[Tyson Carroll]

Paul,

Also consider maintenance requirements. While I like the use of stone fruit consider the surrounding concrete and if any dropping fruit will cause any aesthetic issue. At your size constraints you are limited and might be more inline with a large shrubs verse tree. Some of the smaller crapes could work, Dr. Hurd Manzanita, Mexican Redbud (if you can find it), forest pansy red bud, or there are some scrub oaks coming into production at the moment.

Jamie is correct in that the planter will need some sort of drainage. If that is not possible you  will have to have a soil set up similar to a roof top garden and a irrigation system that can be controlled with moisture sensors as not to over water.

While the RWS have there uses they do not encourage roots to go downward contrary to what the manuf. states. In your case something with a gph emitter like a tree ring or point source emitters would be better so you have more control over the water.

That set up should be on its own valve and program as well.

Best regards,

[Tyson Carroll]

Twine and burlap should be removed as Robert mentions. Regarding warranty of the plant as it relates to the LC, it all depends on what is written in the docs and specs. Some project require root shaving or corrections by the LC other simply reject plants that arrive onsite that do not meet spec.

As rob mentions too many plants coming out of the nurseries have poor roots systems both for b&b and container. Containers have more opportunities for root defects. Root defects can be dealt with through corrections but requires more time and a client who values plants. It is easier to get a better grown plant than to get a contractor on board with corrections. More LA’s need to inspect and or reject plants from the job site and nurseries need to do a better job with production. It is getting better but change is slow.

UTF in collaboration with Dr. Ed Gilman, Jim Urban, CDF and the ISA put out specs and details for planting. A part of that deals with plant observation and plant corrections. Free to download and use. http://www.urbantree.org.

[Tyson Carroll]

Candace,

I cannot speak for RainCad so I am not familiar with its application. In searching online it appears to offer basic irrigation design items and elements. We have both AutoCad and Land FX with the Irrigation FX as well. Both operate well together or Land FX on its own. I think the total Land FX subscription is going to offer you a much superior product than what you are currently getting. It takes a little while to get up to speed (as does any software) but once you are acclimated you can start to tear through your construction or schematic plans. Their webinars are a great tool as is their online forum and the tech support is very good. The cost can seem steep up front but once your on subscription it is very affordable.  If you do enough design work I would tell you that if you are not using land fx your wasting your money.

[Tyson Carroll]

Elaine our specifications did not cover retaining walls but they are definitely boiler plate and have been vetted through a review process cover soils, planting, irrigation, and tree protection. You can download them and their associated details at the ISA website or ours. http://www.urbantree.org.

[Tyson Carroll]

We receive this comment all of the time in Ca in regards to mulch flooding over into paved areas. As long as the finished grade of the planting area is 1-2″ below the adjacent paving, mulch is a thicker/coarser mix, and the slope of the PA is low mulch will not migrate unless of an irrigation break, severe severe flooding, or general vandalism. We typically place 4-8″ and then taper at the walk edges the 1-2″ below adjacent paving acts as a back stop to mulch migrating.

To answer your question it is not standard but it sounds like a request from a lack of general understanding.

[Tyson Carroll]

What is around the bike path? Planting area, pavement, AC? Who is the project for public or private? Is the path intended to meander or is it a straight shot? What is the average rainfall per year in the area? Is it intended for mikes only or will emergency access or maintenance vehicles need to use it potentially?

[Tyson Carroll]

Cad on  a mac using a vm is the same as a pc. 

[Tyson Carroll]

Problem can be solved by running through a virtual machine like vm ware or boot camp. The cost will be comparable with mac being somewhat higher but not bad. As Andrew alluded to this falls into the larger debate of Macs vs. PC’s. Like anything there are pros and cons. Just make sure that whatever you decide to go with that the specs for the hardware and video card match what AutoCad needs to run it. 

But yes AutoCad does run the same on a mac but you have to run it through a virtual machine. It is another step but after set up you don’t really notice. 

