Concrete 1- Gavin Two Tylenol & Jim Beam

[freejuice]

Today I bent and welded up the rebar to the 8 16mm anchor bolts for my tilt base.

 Then I mixed and poured 37 80lb bags of concrete, from a wheelbarrow into the 4x4x2 foot hole I quickly nicknamed the "Abyss"

 I'm really surprised how much concrete a hole this size can eat! Something on the order of 3000 lbs! I ran the hole size through a concrete estimator I found online and it was correct, so I really wasnt surprised by the numbers, however when you get to mixing this much by hand in a wheelbarrow with a hoe, you have done a days work!

 The rebar cage I made up went down in the "abyss"  and sat on two concrete blocks and  about 4 more blocks I randomly placed in there to help control the appetite of this beast!

Now to move onto the anchor points... I've got to go call 1-800-cry-baby

[97fishmt]

Hi I feel for ya.

I did about the same thing last summer, except I chose to use the 95lb bags of cement

and had to go and get 3-4 times as much gravel and sand from the hill slides into the lake.  I think it was 24 bags and 3 truck loads of sand & gravel.  Plus I had to hall water, a couple hundred gallons, this was all in 90 degree heat.

I didn't do it in one day though, over a couple weeks.  10 hour days is a bitch doing concrete all day.

But I hear you that's hard work.  You can't dilly dally you have to keep it wet

and prod and hammer or vibrate a lot to keep it consistent. I'm having a beer with ya

thinking about the rewards when you get er done! Wish you luck with your turbine raising!

[Volvo farmer]

Having mixed up some 80# bags myself, I feel for ya. I think my record is about 20 bags though.

I wonder on a project of this size... Have you compared the cost of bringing a truck out to the cost of so many bags? There has to be a point in cubic yards where it only costs a few bucks more to watch the concrete come down the chute.

Oh, and I don't know your terrain, but around here, there's river rock laying all over the top of the ground. I usually go fetch a few wheelbarrows worth and make a pile, then throw them in at random whenever pouring some concrete. Rocks are cheaper than Quickcrete!

[Rover]

At that point you would have probably been better off getting few yards of sand and stone, and buying some portland cement and mixing your own. It 2/3 the cost typically. Rent or buy a 3 CU foot mixer, makes life a lot easier.. I have a mixer, does multiple duties.. including mixing seed with soil

[freejuice]

Hi Folks,

 I had 6- 8x8x16 inch concrete blocks left over from another project around the hous and tossed them into the abyss.

 I also recently named this place the "Mud flat" we've had a ton of rain the last few weeks and the guy who was clearing all these pine trees out has had his dozer and trackhoe on site for about 2-3 months now...no sooner does it dry out, then it rains another frog strangler again!

 He's almost finished with his job...he gave me a great price on clearing the place out, but I have to be willing to work around his schedule, and he comes out here( weather permitting) and piddles around on weekends and goes back to making serious money commercially than by residential stuff....he calls projects like mine "mad money".

But with all this rain, everything is taking on the appearance of some of our SC low country tidal flats.

 The concrete I picked up at "Lowes"( one of those home improvement places) for about 3.65 a bag.

Maybe I should have went cement and mixed my own rock, however easy access to rock is not plentiful around here, It would have to been delivered from a rock quarry ...river sand yes is plentiful, rocks lying around, not too many.but we make up for this sohrtcoming with dense clay soil to the center of the earth...seriously you can dig down 30 feet, 50 feet, even deeper and the dense clay remains the same.

I kind of shied away from the concrete truck, because it was getting muddy around here...the guy clearing the trees told me they will royally screw up the ground around here with thier weight(since my whole area looks like a recently plowed field) and if you get them stuck, the customer foots the bill for a large wrecker to pull them out... I'm too cheap for that route!

If things would dry out for a moment I would get the four guy areas dug and let the concrete truck have at it...around here they are charging about 125-150 bucks a cubic yard now.

 But you guys are right! There is a law of diminishing returns when you mix large batches of concrete by hand vs operating the chute behind the truck or owning your own mixer!

[thirteen]

I have a little different problem but still requires the hand mixing of cement. I bought a house back in the sticks that was biult upon stacked rocks, no real foundation anywhere but the price was right. I get 6, 5 gallon buckets and mix the sand and rock in each bucket and when I go up to the place I can just add water and portland cement and mix it a little at a time. I use the cardboard cylinders for my new supports for the house. A regular footing would be to much to mix by hand and not enough room and large rocks are down 12 to 14 inches. I have to mix it then crawl under the house with a one bucket then put it in by hand. Plus to get a cement truck (8yds)would cost me around $72.oo per hour 5 hour drive one way plus the cost of the cement. The closest place is 56 miles away and where the house is it takes about 1 1/2 hours from the county road then(7miles)of 4 wheel drive. One slip and it would stop about 1200 feet down hill on about 2/3's of the road. Single lane none graveled road and not very safe for a large truck that would be top heavey. But I will be out of city life and off grid in 715 days, retirement in 714 days and counting down. A cold beer in my hand and a generlized common salute to this life and I'll take my International Pickup Truck and be gone.  Just a little worthless information from me.

[DamonHD]

Just make sure that you keep your Internet connection to this board!

Rgds

Damon

[thirteen]

Yes that is my plan but at this time there is no contact with the outside world unless I go about 1400 feet up the mountian with a solar sattilite phone booster station.$$$$ No cell phone reception no TV 2 radion stations only in the afternoon. no traffic. The mountinas are steep but quiet. Semi isolated, a small year round creek, large 4 bdr house, timbered 60 a., cook with wood and heat with wood. snow in the winter (4000ft) elevation good hunting but the best part is no close nieghbors, no power, your nieghbors are good people. 714 days