Cement Bag Retaining Wall

[WoodChuckDad]

Is this all just at your home?

essentially, yes. I will be building a barn and Cidery as well as our house.

 

[bigdeano]

Maybe a stupid question, but how does the concrete harden in the bags? As I remember the bags are plastic lined for long storage. Maybe poking the rebar thru it lets moisture in?

 

[EddieWalker]

Most of the moisture comes through where you put the rebar through the sacks. I dump a few buckets of eater on them after I'm done stacking and hammering the rebar through them. Since the material is not properly mixed, it's not very strong and it cracks rather quickly. When used from erosion, the lower strength and cracking doesnt matter too much. For this application, I'm not sure what will happen.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

The sakrete has a plastic liner. The quickrete doesn't. I got the one without the liner.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

Also, to make it easier for water to get in I have read recommendations to jab away at them with a pitchfork.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

This weekend, we began the bridge build. First excavating the trench, Then moving the pipes into place. My 17 year old boys were working with me every time I had to get down on the ground. My wife showed up Sunday to move gravel. The 55 tons of #57 crushed stone that I had delivered were placed near the road, about 1/4 mile away from bridge....so it ate up a lot of time for her to be going back and forth moving stone. At the end of the weekend we had 4 of the 6 pipes in the trench, and one of the joints connected. I should have taken a picture of the way we put the joints together. I used 4, 27 foot ratchet straps rated for 10,000 . Looping one around each pipe, then connecting one on each side of the pipe and ratcheting them together. It worked well, but was time consuming. I put in an additional day by myself, getting the other two pipes in and connecting all the pipes. I would not be able to do this for a living. The heat was brutal. It was only 91 degrees yesterday, but the black plastic pipes gather the heat from the sun and just blast you with it when you are down in the pit. I spent as much time resting to counter the feeling of heat exhaustion as I did working.
If anyone ever has to do this....Do not be stingy with the lube.
Here are a few pictures
This is the end of the spillway before I started working. You can see how it has carved out an 8 foot ditch down to bedrock over time.


My wife bringing stone. So glad she likes to drive the tractor.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

A few more pictures.
Getting the trench "just right."





I spent a lot of time, once I got all the pipes in, knifing in the stone around the base of the pipes....trying to fill the crevices on the pipe to achieve the maximum strength and structural integrity of the pipe. I would cast a bucket or two and then get down with a shovel and really work the stone in. it is hard work, but I will feel much better about it as the years pass, knowing I did it right.

The last picture I took yesterday. Just before I started the stone work. I still have a weekends worth of work to do before I even begin the cement, but I feel much better about it.


I would have liked to take more pictures, but I worked until it was dark each day. This last one was taken by one of my boys.

 

[EddieWalker]

Very impressive job you're doing. I must of missed something. What is the crushed stone for?

 

[WoodChuckDad]

The crushed stone is for the backfill around the pipe until the pipe is fully encased in stone. More stable than dirt that has been dug out and put back in. I did lots of research and I am trying to follow these instructions to the letter. I want this to be the last time I have to mess with this bridge.

 

[Threepoint]

Hardworking crew! Anytime I have to do hard manual labor like that in heat like we're having right now, it reminds me how much I appreciate the folks who do do it for a living, every day!