We use for the first time, our new tool! It is a vibrator to help settle the
concrete down and knock out any pockets of air. It is very noisy but really
does the job!
Author: Shaun
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Concrete Vibrator
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Concrete Filling Begins on Back Wall
This afternoon, we began the task of filling up 101 hollow columns in the
back wall of the retaining wall of the swimming lane.We got things organised and place the newly created platforms and ramp in
place to take up the wheelbarrow loads of concrete.We are using pea sized ballast to get the concrete to wiggle down the tight columns that has a reinforcing rod up the middle as well as layers of horizontal steel rods every two layers of blockwork.
The vibrator machine is very good for knocking the pocket air out and make
sure we got a solidly packed column of good quality concrete.We filled nearly 2 columns, learning how to get the mixture up and tilted
into the tops of the blocks, how long to mix the concrete (3 large builders
buckets of ballast, about 40litres, against a smaller bucket of cement,
about 8.5 litres, to make a half load in the mixer plus about 6 litres of
water)Tomorrow, we can really get a routine going with 4 wheelbarrows to take the
load of a completely full mixer (a whole bag of cement and 6 buckets), run
them up and emptied into four columns and repeat. We can hope to do about 15
columns per hour, so about 6 or 7 hours to do the 101 columns in total.
First-Two-Columns-Filled
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Mini Trolley Met Big Bad Truck!
OOPS! The dumper truck has just ran over our poor little platform trolley!
We were reversing the truck to gain room and straighten up, in order to move
the load of concrete blocks that has been sitting in the skip for the last
few days.We had been using the mini trolley to transport a few blocks at a time
because the dumper truck’s starter button wasn’t working (see (see Dumper Truck Repaired) and we parked the trolley back
over near the concrete blocks behind the truck!!
Run-Over-Trolley-3
Run-Over-Trolley-1
Run-Over-Trolley-2
It was amazing that the dumper’s huge tyres didn’t really feel anything and
actually rode over on top of the trolley and of course completely flatten
it!! Three of the wheels are now rather bent, two of them completely broken
off the trolley, but it seems that the basic framework is still in good
shape (literally!) but we will see when we bring the poor thing into our
garage for a closer inspection! -
Platform and Ramp
The platform and Ramp is now ready for helping us get the concrete into the
“hollow tubes” in the wall.The ramp is 12 feet long as we found that having only 8 feet produced a “too
steep” angle on the ramp while trying to push up two concrete blocks as
samples of the kind of weight we will be struggling to get up!!It is much easier with the extra 4 foot extension!
Ramp
Modules-and-Ramp
Tipping-Barrow-on-Platform
Barrow-going-up-Ramp
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Snow Stops Play!
We woke up to a thin layer of snow on some of the raised objects (off the wet ground) where it didn’t melt. The temperature is hovering around the freezing point, which is not good for concrete. So we wait for the warmer spell that is supposed to be coming soon!
Snowy-Ballast
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High Platforms x 4
This afternoon, we built 4 wooden platforms to help with the next stage of
pouring concrete down the hollow columns in the ball wall of the swimming
lane.In order to make them as mobile as possible and also fit into the gap
between the diagonal struts, we made them 450mm by 550mm oblong modules so
they can be joined together in different arrangements.They are 1330mm high (4 feet 4 inches) to reach the top of the 6 rows of the
concrete blocks.We will use a 8 foot long ramp, or maybe a 12 foot long one, depending on
where the position is and how much soil there is heaped up near the swimming
lane.We probably keep these platforms for other jobs in the main house when we
need to get up high somewhere.
Tall-Platform-Modules
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Starter Button Fixed!
The truck now starts! We have Noise and Action again!
The wire had corroded and come off the connector to the starter button
circuit. We conclude that there is enough conduction when rain gets in, with
the 12V and the differences of the metals (copper wire soldered (lead and
tin) onto a brass spade terminal connector), to allow the copper to
“oxidise” and turn into dust.We had already started coating other joints with the plumber’s LSX to
provide a waterproof protection, but this one was an old joint and we had
missed it! -
Ballast Arrived!
Our 13 tons of 10mm crushed ballast arrived today, in two separate loads of
4 tons and 9 tons!
13Tons-of-10mm-Ballast
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Fifth Row Completed and Sixth Row half Done!
Today, we finished off the 5th row and did as much of the 6th row we can do.
That is another 38 blocks used! This is a total of 289½ blocks we have laid
down these last couple of weeks!!The next job is to mix up concrete to pour down into each of the hollow
columns.
Row-5-Done-and-6th-As-far-as-possible-2
Row-5-Done-and-6th-As-far-as-possible-1
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Thirteen Tons of Ballast Ordered!
Today, we ordered 13 tons of 10mm gravel and sharp sand ballast. This is the
quantity we think we need to make the concrete to fill up all the columns in
our hollow blocks we have been building the walls with.Each “column” will need about 18 to 20 litres of concrete, depending on
whether it is 5 blocks high or 6. We can mix a medium sized load in the
mixer using a half bag of cement and 40 litres of the ballast.
