Today we will finish taking out the swimming pool deck (removing the nails
and stacking the redwood boards for reuse), and remove the pool’s plastic
liner. The soils engineer and the pool filling contractor have
been by and we are in discussions as to what it will take to
fill an 8 foot deep hole such that a 24 ton
caboose with
rails and ties can rest on top.
Last year, we had to take out out a large, useful, and elegant brick patio
because it sank eight inches due to poor soil compaction. The patio
had been put in by the prior owner around 1990 after the
Loma Prieta earthquake seriously damaged our house. It was built
on top of fill over the ramp where the basement was dug out. Over
time, the concrete pad under the bricks cracked and the pieces subsided.
One of the larger pieces tipped toward the house and started pouring
rainwater down the outside of the basement wall causing it to sweat
inside and making puddles on the floor. After we removed the patio,
we found a three foot deep hole underneath. So, we have good reason
to want the caboose to be on very solid fill.
It rained very heavily last night and there is snow halfway down Mount
Hamilton so today’s work will be cold and drippy. We hope to start
the contractor working on filling the pool next week.
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