Hi all:
Someone must have a bright idea for getting concrete from the wheelbarrow into the builders tube without losing half of it on the ground. When you have enough manpower, you can have two guys stand on either side of the pour with shovels to direct the flow, but what about when manpower is not available? Anyone have a homemade funnel design or other great idea?
J Painter
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Replies
An old piece of corregated roofing works great as a poor man's chute. Nail a 2x4 along each edge, form the desired curve in the chute, and nail cleats across to hold the curve. Piece of cake.
If you use Bigfoot footing forms, one upside down makes a funnel.
http://www.bigfootsystems.com
plywood with 2x6 sides and one or two on the top to keep it ridgid
"My life is my practice"
Not to be a killjoy, but I'm sure the tube manufacture specifys a tremie pour rather than freefalling the concrete to the bottom of the tube. The reason is that you want the aggregate, sand, and cement to be evenly distributed. But dropping the mix into the forms can cause separation - rocks at one level, cement at another, etc.
I realize that, on most small jobsites, it is just poured in. And hope the design has the safety margins to deal with an imperfect concrete pour.
Something as simple as a circle of plywood, 1/4" undersized, could be supported at three points with a rope 'tripod' and lowered to just above the concrete level. Tripped by pulling another rope on its edge would drop the concrete a few inches and avoid separation.
David
Out of curiosity. How deeps the frost line in Alaska?
And do you need a footing under igloos.......kidding.....on the igloo statement
Be cold as a witch's ###
andyMy life is my passion!
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Frostline is a southern concept. In Arctic engineering, the term is "active zone". That could be the upper 6-14 feet that freeze each winter in Kenai. Or it could be the upper 4-8 feet that thaw each summer in Barrow. Foundation (pier, perimeter, etc) have to pass through the active thaw and be sufficinciently anchored in the soils below to resist the forces generated during freeze/thaw cycles.
Or the upper soils have to kept stable - frozen with a refrigderation system in Barrow. Or, my house, insulated more from the outside temps than from the RFH slab - much easier to do.
Trickiest is around Fairbanks where the permafrost is discontinuous. In addition to significant frost jacking and other unpleasant events, two areas 200 feet apart can have very different conditions, thermally.
My water service line is at 11 feet. Under the driveway (plowed) I added 2" of blue foam for an equivalent of 13-foot depth. That's enough in almost all years. But the electrical wire for thawing it with a welder is stubbed up.
My excavator disappeared for 2 days one May to dig up a frozen city water line at 14 feet! Under a plowed, paved roof (worst case).
Clear skies, 66F today, light until 10:30pm today. Doesn't get any better (light till 2 am is a pain).David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
Here is another southern concept: Build a deck a few weeks ago on which I used tubes for the footers. The concrete dropped ~12", 18" max to the bottom of the tubes. Probably didn't separate much :-)
Matt
PS - to the original question: Used a shovel to load the tubes.
David
I see an article in this.....wonder if Taunton wants to travel to Alaska.....heyyyyyyyyy, I have an idea...I'd go!
Be gorgous
andyMy life is my passion!
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
>> How deep's the frost line in Alaska?
Where in Alaska?
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF6/671.html
Permafrost is continuous in extent over almost all of the Arctic, then becomes discontinuous and sporadic or isolated as one proceeds further south. Only the southern coastal margins are completely permafrost-free. Measured recorded depths extend from 1330 feet near Pt. Barrow to 350 feet at Nome, 265 feet at Fairbanks, and 100 feet near Tok.