authority to promptly correct those hazards.
  5. When exposed to traffic, workers can prevent accidents by wearing highly visible clothing such as traffic safety vests.
  6. Educate workers on the dangers involved in excavation and on proper safety precautions. An affordable way to ensure workers receive thorough information is to use training videos and DVDs, such as In the Trenches: Excavation Safety for Workersthat provides detailed information on excavation regulations and safety for the construction industry.
  7. Never work beneath suspended loads of materials.
  8. When the trench is more than four feet deep, test atmospheric conditions before work begins. If tests reveal low oxygen, toxic gases, or hazardous fumes, no one should enter the trench.
  9. Create systems to protect workers and prevent collapses. Some of the most common and effective protective systems include:
  • Benching – Building steps into the sides of an excavation
    • Sloping – Angling the trench wall away from the excavationMany factors should be considered when designing trench systems, including the qualities of the soil, changes caused by weather or climate, materials that were taken out of or will be put into the trench, or other projects nearby. Planning and implementation of these systems should be done by a competent person.
  1. Provide safe entrances and exits to the trench. OSHA requires that ladders, steps, or ramps be used whenever a trench or excavation is more than four feet deep and that all employees work within 25 feet of these provisions at all times. When using ladders, they must extend a minimum of 3 feet above the surface of the trench.

Employers can help prevent injuries and deaths by frequently reminding workers of these guidelines and posting signs that stress the dangers of excavation. These warnings could be the difference between good and bad decision-making on the job site.

“No worker’s life should end in a trench,” explained Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor and occupational safety and health. “Cave-ins during excavations are some of the most common and grisliest causes of worker fatalities in construction, yet they are entirely preventable.” With proper training, procedures, and supplies, employers can help to prevent these accidents.

 

Credits for Article: Northern Safety and Industrial

Can You Answer This Question

Can you answer this question in one simple sentence?

It’s a very difficult question. I’m not asking what you do for a living, I’m asking you what you specialize in?

If a customer finds you on google and clicks on your website for the first time what do they see in the first few seconds? What do they feel? Do they just see a company that does excavating or do they see a company that specializes in excavation work?


Example:
Charles Schwab
 Defining what your company is in the market place is something that most companies fail to do. It doesn’t have to mean you pick one thing and forget the rest however. You can define your business in other areas like customer service. Below is an example of a company that defined itself well in an area that has nothing to do with it’s ability to physically solve financial problems. Charles Schwab offers investment services as well as online trading. For a number of year’s they lost focus, they lost touch of what they specialized in. In the last couple of year’s they have refocused, they decided to specialize. What Schwab realized is that every other company could do what they do. They realized they were offering a commodity.  Schwab made a marketing decision to specialize in “customer service”. They came to the conclusion that it was an area that they could excel at. It was an area the competition wasn’t doing a good job at, so they made the decision to occupy that space. Charles Schwab accomplished the task, the customer service they offer is unparalleled in the industry. It’s become a game to find an unhappy person who answers the phone. It doesn’t happen. This is the power of focus.

Summary The market place is crowded. To do well in business and maximize it’s potential you need to specialize in something that’s important to people. You need to do it well, you need to occupy this space in the market so nobody has a chance to claim it.  Once you defined your company by deciding what your specializing in. This is also known to some as a business model. The focused effort to define yourself is where the profit it. It’s also where the fun is. So, can you answer the question? Can you clearly define your business in one simple sentence? Does that sentence register well in the marketplace? Here is a test. If you can define your business in one simple sentence then take that sentence and put it right in the header of your website. If it really is good, if it really does define your business model then that’s easily the most valuable sentence on your website. It needs to be the first thing customers see.

Happy Birthday James

Happy Birthday! James you are the best! James is the most positive person and hard working man around. James is always on the go, it’s hard to keep up with him.  James always has a smile on his face and makes everyone around him feel special. From all of us at Creative Excavating we wish you the best birthday ever!

Summer Party

 

Another great year we got to celebrate with all of these peeps.  We couldn’t tell you how much we love and appreciate our crew. Hands down, we have the greatest group.  We did a summer company party in Mesquite at the Gun Range.   There was a tie between Les and Luke, Les came out with the win followed by Luke than Myron, which Myron had tied with James as well. It was bloody hot outside, so we thought we would slip over to the Casa Blanca pool and cool off, boy was that a treat after being in the 115 weather.  Lunch was great, pool was great and most of all, the crew was great.  What fun we had.  Thanks again workers for the phenomenal job you do at Creative Excavating.  All of you are talented, reliable, fun and great to be with, couldn’t be where were are without you!

Drain pipe digging in St. George, Utah

How To Backfill

Backfilling is the process of putting soil back inside a trench or in a foundation when the excavation has been completed. The backfill process requires skills and knowledge on the specifications, contract requirements and understanding soil conditions. Backfilling is used in tasks such as protecting landscaping, foundations or filling in the voids in underground structures. Every soil has unique characteristics requiring different construction techniques to ensure optimum performance.

Impact loading of the pipeline, shafts, structures, and appurtenances must be avoided during the placement of backfill. Backfilling can be done using the following techniques.

How to Compact Backfill in Trenches

This material is then compacted using some means such as a compactor on an excavator or a “jumping jack”-type compactor. Compact soils to not less than the percentages of maximum dry density as determined in accordance with ASTM D698, Method A (Standard Proctor). The soil lift will depend upon the nature of the backfill, and the compaction equipment to be used. Water may be added during the compaction process, to assist with compaction. The following steps are recommended:

  1. Backfill in layers of 4″-6″ (non-organic fill and clean of debris)
  2. Compact with a 1000lb compactor
  3. Water thoroughly
  4. Repeat first three steps

Credits for article  By Juan Rodriguez

Rock wall construction and property development

Monster RV Storage

Creative Excavating 12 Years

Creative Excavating has been in business 12 years !

Creative Excavating has been in business since 2005, 12 Years has been great for us at Creative Excavating. We would like to Thank our customers for making our business a success. We pride ourselves in our commitment to exceeding our customer’s prompt expectations, innovative and dependable.

5 Tips to Maintain Your Heavy Machinery

Tip 1

Always keep your machinery lubricated.

Tip 2

Make sure your machinery is clean.

Tip 3

Proper maintenance and scheduled maintenance on your machinery.

Tip 4

Pay attention to wear and tear.

Tip 5

Train your employees on your machinery and keep them updated with any changes on operating equipment.

Excavator

 

Excavators  (Hydraulic Excavators) are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the “house”.[1] The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression from the steam shovels and often mistakenly called power shovels. All movement and functions of a hydraulic excavator are accomplished through the use of hydraulic fluid, with hydraulic cylinders and hydraulic motors.[2] Due to the linear actuation of hydraulic cylinders, their mode of operation is fundamentally different from cable-operated excavators which use winches and steel ropes to accomplish the movements.

Excavators are also called diggers, JCBs[4] (a proprietary name, in an example of a generic trademark), mechanical shovels, or 360-degree excavators (sometimes abbreviated simply to 360). Tracked excavators are sometimes called “trackhoes” by analogy to the backhoe.[5] In the UK, wheeled excavators are sometimes known as “rubber ducks

 

 

Credits for Article: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia