M@tt wrote:i've actually changed my plans today and ordered 2 pallets of hollow concrete blocks!! it saves building 2 skins as my brick laying is shite to say the least
i'll chuck up the retaining wall with those instead, after pouring a concrete footing that i can mix up myself in the mixer.
i can whack some rebar down every other hole, infill with cement and leave some protruding to tie into the poured base, jobs a goodun!!
Oh and yes i should have said i certainly won't be doing it all myself, i plan to convince some of my fairly handy mates to lend a hand with the pouring screeding when the time comes!!
if your bricklaying is that bad ,hollow blocks will be a nightmare
make sure you have your mortar strong and stiff for these beauts,and as mikey said lay your first course onto the semi stiff concrete then push your rebar into the still plastic footing
personally i use L-bars and set the steelwork up before the pour but thats for a designed retaining wall
good luck
LLL
that brickie wants shooting
no wonder he doesnt show his face
dog rough,no crossjoints and no full joints on the perpends
hes a clown without a suit
LLL
if you read the comments most say he is one of the best mud workers they have ever seen....pmsl
there is a large amount of rebar at the side of one of the spot boards which that the way construction is carried out in the good old US of A is to throw the wall up to act as the shutter, place reinforcing bars in the hollow and fill with a wet mix what will run into the areas what should of had a mortar bed, or this is the ideas
which then leads you to think this could be the reason why building disappear in high winds...hey ho
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Thats right mick but those blocks are designed for a liquid fill thats why the cross section is recessed. Whats funny is if they actually ties the rebar into there foundations it wouldn't be a bad wall....
I've made a bit of progress this weekend, i've fitted the expansion boards against the walls and sorted the levels out. I'm buying a wacker plate tomorrow(rather than several weeks hire) so i'll be able to compact the base down properly before fitting the visqeen and matabar.
The hollow blocks will be delivered later in the week so i should be able to make a start on the retaining wall.
My local building supplies store doesn't do the matabar chairs/pedestals and neither does B&Q etc so shall i just use some small bricks/stones etc to support the matabar at the right levels?
also that guy in the video i linked above laying the hollow blocks is either
a) and absolute man mountain with bear like strength
or
b) using considerably lighter hollow blocks
i've just had to shift 62 of the buggers and i'm no gym monkey or a 7 stone weakling but it took a proper 2 handed effort to pick one of the buggers up!!!
So the plan is to have a recess in the floor for the lift to sit into rather than struggle to get my cars over it which are on the whole lowered so might have clearance issues.
The bit you can see is the base of that recess. I'll pour that first then once that sets/cures i've got a smaller shutter frame which will sit on top of it which will form the edges when the rest of the base is poured
well i've managed to pour the base for the lift, it's been down a week now.
and just my luck after the glorious weather during the weekend when i poured it on the Sunday it absolutely chucked it down over night, luckily i had covered it but some rain water still got in so i needed to skim off some of the water which had managed to collect on the top as it was a bit of awash
the only thing that i'm not too sure of is that the concrete is extremely dusty now that its cured/curing. Is that normal or does it indicate that my mix wasn't optimal?? i did 6 buckets of premixed ballast to 1 bucket of cement as per the instructions on the site