[Tyson Carroll]

Depends on what you are trying to get out of the program. I do not have much experience with Landmark but am a user of Land FX and thoroughly enjoy the program and believe it is a huge time saver on the design side of things. The staff there is also very helpful and updates the program based upon the users suggestions and comments which makes its evolution user based. 

That being said my company operates much like a design build firm so my first question is what are you looking for specifically?

From the procurement side of things I have found the auto population for plant counts, material counts, and units most helpful, plus it has the ability to correlate counts to symbols as not to leave anyone out.  From the irrigation side of things the ability of the program to generate pipe lengths is fantastic but seeing as how irrigation is diagrammatic it won’t be exact and is typically on the high side once you get into the field. 

If yall do have to bid parts or components of the project it makes getting the quantities to the bidder very efficient. 

Hope that helps. 

[Tyson Carroll]

5 x 5 is fairly typical and the size is fine for smaller trees but larger shade growing trees can pose problems. 

What size of tree are you specifying? The grate that you select should have an opening that can be enlarged to allow for the calipher to grow in size. 

Grates cost with angle iron 1300-3200. With installation you are looking between 3000 and 4000. 

But please be aware if installed incorrectly, species selected is incorrect,  or soil preparation done wrong the tree will suffer and potentially will fail. 

Best of luck. 

[Tyson Carroll]

Alot depends on what you are looking for specifically. 

– how big of a grate are you using?

– what type of tree are you specifying?

– will you be installing staking for the trees that can connect to the grates?

– what type of installation will you be installing?

– Is the project public or private?

– are the grates aboslutely necessary for ADA purposes?

The challenge you are going to have that if the incorrect factors fall into place the installation of the grate can cause the decline of the tree or even kill it. Or the growth of the tree will affect the grate to the point where it will need to be removed. 

[Tyson Carroll]

As long as the pump can kick the system on and off w/o the controller you are ok. The downside of not having it tied to a controller is that if does not turn on there will be no alarm to communicate there is an issue. 

[Tyson Carroll]

Yes you would think that but a main line break at 1 in the morning may not get noticed until 7. 6 hours of a mainline break running is a lot of water at 4 inches. Plus 4″ mains are notorious for popping of using PVC connection. Steel fittings are highly recommended as are saddles at your valves. 

Whether or not you have tried it the city’s preferred system will required meter’s fs/mv, power, and controllers is going to cost at least $40,000 more than a two-wire system and that is not including the labor for the wiring. 

In thinking about it further you might need multiple booster pumps regardless depending your available PSI since the pump will need to be tied into the controller or tie a central controller to the bp to turn on during your water window. 

What your describing could be done for $13,000-14,000 with 2-wire. 

Good luck!

[Tyson Carroll]

Talk about making a complicated system even more complicated. Just out of curiosity why does your city not want 2 wire systems? 

1. Yes but that depends on where your booster pumps is located in relationship to the sub POC’s. You also might look into hydrometers in lieu of flow sensor master valves. They are more expensive but are an all in one item and saves cost in labor and layout. 

2. You would have to have another controller in order to shut off the system. 

3. That is the route you will need to go depending on your answer to question 1. 

The issue you are going to have with the parameters that you have been given is that it has been made a greater possibility that there will be cross programming on the controllers and multiple systems will try to run at the system time or on the other hand a break could occur before your fs/mv causing greater issues. 

For each controller and mv you will have to set a high flow limit. That number will depend on your critical loss calcs and should be set not to exceed that amount. The controllers will also need to be able to communicate to a central and be programmed so that maintenance contractors do not have the ability to adjust the controllers. Communication to a central is needed to controllers are programmed to work together not against each other. 

Truth be told the simplest and cheaper method would to go to a 2-wire system. 

[Tyson Carroll]

True. Here were the specs 

Core I7

8 GB RAM

512 GB SSD

1 gb or 2gb video card

27″ display

I was off by my numbers. The difference was 20% mac higher than a PC but I added 8 more gb of ram and got a laptop verse desktop. 

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