Moon High over Forms and Foliage
Something is wrong with this picture. What I am showing here is how the forms come together for our retaining wall pour. The wall curves around what used to be the atrium in our old farm house. The forms are 4′ wide by 4′ high right there but on the outside of the curve they must be longer so we had to shim the outside of the curve with 2×4’s to make those forms just a little longer. Then we used LedgerLock screws to join the forms to each other. The forms are held to the opposing form on the other side of the pour by 5/8″ threaded steel rods 32″ on center that penetrate 2×6 brace boards on either side of the form work.
The header boards at the top also hold the forms together as well as making it easier to get the concrete in the narrow wall. This was a 3″ thick by 4′ tall retaining wall. That’s very thin. There is lots of 661010 Welded Wire Mesh (WWM) in it as well as #4 (1/2″) rebar along the top and bottom and it has steel pins connecting it to the old wall. In fact, I used up a lot of my scrap WWM in this wall. With that and its curve I am sure it is secure. When finished the wall will also be buttressed by the next wall east.
The purpose of this wall is to protect the insulation of the building from my plowing, from the chickens pecking (they love pink insulation) and to make sure water running down the mountain doesn’t come into the building. The driveway is landscaped with a slope to keep water away but this represents one more level of protection.
Holly Testing Scaffold
Back on the greenhouse project we had used forms wire to hold the forms together which is the standard technique in the concrete industry but I really didn’t like it. The wire is not sufficiently strong and you have to do a lot of wires to get safe forms. There are other pass through devices that I’ve used in the past, in fact right there on the atrium wall 20 years ago, but they lack the one big advantage of the threaded rods mentioned above: They are a place to hang our hang scaffold.
Ben on Low Scaffold
The threaded rods are strong enough that we can simply place 2×8 planks on the rods to get instant scaffolds. With the addition of some supporting legs they feel rock solid. As we move ever upward this is important. Later we’ll be pouring at 8′, 12′ and finally 20′ for the tower of this building. Secure scaffolding, stable forms and places to clip in while working are important. My decades of rock climbing experience will prove useful…
Another advantage of the threaded rod is I can later use it to tie my outer rock wall when I do a folly tower. We’ll do the inner wall, insulation and then an outer wall. The threaded rod has a small surface area for conducting the cold through the insulation but it will lock the essentially two separate concentric towers together. Another project for another year but I’m working out the techniques now. For this project it will help us super insulate by giving more tie points on the outside for insulation. On the inside the insulation will be under compression so it won’t need the extra supports.
Finished Retaining Wall Poured Looking North
I said this was a boring pour. I like that in a concrete job. Boring is good. Uneventful. Nobody died (I did break three ribs*) and a small amount of concrete tried to escape one hole at the north end but other than that it was a very boring and quick pour. We also had exactly the right amount of concrete which is always nice.
We had a front dump concrete truck again for this pour. I had ordered that since he is able to control where the concrete goes so well. From his cab he can swing, raise and lower the chute to reach all of our wall. This saved a lot of time and hard work. The result is the project went faster, we wasted less concrete and were not as tired at the end of the day. The cost? $20 for the front vs back chute. The one catch is the front chute truck is a lot longer and heavier. He inches around our driveway’s first corner, scooting back and forth a few time
We also used small 3/8″ stone and a high slump of seven on this pour due to the thin walls filled with so much steel. The result was the concrete flowed very smoothly, quickly filling the forms with a minimum of paddling by us.
Finished Retaining Wall Poured Looking South
After we got done with the pour we bevelled the top of the wall so that water will dump to the outside edge. This is the first time we have gotten to do finish work on the Big Project. All the rest of the concrete has been sub slab stuff. Exciting! Usually we go ahead and do the finishing for practice and then have to rough it up before the concrete sets so that the next pour can properly bond to it. Holly says she’s always disappointed to see the smooth slab get scarred up. But it is worth the practice to be able to do it on areas that don’t matter.
As shown in the photo above we have de-formed, that is to say stripped, the super insulated slab for our, er, ice cream shop[1, 2] and started to move our construction materials and form building up onto the slab. All that nice level open space can’t be let to waste! It also means that as forms are made they are right there where we need them.
On the top of the forms you can see we’ve put insulation. This is to protect the concrete from the cold. We also poured with 1% Polarset to help deal with the cold. In retrospect I would have gone with more but the 1% did well.
Finished Retaining Wall Peel
After three days I couldn’t resist peeling one little section. This is a buttress point which just had plywood so it was easy to get at. The concrete is still below a 2.5 Mohs Hardness but it is coming along. The concrete looks great, very smooth and uniform, but is still very green due to the low temperatures. I’ll leave the forms on a little longer while we work on other parts of our project. After peaking I put the plywood back on to protect the nice smooth finish.
So what is wrong with the top photo? Care to guess? The answer is here but don’t peek until you guess. For the adventurous, leave your guess in comments…
*I tripped on a brace stake, spun and landed on another – very gracefully I’m sure. Ribs heal and there’s nothing to do for them but breath gently and not laugh too hard.
Outdoors: 40째F/26째F Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 53째F/48째F
Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.
Jeez Walter, your the only guy I know who thinks three broken ribs are boring. Cant imagine what happens on an exciting day! Project looks great.
Zheez!
Booring?
Remind me to stand FAR back when you this it is gone to get exciting!!!
A Boring Retaining Wall Pour
Thanks for sharing!
Apparently, chickens like blue foam insulation board as well – one of mine ate so much she nearly died. (But did make a full recovery and put weight on. I had to make her regurgitate several times to prevent her crop from going sour…) The pieces covering the access to the crawlspace beneath the house are all 'chewed' up around the edges, so they're getting replaced with plywood. Soon.
And about Katya; please have frequent updates! I love puppies, want another puppy, and miss all of the 'puppyness' they have about them. :)
Thanks!
I love reading about the goings on there at your farm. We get your meat at the burlington coop food store. I should say we got as we havent been able to find it recently. Are you still selling there or is it just selling out before we get to shop? What day do you deliver?
Erica
Erica,
The pork does sell out very quickly. Our delivery day is mid to late in the week, generally Thursday although that has changed time to time with the butcher's schedule. Currently though there is another reason you can't find our meat – we've temporarily suspended sales as we make a huge push on our Big Project so we can close in before winter hits hard. Stay tuned for details.
Cheers,
-Walter
Interesting to know about the chickens going after the blue foam too. I had thought that perhaps they pecked the pink foam because it was pink and triggered a hunting reflex (think bugs & earth worms). But I don't know of many blue bugs or earth worms around so maybe that isn't it. Maybe it is simply contrast. On a related note, dragonflies can't see the pink foam. The crash repeatedly into it trying to fly through.
I figured it out. The moon is too big. At first I thought you used a very very long telephoto lense but then when I saw the other photos I realized the angle wouldn't work. You couldn't get far enough away. I have taken photos like that where the moon look huge by zooming way in on something distant.
Just make sure if you start feeling pressure in your chest, start feeling light headed, and have problems breathing that you get to the doctor…pronto. Pneumothorax (collapsed lung)can happen days after an accident to the ribs. Good luck and take care…Chris