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15 Posts
Hi All,
Looking for insights/caution/best-ideas on this plan:
So I have about 1800 feet of 6' concrete wall I want to put around my property. Privacy, Protection from Coyotes for the small dogs, Jackass Drifter Drivers who like to crash into fences and drive off, muffler noise deflection & many other reasons.
Thought of super blocks (4x2x2) blocks, but they take a long time to cast, let dry, set into place. Plus the molds are pricey.
Figured if I could make something I could cast in place, and moveable the county can't tax me on it either. Like setting huge boulders around the property.
Decided on a self-standing concrete mold. 2' deep x 4' wide at the bottom, tapered to the top about 6-12" deep x 4' wide. This would be about a yard of concrete, 4000 lbs. I could pick it up with my skid steer and move it if need be to show the county it's just a big boulder. Plus, one-shot pours like this are easier because I can peel back my fence 4' at a time and one pour without leaving a gap in the fence for too long only to have an open range critter waltz in and kick the side of my truck.
I would set this on either compacted AZ-rock infested ground or do a Frank Lloyd Wright compacted gravel trench/rubble trench maybe 3-6" deep to prevent washout. In AZ we don't have ground heave due to freezing temps.
The idea with the wedge shaped mould would be I would use 1/4" plate steel welded and just drop the mud in from the top. Let it cure for a day and then when the concrete shrinks back, pick up the mold with the skid steer with chains or a set of lift bars welded to the mold and move it down the line for a re-cast somewhere else. Maybe spray a mixture of diesel and used motor oil on the inside of the mould to stop the concrete from bonding to the steel. I was hoping I could use the mold 2x a day, but that might be ambitious and create a mess.
Was going to get a bucket mixer for the skid steer or a 3 yard batch mixer to mix up consistent batches and dump with the skid steer into the top of the mould. Thought about getting a 12v dump truck vibrator and clamping it to the side of the mold and briefly run it to drive out any air pockets for a nicer finish rather than looking like cottage cheese.
To save on cement costs, was going to use a M5 or M7.5 mix for 1000 psi concrete since the wall really won't be supporting anything, it's more of a barrier. The aggregate I have is fractured rock, 2"x1"x1" dimensional.
Didn't want to use rebar because of the time to tie it. Thought I could hang some 6x6 woven field fence in the middle of the moulds to give it rigidity and not drive up the cost too much.
On downward sloping land sides I was going to put a 4" pipe in the middle of the bottom mould, maybe held in place with some stones while I poured the mud so that I wouldn't create a runoff water dam on the neighbors side. There are going to be 1" gaps between each pylon anyhow, but those could get jammed up with debris over time. Figured I would need some pipes ever 3 molds , 12 feet to let water pass. This also means rabbits and snakes will be able to pass. Didn't really want rattlesnakes coming through if I could avoid it. Might have to make some sort of pop-out screen cap to keep them from moving through.
I would like to reduce the cost of the moulds. If I make them out of 1/4" plate, the cost will be north of $1000 a mould. If I made 10, I would have 10k invested in moulds alone and I would need each one to last 45 pours. Is there a cheaper way with plywood or other materials that I should look at? I don't want to spend all day setting up and tearing down moulds.
Let me know if you have any ideas on what could go wrong, or what would be an improvement to doing things this way.
Much Appreciated!
Looking for insights/caution/best-ideas on this plan:
So I have about 1800 feet of 6' concrete wall I want to put around my property. Privacy, Protection from Coyotes for the small dogs, Jackass Drifter Drivers who like to crash into fences and drive off, muffler noise deflection & many other reasons.
Thought of super blocks (4x2x2) blocks, but they take a long time to cast, let dry, set into place. Plus the molds are pricey.
Figured if I could make something I could cast in place, and moveable the county can't tax me on it either. Like setting huge boulders around the property.
Decided on a self-standing concrete mold. 2' deep x 4' wide at the bottom, tapered to the top about 6-12" deep x 4' wide. This would be about a yard of concrete, 4000 lbs. I could pick it up with my skid steer and move it if need be to show the county it's just a big boulder. Plus, one-shot pours like this are easier because I can peel back my fence 4' at a time and one pour without leaving a gap in the fence for too long only to have an open range critter waltz in and kick the side of my truck.
I would set this on either compacted AZ-rock infested ground or do a Frank Lloyd Wright compacted gravel trench/rubble trench maybe 3-6" deep to prevent washout. In AZ we don't have ground heave due to freezing temps.
The idea with the wedge shaped mould would be I would use 1/4" plate steel welded and just drop the mud in from the top. Let it cure for a day and then when the concrete shrinks back, pick up the mold with the skid steer with chains or a set of lift bars welded to the mold and move it down the line for a re-cast somewhere else. Maybe spray a mixture of diesel and used motor oil on the inside of the mould to stop the concrete from bonding to the steel. I was hoping I could use the mold 2x a day, but that might be ambitious and create a mess.
Was going to get a bucket mixer for the skid steer or a 3 yard batch mixer to mix up consistent batches and dump with the skid steer into the top of the mould. Thought about getting a 12v dump truck vibrator and clamping it to the side of the mold and briefly run it to drive out any air pockets for a nicer finish rather than looking like cottage cheese.
To save on cement costs, was going to use a M5 or M7.5 mix for 1000 psi concrete since the wall really won't be supporting anything, it's more of a barrier. The aggregate I have is fractured rock, 2"x1"x1" dimensional.
Didn't want to use rebar because of the time to tie it. Thought I could hang some 6x6 woven field fence in the middle of the moulds to give it rigidity and not drive up the cost too much.
On downward sloping land sides I was going to put a 4" pipe in the middle of the bottom mould, maybe held in place with some stones while I poured the mud so that I wouldn't create a runoff water dam on the neighbors side. There are going to be 1" gaps between each pylon anyhow, but those could get jammed up with debris over time. Figured I would need some pipes ever 3 molds , 12 feet to let water pass. This also means rabbits and snakes will be able to pass. Didn't really want rattlesnakes coming through if I could avoid it. Might have to make some sort of pop-out screen cap to keep them from moving through.
I would like to reduce the cost of the moulds. If I make them out of 1/4" plate, the cost will be north of $1000 a mould. If I made 10, I would have 10k invested in moulds alone and I would need each one to last 45 pours. Is there a cheaper way with plywood or other materials that I should look at? I don't want to spend all day setting up and tearing down moulds.
Let me know if you have any ideas on what could go wrong, or what would be an improvement to doing things this way.
Much Appreciated!