Planet 67 gets under way...

[Mac]

Yeehaw! :bang

I wish I was there... :cry

-Mac

 

[67HEAVEN]

I wish I was there... :cry

-Mac

Yeah. We could use your muscle to smack the concrete into place, Mac. But, I've got three guys lined up already. The locals love playing in the dirt.

There's a possibility of rain for Saturday, but I've placed a delivery order anyway. I poured the footings at our last place in the rain. Once you get down and dirty, in the hole, who cares if it rains? I just picked up some 6mil plastic that I'll cut into 30" wide strips for after the pour.

Damn, I'm getting good at this foundation thing. Once every eight years and I passed inspection both times. otfl

Any suggestions on how long to let the footings cure before laying block? Speaking of which, 12 pallets of 8" block are going to be dropped in my backyard (via the farm field) early next week. I'd better slow down............I think I'm getting a nosebleed. :W

 

[Dirtfarmer]

We routinely come in and lay block the day after pouring the footings.

We use the 8 inch "H" block for our walls. Any wall over 4 feet gets built and filled in 4 ft increments. This is to insure that all of the cells are completely filled with concrete.

Here's where the curing part is important. I've seen filled block walls come down when they were backfilled too soon (the day after filling the cells). For retaining walls, we like to wait 30 days for the concrete to cure to the point that it's strong enough to hold. If you are going to backfill the trench after the block work, be sure to do it evenly so that there is equal force on both sides.

Hope this helps.

 

[67HEAVEN]

Dirt!

Yes, that helps quite a bit.

Since there's no basement, the block foundation will be 64" (5' 4") around the walls, but only 4' at the overhead and man doors. As said earlier, this is to elevate the structure to allow room to get larger trucks fully up on the lift.

If the mason can get all the way around in one day, do you think going the extra two blocks that day will pose a problem?

Thanks for the advice on backfill timing and going up evenly side to side. I wouldn't have thought to wait as long as 30 days. I think what I'll do is wait a week or so and then backfill half way on both sides (coming up 1/4-a-side at a time). At that point, I'll let it settle for a week or two, then go around with a jumping jack before filling the rest. How does that sound? :confused

Thanks.
Bob

 

[Dirtfarmer]

You can go a little higher on your wall, you just have to take the extra time to make sure all of the cells are filled when you add concrete. We have a big concrete vibrator that we run down the cells to help move the concrete around.

This may not be a problem for you if your not using steel in you wall. The concrete should have a straight shot to the base of the block work.

Since you will be backfilling both sides of the wall, you probably will be fine fine compacting the soil after a couple of weeks. Just dont let the compactor hit your blockwork. FWIW, I don't recall ever using a compactor to backfill.

By the way, the wall that I saw come down, the guys were compacting the backfill with a small tractor. Again, it was a retaining wall with all of the fill weight pushing against the back side of the wall.

 

[67HEAVEN]

Thanks for the advice, Dirtfarmer.

The reason I'll be compacting the backfill (inside and out) is that the garage I built eight years ago (at my former home) never settled in the slightest (inside our outside the foundation), whereas my neighbour's garage did settle and he gets a large crack in the brick from top to bottom at the front of the garage every winter. He didn't compact.

I also used three re-bar bundles (six per bundle) spread from side-to-side across the gravel with the ends shoved into holes pick-axed into the concrete block walls prior to pouring the floor. I think I could have parked a Sherman tank in there.

They're still calling for rain on Saturday morning, but I'm so stoked........bring it on.

 

[67HEAVEN]

Got the stakes cut off flush this afternoon. Had to make room for running wheelbarrows full of concrete up and down the length of the forms.

I forgot to show you the rock we found during the excavation.

Nothing left to do until the truck arrives tomorrow morning....

:bang

 

[67HEAVEN]

Well, it was a very successful pour that took about 1.5 hours. Even the weather cooperated.

Afterwards, it was pizza and a few beers for the boys.

=========================
Here's how it went.......

 

[67HEAVEN]

And, poof, the truck was gone.........

 

[Mac]

Although the truck is gone, I see he left his mark.

Looks like everything is going extremely well! Congrats again!!

-Mac

 

[67HEAVEN]

Looks like everything is going extremely well! Congrats again!!

-Mac

Thanks, Mac. Although the dispatcher said they'd send an extra 1/4 cubic metre, I don't think he did. We were short. Or, maybe they messed up the conversion from my Imperial measurements. Or, maybe it was because the driver's remote control failed to shut off the flow one time and we had overflow concrete all over the ground around a wheelbarrow. Yep......remote control. Those new rigs have everything.

Anyway, while some of us were screeding it off, I sent two guys to buy 10 bags of cement from the local building supply. Turns out, however, after all the leveling, we only needed one of those bags. So, now, I've got the cement I'll need for the concrete bed I want to lay down to stack firewood on.

Next step: block foundation....hopefully late next week. :bang

 

[Mac]

Yep......remote control. Those new rigs have everything.

I'm not sure that's such a great innovation if it ends up putting your concrete on the ground instead of where you wanted it.

-Mac

 

[67HEAVEN]

I'm not sure that's such a great innovation if it ends up putting your concrete on the ground instead of where you wanted it.

-Mac

Yeah. He was just a young gaffer who got to drive the "new" truck because he was the junior guy who had to work on Saturday. He had been happy to tell me all about how great a truck it was, but he suddenly felt terrible when he couldn't shut off the flow.

I heard all this commotion behind me and turned to see concrete falling all over the ground. The wheelbarrow was so full, no one could move it out of the way of the flow. :W

The driver jumped across the trench and ran to the cab to shut it off. Then, he helped us shovel it all into the trench. He kept apologizing, but I said, "Relax....nobody's upset. These things happen."

 

[67HEAVEN]

Luckily, "The Boss" caught all the action with the camera.

There he is climbing into the cab to shut off the flow.

 

[67HEAVEN]

Steve is a mechanic at an auto shop here in town where all the hotrods hang out. I'll sneak in tomorrow morning and hang this on the office wall.

 

[Mac]

Steve is a mechanic at an auto shop here in town where all the hotrods hang out. I'll sneak in tomorrow morning and hang this on the office wall.

So why do the hotrods hang around there? Do they have really good coffee?

-Mac

 

[67HEAVEN]

So why do the hotrods hang around there? Do they have really good coffee?

-Mac

No coffee. The hotrod guys hang around because other hotrod guys hang around and they all check out the work on each other's cars.

 

[Mac]

No coffee. The hotrod guys hang around because other hotrod guys hang around and they all check out the work on each other's cars.

That explains why you're looking for a project. It's fun to look but you're not part of the gang unless you're getting grease under your fingernails regularly.

-Mac

 

[67HEAVEN]

Yep.

 

[MsSchroder]

Steve is a mechanic at an auto shop here in town where all the hotrods hang out. I'll sneak in tomorrow morning and hang this on the office wall.