One bag of 5000 psi concrete weighs 80 lbs.
It takes six bags to fill one
of the seven foot tall tubes around a column.
Six bags knot 8o lbs figures to 480 lbs of dry concrete per column.
Added water weight not included.
Now that concrete didn't just fall in that tube by itself.
It had to be toted there.
It had to be toted from the concrete store to my truck.
From my truck to the wheelbarrow.
In the wheelbarrow to the water hose
and back to the bucket loading station.
From the wheelbarrow to the bucket.
From the bucket to the tube around the column.
How many trips is that moving 80lbs of concrete?
Let's see, 1-2-3-4-5
Five trips knot six bags knot 80lbs of dry concrete per column figures to 2400lbs of toting per column.
How many stems of Goldenrod are in the meadow
in the late summer?
It took three and a half bucket loads
to empty the wheelbarrow of one bag of cement.
There were eight steps of the ladder to climb
to get to the top of the tube.
Going up. Going down. Sixteen steps.
Four trips per wheelbarrow load.
Four trips knot six bags knot sixteen steps
figures to 384 stair steps per column.
The new and improved short columns.
They look like shampoo bottles.
I have started test patching the much smaller holes on the upper portions with the Heavy Duty Masonry Coating with the Acrylic Fortifier added to the blend. It is much more like a stucco coating than the grout between tiles effect I thought I was going to get. There are so many micro holes the patch job looks horrible. Even the new cement bottoms, while much much much better still have minor pitting in the surface. I think I am just going to stucco over the whole things.
I may be obsessing over freeze and thaw damage to this concrete. I do not know. Most of it will be below grade. Either way they will be made repellent to water.
How many spots are on each leaf of this Pulmonaria?
I really like this plant. It does well here and very well in the shade. I think it will make a nice texture in big drifts in the future shade garden.
Now this is something you always see in catalogs, but I have never seen this in person, even though I have planted tons of Liriope in my life. I have never seen Liriope bloom like this before. It must not do this in warmer climates.
How many flower spikes are in this row of Liriope?
So here you have seven feet of 5000 psi cement with fiber mesh added and placed in a tube around one of the taller columns that was coated with Concrete Bonding Adhesive.
Now multiply this whole procedure by six and a half. One and a half is for the ten feet of concrete around the five shorter columns.
Six point five knot 2400 lbs of toted dry concrete per column
figures to 15,600 lbs or 7.8 tons.
Six point five knot 384 steps per column figures to 2496 stair steps.
I have four to go. Oy!
There is so much of this Great Blue Lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica around here I have lost count. It seems to do fine in sun or shade.
This New England Aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, I think, really does mean the end is near. This is a fall aster. It and a much smaller blue aster are every where. I expect the meadows to turn blue at some point.
I have lost 25 lbs since I stopped working and moved from Maui to North Carolina. I was not that big to begin with. Now I am down right wiry. According to the BMI charts I am propably in better shape now. I would love me a good plate lunch with two scoop rice though!
I am very happy my concrete store has a nice garden center too. This skinny weary body needs a pick me up some times. The Salvia nemerosa I had been looking for showed up there and I had to buy a few. This is S. nemerosa 'Mainacht'. I also bought another Picea abies 'Nidiformis'. These are the start of the new bed above the utility pole.
How many flower spikes do you see on this Salvia?
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9 comments:
Wow, 25 lbs? That's what I call the At-Cabins Diet.
My head hurts from all that cipherin. My back hurts in sympathy for all that work you did. Good thing there are flower around to stop and smell.
Oh, Christopher - what an enormous task, and one where muscle and stamina are the only way to get what you need. Four thousand stair steps and 12 tons of concrete should make anyone wiry, if it doesn't wreck them first.
I've grown most of the plants in your photos but it took two states to do it - Lobelia syphilatica and pulmonaria were in Illinois, and I have more than one hundred feet of liriope at this house in Texas, blooming like yours. North Carolina sure straddles the climate zones doesn't it?
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Simple question : Do they not have concrete pumpers where you live ?
Here in my hood it costs an additional $ 180 per delivery load of concrete to hire a pumper truck.
You could have had all that concrete and more delivered and pumped into your tubes for that amount.
Just a thought.
Christopher looks like you are working on the compression strenth of the columns and it is looking good.
There are basically three types of unit stresses that a material need to have to withstand failure : Shear, Compression and Tension/ Tensile.
Shear stress is force acting in different directions - usually side to side , this can also be called Moment ( hence the name Moment Beams - they help dissuade rotation )
Compression stress is a result to compaction / compression - like the amount of downward force your columns will have on the above resting structure.
The 5000 psi concrete you are now using is designer to handle 5000 psi per sq. foot before failure once fully cured .
Concrete alone is not very strong without some sort of tensile strength, that is where the metal rebar comes in. It helps tensile force - stretching and bending.
Do you have only one bar of # 5 in each column ?
Or did you use a cage ?
Most all posts fail due to either Crushing or Buckling. Looks like you have the Crushing force covered.
Pam I lost half of that in Hawaii. I kind of forgot to eat fairly often while I was selling my wares, packing and moving.
The pretty things do help me remember why I am here Carol.
The southern Appalachia are indeed the cross roads of several zones and biota. There are supposed to be many of the southern most range of northern plants and the northern most range of southern plants in these mountains and valleys.
The simple answer Michelle is the Concrete Pumper was a big part of the cause of the problem to begin with. We opted not to repeat that failure.
There are two number 5 or 5/8 inch pieces of rebar in each column. They have a 90 degree bend at the bottom that is in the connecting footing that joins all the columns.
Once the girders get placed on top of the columns they will help stabilize them from shear forces. Each girder will be four 2x10's bolted and nailed into one girder that is 26'8" long. These will be strapped to the columns with the straps that were placed in the concrete when it was first poured. Then on top of that will be the 2x10 floor joists spaced at 16" and nailed with metal brackets to the girders.
I think it should stay put.
Christopher;
All I can say is, I hope you didn't pay the concrete guy who did the lousy job that you are having to repeat! But at least you won't be sitting in your cabin worrying it will collapse this winter!
I have much more confidence in these columns.
I see 13 flower spikes! Your improved columns look much better! From the sound of all that work, I'd say you're workin' on "Survivor Noth Carolina"! ;-)
Are you gonna have a fireplace to relax in front of when all this is done?
Lisa, the cabin will not have a fireplace. It is too small and I don't want to have to chop all that wood. I'll be too tired.
The future house will have a fireplace and I plan to have an outdoor firepit on a patio/deck that connects the house and cabin. That's the plan anyway.
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