[AT] Concrete slab

charlie hill chill8 at cox.net
Thu Nov 25 18:52:20 PST 2004


Cecil,

We got up early on our farm too and that wasn't quite as long ago for me as 
for you.  grins.

I will disagree with you and Bear just a bit about the sakrete deal.
I do agree that the results are better when you mix it up but I've done ok 
without mixing it.  I guess it has to do with the amount of soil moisture 
you have.   I did cheat a little.  I'd dig the hole, set the pole, pour a 
bucket of water in the bottom, pour in the sakrete, tamp it a little and 
then pour some water over the top.  I've got a mail box post at my place now 
that I'd like to see you pull up.
A delivery truck driver ran over my old salt treated wood post along with 2 
others belonging to my neighbors that  sit right beside it.  The guy was in 
a panic and worried about getting fired.  I told him not to worry about mine 
it needed replacement anyway but then I gave him a warning.   Don't hit the 
new one or you will leave part of your truck haning on it.

I took a piece of 4 inch schedule  80 pipe about 7 feet long, dug a hole 3 
feet deep, put the pole in it, centered it up and put 240 lbs of sakrete in 
the hole.  It hasn't moved yet.  LOL

I bet you're getting some white rain.  Hope you got your dirt work finished.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cecil E Monson" <cmonson at hvc.rr.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 6:33 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] Concrete slab


> My father bought a 230 acre farm in 1943 with buildings that
> were almost worthless for a mixed dairy/grain farm such as ours. We took
> 3 years to rebuild the whole thing. We moved the house a hundred fifty
> feet closer to the road, tore down most of the old barn and all the old
> sheds. We dug the new basement for the house with a horse drawn scoop
> pulled by the 9N Ford and mixed all the concrete by hand for the footings,
> cast walls and basement floor. We also mixed all the concrete by hand
> for new concrete floors for the barn, milk house, 2 1/2 car garage and
> the chicken house. We build a big machine shed too but never put a
> concrete floor in it for some reason.
>
> I did 90% of the mixing for the whole thing. I started out as
> a 14 year old boy and was about 60 years old when I finished. grins.
> Actually, it was good exercise and was not a big problem for me. Our
> mix was almost always one scoop of Portland cement, 5 scoops of sand
> mixed with any gravel we had, and a small pail of water. I forget now
> how many scoops of sand and cement it took to make a batch in the
> mixer. We had the sand on our own property at several bends in the creek
> which ran north of the barn across the property and all the sand was
> hauled up from the creek with the 9N Ford. The farm had two old gravel
> pits on it and we found enough good sharp gravel in them to add to the
> mix with the sand from the creek. Any rocks we found on the property
> went into footings and some into the walls of the basement of the house.
> My father said that any rocks that go into the foundation would only
> strengthen the mix and not hurt it. He was right.
>
> My father was one for starting early and had my uncle there as
> a rule to help wheel cement from the mixer where I was working to the
> pour. He did not allow any cold joints and we worked until we got to
> where he wanted an expansion joint even if it meant a very long day.
> The mixer was powered by one of those little IHC engines that looks like
> a red block. I can say this, you can pour an awful lot of concrete with
> a mixer fed by hand if you start early and keep going. Mixers have a
> sort of growl to them as the gears go around and I can almost still hear
> ours running.
>
> I would say that mixing by hand with a gas engine powered mixer
> is not for everyone. People nowadays don't seem to be programmed to work
> like we did back then and want to take too many breaks. Pouring concrete
> should go without interruption as much as possible so you don't get bad
> spots in your pour. As to savings, I don't think we saved much money, it
> was just that there was no other way to make concrete where we lived back
> then. Sounds like Ralph had the same situation where he was in 
> Saskatchewan
> and did things the same way. I'll bet his father started early in the day
> too......
>
> I agree with Bear about the use of Sakrete these days. I bought
> a sack of it a couple years ago to make a good base for a bird feeder
> post near the house. The salesman at the lumber yard told me to just dig
> the hole, pour the Sakrete in dry and set the pole. He said that ground
> moisture would do the rest without adding water. I don't know about this.
> I tried it and it took several years for the bird feeder pole to stop
> moving with the wind. I'd say I could have done just as well tamping the
> ground around the pole as I did with that Sakrete. It might be set up by
> now but I'd not bet on it.
>
> Cecil
> -- 
> The nicest thing about telling the truth is you never have to wonder
> what you said.
>
> Cecil E Monson
> Lucille Hand-Monson
> Mountainville, New York   Just a little east of the North Pole
>
> Allis Chalmers tractors and equipment
>
> Free advice
>
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