Creating an Entrance

[ScottAR]

Great pictorial and a neat project!!

Great pics!!

What's the sign gonna say? Inquiring minds ya know... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[GerardC]

Here's a night shot of my entrance. Gerard

 

[GerardC]

No flash. Gerard

 

[Cliff_Johns]

That is a fine looking entrance. Stone pillars are so visually appealing. They give a sense of quality and permanance to the property. Very nice design too. Thanks for the photographs of the building process.

Cliff

 

[Nasty135]

Eddie, Very nice look and a lot of work but it does give you a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when its all done!
Too bad about the big tree ,I also lost a big tree that would give shade to to my house and barn till 10:30-11am and I miss it, It kept the place cooler a little longer.
Can't wait to see the rest of the project!! hint hint /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[EddieWalker]

This morning I started to build my form for the cap.

First was to cut a 2 foot square piece of 3/4 plywood that I had lying around.

Then I figured a 2X6 would give me enough height to create the pyramid look.

 

[EddieWalker]

I thought I had some masonite scrap lying around, but remembered when I was looking for it that I burned it in my last clean up day. Oops.

I did have some luan, which I figured I can work with.

I measured out a flat spot in the middle to mount a light to and cut the luan 2 feet wide by 10 1/2 inches. This gave me an appealing slope for the pyramid look.

The columns are 21 inches wide with the rock on them, so the caps should overhand 1 1/2 inches all around.

The angle came out to 19 degrees on my chop saw.

 

[EddieWalker]

The other two pieces just needed the corners cut off at 45 degrees and then sanded down to fit flush.

I glued and screwed the main pieces together, but the luan was glued and stapled.

 

[EddieWalker]

The form is togther, but I decided to use silicone to seal the edges and round the inside corners off. Then I used it to fill the staple holes and just ended up coating all of the luan with silicone.

I started worrying that the luan would fall apart from the moisture in the morter. Now I'll have a rough finish.

I will just have to wait and see how it turns out.

 

[EddieWalker]

I let the form dry for a couple hours, then mixed my mud.

I used a premix sack of Type N morter that I have left over from attaching the rocks to the columns. I added two plastic cup fulls of Portland Cement and half a bottle of Charcoal die.

This mix is a result from advice I recieved on another thread called coloring cement.

I mixed half of the 60 pound sack and put it in kind of wet. Then I layed half inch, 19 guage, galvanized fenceing down.

Then I mixed the rest of the morter and added two more cups of cement to it. I put this in a little dryer to help hold it all together on the edges.

In the middle I placed a piece of 3/4 inch pvc to run my wire through when I install the cap.

The picture shows the hollow middle. I could have mixed another sack to fill it up, but I don't think I needed it. This is one full 60 pound sack.

I'm guessing I have about $10 into the cap, not counting lumber.

 

[EddieWalker]

The first cap is out and it's a failure. Several problems. First I should never have used silicone. It is glue for the morter. I had to take off the sides of the form and slide a thin piece of metal throught o break it free. During the process, I broke off a corner of the cap.

The shape is good, and I'm on the right track, just need to make a few changes.

The next one will go in with no silicone and I'll just grind off the edges an sand it smooth. Or at least that's my plan. I will also make the edges thicker by 3/4 of an inch. This will take more morter, but it's so cheap that's not a concern.

 

[EddieWalker]

While the new cap is in the mold, I decided to take out my dying pine. It's bigger than any tree I've ever taken out, and I'm a little intimidated by the damage it could cause if it fell on me. It's right out in front and will fall in time if I don't address it now.

 

[EddieWalker]

I thought about just using a chain saw, but it sits right next to my entrance road, and I don't want a stump right there. Ther is also a drainage ditch that goes behind the tree, and I want to clean it up when I'm done.

To take it out, I need to creat a space to work from and then dig out around the trunk and push it over.

This means using my favorite toys.

 

[EddieWalker]

I want the tree to fall into the smaller ones and disapear over time. This means digging the deepest part on the back side of the tree so it will fall that way. I needed to clear some room to work and level out the drainage around the tree.

With the right tool, this only takes a half an hour.

 

[EddieWalker]

The bigger the tree, the deeper and bigger the hole around it. They really don't want to fall over and it takes some encouragment on my part. This photo is the back side of the tree and I ended up going around 10 feet deep.

 

[EddieWalker]

Once I got a good trench around the tree, it's just a matter of pushing it over. Of course, the wind started blowing in the wrong direction while I was almost done digging. It makes me real nervous being on the downwind side of it. Once enough dirt is out, it will just lay down where I push it.

 

[EddieWalker]

It fell just about exactly where I wanted it to. They usually do, but I've had a few suprises, and when they get this big, a suprise could be very bad news.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( never have used silicone. It is glue )</font>

Eddie, I've wondered whether wax paper would work; never heard of it being used and there may be a good reason, but it just seems to me that it would work. Or butcher's paper. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[dummy]

Nope, the best is to use nothing. For a wooden form, watering down first doesn't hurt, but nothing else will help. I built a few and had to learn the hard way also.

 

[BB_TX]

When you put in your culvert, did they mention concreteing the sloped ends? When I put in one 4 years ago, they said I would have to concrete the sloped ends to their specs. I put in the culvert, covered with dirt, and have not yet done the concrete. I don't live there yet, but my neighbor (who I bought the property from) said they have stopped by his place a couple times asking when the ends were going to be concreted. He just told them it wasn't his anymore and he didn't know. I thought I had heard that they did not require concrete anymore, but haven't been able to confirm that. Mine would be the only one within miles any direction that had concrete.