Solar Power: Days 1 and 2

So here we are at the end of October. After super long delays with the contractor for the pergola construction has finally begun. The past two days have been digging holes for the footings and then pouring concrete into the cardboard form tubes. I forgot to get a picture of this but honestly there isn’t anything worth photographing yet. However I do feel insanely bad for the one young guy they had digging all four holes. I was told the contractor had an emergency situation where a tree had fallen on another client’s brand new raised deck just two days before everything was to be wrapped up, and as such they sent the only person available. But this 20-something kid dug each hole around sixteen inches in diameter and went down forty eight inches to get below the frost line and he did all of that with just a shovel and a post hole digger (plus a circular saw and a diamond blade for the one footing that went in my existing pool deck). Maybe I can get him a gift certificate to a massage therapist or a chiropractor…

As far as my design plans go, not much to dive into just yet. If you’ve looked up concrete footings for northern climates what I’m doing is no different. Everything is sized based on the post size (8x8) and as mentioned the footings go down a full four feet to get below the frost line which is forty two inches, and the whole thing is reinforced with metal rebar. On a side note, it is not lost on me that the number forty two has popped up multiple times in this project. But the one thing that is different with my pergola structure is that not only does it need to be built and anchored to withstand preferably 100MPH windspeeds (I’ve observed a few occasions with gusts over 60MPH since moving to Michigan nearly five years ago) but it also needs to be anchored down (emphasis on the word “down”) to the ground because the solar panels will act like a giant wind sail and would subject the pergola to lifting forces. I’ve seen videos of tornadoes taking entire roofs and sending them flying into the distance, but seeing it happen and having it happen to you are as different as two things can possibly get. I prefer to have my solar panels where I want them, thank you very much.

The first day construction was sighting everything, dismantling my pool’s fence where the pergola will go, unloading materials for the concrete footings, and then digging the holes. Since the aforementioned lonesome poor soul was working with just hand tools, this is all that was accomplished.

Today had three people working plus a fourth bringing in bagged concrete. After yesterday’s work was complete there was ton of rain throughout the night. To the crew’s credit, they did cover the holes with plastic and weights in an attempt to keep everything dry, but alas clay and the sheer amount of water coming down had other plans, so much of the first few hours was spent using a sump pump to pump out the holes that were now more than half full of water. Literally some seriously messy business. If I were in their position I would have hopped on the roof of my car and gone through the car wash with the hot wax turned off.

The second half of today saw the installation of the concrete form tubes, pouring of concrete and rebar installation, and then backfill of the holes outside of the tubes. Once everything was smoothed on top and the final checks were done, the only left to do is wait for the concrete to cure, so with that everyone called it a day. I’m told they’ll be back in two days to resume work pending an inspection of the footings. The weather forecast for the next week looks clear, which is a nice reprieve after Hurricane Ian screwed things up pretty well for construction the last two weeks.

Halloween’s in a couple of days. Time to pick some apples and pumpkins. :)