Paperwork day

     After meetings yesterday, I had realized there were quite a few loose ends to tie up before I went to the island with a crew. This may be a good time to introduce you to the key players in the office. Dan the owner, who has been involved a lot with this job because of the logistics, Jim, is involved in most of the jobs, doing the work most people don't want to do. Jim's job is one of those jobs that is unappreciated, until someone has not done it. So, let me say here and now Jim, "thank you for your help." There is Steve who priced the job, and knows all about our scope of work. Julie, who is probably fed up with printing this, printing that, calling for ferry arrangements, and of course hotel arrangements. There are others I will mention as the job goes on, and their rolls come into play.

     So, a day of paperwork, "how much can there be," you ask. The site specific specs, a 100 page pile of crap, JHA's or Job Hazard Analysis, submittals, MSDS or Material Safety Data Sheets, manufacturer's data sheets on different products, also crap. I could go on, but you get the picture.

     Emails, we freakin love emails, and, everyone loves to CC everyone. I received or sent 20 or 30 emails today. Some were useful, ferry arrangements for the rep. from our concrete supplier on Thursday, rebar delivery on Friday, job trailer and Marcelino and his flatbed on Monday and a storage box on Tuesday, done. Sounds easy enough but, that includes phone calls to clear up confusing emails, resending forms that were not filled out correctly, good god, give me my tool pouch and nails any day. Let's not forget the countless phone calls, 20, 30 or more, I don't know. The good news, I go out there tomorrow with a small crew to get started, finally!

     Now here is the good stuff, the reason I believe I was chosen for the job. I like puzzles! I have a job to do, to get this job done in a timely fashion, done correctly, and make PVC money. There are two parts to this job, the foundation and the floors. We have a budget for ferries, and I need to leave  the lion share of the budget for the floors. Total concrete for the job, around 1500 yds. I say around because we seemed to have misplaced the figures on yardage for the concrete roof, but I have little to do with that anyhow. What is my part, is the foundation, which I have 507 yards of concrete to pour, and have 245 man days or 1960 man hours to do it in, and leave the most of the ferry budget for the slabs.

      Lets start dissecting the puzzle. A man day is one man for one day, am looking for an 8-9 man crew. Let us say 9.  245 man days now means, 28 days on the job with a 9 man crew. After seeing the drawings, both Dan and myself thought it would take two to two and a half months to complete the job. Well, there is a problem right there.  Maybe Dan and I are wrong, maybe the 245 man days is wrong, or a little of each? Next piece, the concrete, 507 yards to complete my part of the job. One ferry option is free, but can only carry one truck at a time, once an hour. The other option is hire a ferry for $10,000 a day, but can take five trucks at a time, about every hour. Eleven yards will fit in the truck, so a little more than 46 trucks, lets say 50. I need to get 50 trucks on and off the island by ferry, using as little of the ferry budget as possible,  in somewhere around 30 days, one truck at a time for free, or multiple trucks at a time for $10,000 a day, and do it during high tide, in the middle of the winter, wow! I need to give this more thought, can anyone say, "regression analysis?" For now, I need to pack clothes and food for the hotel. Tomorrow we begin.