Excavation Pictures

Excavation for the garage was completed on 2/24. This picture shows how the area has been cleared, the garage has been dug, and the base for the driveway is in place.

This is looking down the driveway with the garage to the left. The driveway will loop around the garage to the left and return to the main portion of the driveway/road.



The picture below is a wider view from the road towards the building site.




The next picture shows the detail of the excavation, once you get about 2 feet down, you reach shale rock and you can see the layers. The shale is easily crushed and the layers separate easily as well. This shale is being used to form the base of the driveway and becomes a very solid base, later, some gravel will be spread on top of the shale to finish the driveway but for now, this will be a solid surface for the large trucks and other excavators to ride on.








The next shot shows just a few of the many dirt piles that have been made so far- this is considered "top soil" in WV and was moved out of the way for now but will later be used to backfill around the house and garage to support some limited plantings. We're told we're going to end up with a few large piles of shale when we're done, we'll have this moved to somewhere that it can be used for updating roads and paths. All the roads have been completed so far using only the shale that came from the garage dig, they haven't even started the main house yet so should have plenty of shale to work with.

The last picture is looking from the excavation site back to the north, along the road/driveway that leads to the build site. The garage will be to the left and you can see the new, shale base rock that has been spread to complete the driveway back towards the main entrance. The main gravel road from the edge of the property to the point where the trailer is sitting is about 1,600 feet long, will have plenty of work to take care of it and keep it plowed as needed!

Next trip to the site will be this weekend, the house excavation should be completed by then and put the builders in position to start forming the foundation.