No not sleeping in but I am sore as hell. And no rebar. I never have put it in for slabs and haven’t had one crack yet.
You could use a section of steel fencing.
What’s that word … Infrastructure
I have thought about that stuff its cheap enough. I will give it some thought.
Cement
Are you going to had mix it?
Yep I will be hand mixing. That’s why it is getting done in three separate pours as opposed to one big one. I have a mixer that holds 3-4 80# sacks of quickcrete. I won’t be using quickcrete I will be mixing my own sand, gravel, and cement. The mixer beats the hell out of a shovel and wheelbarrow, done way to much of that. When I poured the first slab (the largest I have poured myself) I was able to do it with a smaller mixer than the one I have now. You have to work fast but it isn’t so bad, if kept small.
Not ideal, but cost effective. I can’t get a cement truck back there so it would have to be pumped or have a wheel barrow brigade neither which are feasible nor can I afford it.
One issue I am up against is time. I have promised my wife that I will have this done by June 5th. That is my daughters graduation party and she doesn’t want a mess in the back yard. Not to mention she has wanted this patio for a long time. So this will be nice to have done for the party and to complete a honey do task. Plus benefit my train build.
OK enough rest, get back to work.
Devon Sinsley said: OK enough rest, get back to work.
I couldn’t of said it any better!
Well I ran into my first snare. I went to layout where the yard will go and it overlays the septic tank lid by 2 feet. I obviously can’t our the slab over the lid. So I have three choices.
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Shorten the yard by two feet. Pros- It would fit without a major redesign and avoid making complications elsewhere by trying to move it. Cons- Losing two feet over 8 tracks is a lot to lose and drastically cuts the effectiveness of the yard.
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Move the yard. Pros- keeps the yard the way I want it. Cons- means other stuff needs to be moved and rearranged.
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Pour the lid into the slab. Pros- Keeps the yard as is. Cons- I would have to pour a lid into the slab and then move the yard when I need to access the lid.
I don’t like 3 so I am ruling it out. I will try to move it first or rearrange it.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/devon_sinsley/new_layout/2d_yard.jpg)
Were is the septic cover in this pic?
You could put a sweeping curve leading into the switch (10’ or more) were the green triangle is, and angle your yard, to the right or left …
The septic is basically in the upper left of the yard. I messed with it and did exactly what you said. I rotated the yard about 20 degrees and put a small section (20 deg) of 10’ diameter track to line everything back up. It did require me to move the lower loop to the east a bit but not enough that it caused any issue. It steepened my grade to 2.5% from 2.2% but having run on 4% and seeing what is capable of 4% and given that it is not uncommon for a narrow gauge line to be 4% (my prototype hits 4.5% in one spot) I am OK with having a section of 2.5%.
This is the new location. Not a major overhaul. The circle represents the septic lid.
Is it done yet??? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
No Andy, not done. But progress is being made. Here is the new septic extension. I also mucked out the next section of the patio. Tomorrow I will finish digging the third section.
Here is the dirt that has been moved from each of the two slabs. One more to go. there are two piles the near one and the far one. also filled a bit of a hole with four wheel barrows full. I didn’t think I needed to move this much dirt.
The weather forecast is holding for decent cement work. Mid 60’s Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with only 20% chance of rain.
I didn’t think I needed to move this much dirt.
Devon, it has only started. After all, you want to have a railroad, and railroad work seams to involve moving dirt around.
I should rephrase that. I expect to move a whole lot more dirt. I just did not expect to move this much from where I want to pour the patio. I will have to move an alarming amount of dirt once I start building the raised beds. And that will be all wheel barrow work. Yuck.
Nice start… Moving dirt = A tractor with a front bucket comes in real handy…
Devon
I thing you need to do this to one patio !
With the right orientation of course! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Andy,
A tractor would make a mess of my yard. I had already considered that. I would have access from the front yard and could dump over the fence but it would require several trips over the lawn. I work with a backhoe regularly in my work and know the damage they do. I will be able to drive the truck to the back yard but then it will be wheel barrow to the layout.
and Sean,
Do you want to see this project completed or not. If you keeping throwing these distractions at me I will never get done. That would be cool, wouldn’t it. But that isn’t going to happen.
I have to say I forgot how out of shape I was. Moving all this dirt is breaking me. I am so sore. But I am pushing through.
You’re a former Marine. Buck up and keep your eye (and mind) on the mission at hand. Semper Fi!
Joe Zullo said:
You’re a former Marine. Buck up and keep your eye (and mind) on the mission at hand. Semper Fi!
I could use a company of Marines about now.