Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Another Brick in the Wall
Roughly, there are 120 bricks in our new wall as we continue to renovate the 8th tee box. Over the last two months, we've removed 7 pine trees, some oleanders, and a bunch of old and dangerous railroad ties. Our latest work utilized some recycled, stackable blocks that were pulled from a tree well that no longer had a tree on #12. These are very easy to install, especially after finishing the lowest row of blocks.
We started by excavating along the cart path and removing any leftover roots from the oleanders. A trench was prepared where we wanted the blocks to go and we picked the lowest point to begin the foundation. We used some pea gravel we had on site to set the blocks and spent a lot of time getting each one perfectly level.
As we continued up the path, the row of blocks would sink below the level of the cart path and we would discontinue that row and start the next one up. Once we had a couple of levels complete, we poured some gravel behind the wall and laid down a perforated drainage pipe. The pipe was backfilled with gravel within 10 inches of the surface and topped with soil.
We intentionally positioned the wall away from the cart path to expand the driving width. To fill in the gap, we used one of my favorite materials, decomposed granite. It will pack down nearly as hard as concrete while still providing adequate drainage.
My favorite part of this little project is the use of old bricks which have some character. There are shades of green, brown, red and a few that still look like the original gray. The brand new wall looks like it's been there for awhile.
Everything we used on this project we already had on property, so the cost was labor only. The rest of this tee complex will need some work including the stairs, the other side of the retaining wall, landscaping, and tee leveling. With the Green Committee's approval, we decided this was a good place to start, especially when there was no added cost.
The staff loves a project like this to break the monotony of raking up leaves, mowing around wet spots, and waiting for frost delays. Five days in and we've completed our first project for 2011 with many more to come. Happy New Year!!!!
We started by excavating along the cart path and removing any leftover roots from the oleanders. A trench was prepared where we wanted the blocks to go and we picked the lowest point to begin the foundation. We used some pea gravel we had on site to set the blocks and spent a lot of time getting each one perfectly level.
As we continued up the path, the row of blocks would sink below the level of the cart path and we would discontinue that row and start the next one up. Once we had a couple of levels complete, we poured some gravel behind the wall and laid down a perforated drainage pipe. The pipe was backfilled with gravel within 10 inches of the surface and topped with soil.
We intentionally positioned the wall away from the cart path to expand the driving width. To fill in the gap, we used one of my favorite materials, decomposed granite. It will pack down nearly as hard as concrete while still providing adequate drainage.
My favorite part of this little project is the use of old bricks which have some character. There are shades of green, brown, red and a few that still look like the original gray. The brand new wall looks like it's been there for awhile.
Everything we used on this project we already had on property, so the cost was labor only. The rest of this tee complex will need some work including the stairs, the other side of the retaining wall, landscaping, and tee leveling. With the Green Committee's approval, we decided this was a good place to start, especially when there was no added cost.
The staff loves a project like this to break the monotony of raking up leaves, mowing around wet spots, and waiting for frost delays. Five days in and we've completed our first project for 2011 with many more to come. Happy New Year!!!!
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