Walls and Drains

After Fridays aborted concrete pump exercise, the decision was made to mix and put the concrete by hand. It’s been a while, so I wasn’t sure how long it would take …

Ben arrived just after 8 and by probably 8.20, the first pole was done. Roaring into it! By 10.30 we’d done 7 of the 9 poles and were running of cement and builders mix. So I went to procure more, while Ben worked on cutting a bit more off the bank. For future reference, pretty much 3 barrows per hole, 1.5m deep x 350, with a 180 pole in the middle. And 1 bag of cement per 6 barrows …

11.30 we were back into it and we quickly completed the last 2 poles. In the meantime, ben had also laser levelled the fall and had started laying the base for the draining.

Lunch, then into drainage. We got the fall right, then lined the front of the (future0 wall with polythene, and the bank with geotextile cloth. Then a layer of concrete along the entire length, bedding the pipe (inside more geotextile cloth) and then a fill with draining gravel around it. Topped off by connecting the pipe into the main outlet.

All done and cleaned up by 4, time for a beer!

Wow, totally didn’t expect to get this far, we did 2 days work in one. Can go away (in 2 days time) knowing that the draining should be all good. And then I can come back to actually built the wall …