Projects i have been working on

[Tim Stuart]

Folks I thought I would share some of my latest projects I have been working on for the past 6 months. I am going need to slow down a focus on completing a few of them before my wife meets me at the door with a shotgun. She is POed about no grass in the yard and me tearing out her wood deck on the back to build the retailing wall to stop the erosion around the house slab. All the retaining wall lack to be complete is tie backs and dirt.

1. I have been working on leveling the adjacent land around the house and preventing erosion.
2. Building a circle drive
3. Building retaining wall around the back of the house.
4. Pier for the small pond
5. Level off a location for our 3 car garage and 40x 64 pole barn work shop

 

[BuzzardA91]

Nice post. Thanks for pics, nice place you have. How deep is that pond?

 

[Tim Stuart]

Thanks for the reply, the pond is about 12 to 14 feet deep at full pool. My place is still hurting from the drought and I still need about 3 more feet for it it to be back at full pool.

 

[chin]

excuse my ignorance but I have never seen a retaining wall built this way. Whats your method using the wood? surely you cant use wood fencing. Just curious as to what your about to do

 

[creekbend]

It is quite evident that you have been busy. I have found, that in most cases, my projects, usually take longer than I thought that they would. Here's wishing You the very best regarding the completion of all projects. Hopefully you will have weather that works with you instead of restricting your completion.

 

[Tim Stuart]

The wood that I used is pressure treated for ground contact. This type of wood and construction is used locally around Lake Livingston for waterfront properties. The sheeting is made from 2x10 that are tonged and grooved. It is definitely not just wood fence.

 

[chin]

The wood that I used is pressure treated for ground contact. This type of wood and construction is used locally around Lake Livingston for waterfront properties. The sheeting is made from 2x10 that are tonged and grooved. It is definitely not just wood fence.

Ok. good luck with it.

 

[Tim Stuart]

Ok. good luck with it.

I will take some pictures of the wood cut offs so you can see the type of wood.

 

[Bob77064]

Tim, good job it looks great.

 

[Tim Stuart]

Here is a close up of the 2x10 bulkhead material I used

 

[jinman]

All the retaining wall lack to be complete is tie backs and dirt.

Tim, what are you going to use for tie-backs? Something like mobile home anchors would work. You surely want that wall very strong before backfilling. It looks too good to take a chance on it bulging outward. Everything looks like it is coming together. I built my house over 10 years ago and everything is still evolving. It's always a work-in-progress.

 

[Tim Stuart]

Jinman, I was looking to several options for the tie backs including the mobile home tie downs. I think I am going to use my pto post hole digger to dig a hole about 2 foot deep and put a 10 foot 5/8 piece of rebar with a triangle bend on the end of it down in the drilled post hole and fill it with concrete, Than weld a 18 inch piece of 3/4 all-thread to the other end of the rebar. Drill a hole through the wall and post for the all-thread to go though with a washer and nut for adjustment. Than coat the rebar with roofing tar or a undercoating from where it comes out of the concrete to the wall to slow down the rusting process. Hope I explained it well . Any thoughts or opinions on this?

 

[Western]

Tim, that is similar to what they did in the "old day's" on large rock and brick walls. Except they used a "star" or other type decorative medallion on the exterior. I'd coat all the re-bar ,even the portion in the cement and double coat the weld joint.

 

[Tim Stuart]

Tim, that is similar to what they did in the "old day's" on large rock and brick walls. Except they used a "star" or other type decorative medallion on the exterior. I'd coat all the re-bar ,even the portion in the cement and double coat the weld joint.

Thanks !!! Good thinking!!!

 

[Tim Stuart]

what size post hole would you guys drill ? I have 6" or 12" auger bit.

 

[Western]

Depends how deep your going I would think, 2' with the 12" should get you around 150-200lbs of cement in the hole. I'd go 12"

 

[jinman]

Bear in mind that a 12' x 2' deep hole will hold a little over 1.6 cu/ft of concrete when you take variables into consideration. That's a lot of mixing on a hot day, so pick a cool day with plenty of time and an electric mixer if you can rent/buy/borrow one. Some people pour concrete into post holes and put water on top, but that is probably not the safe solution on your tie-back anchors. I think your idea with rebar will work fine. The mobile home tie-downs often come with galvanized strips to go from the anchor to the mobile home. I would think those would deteriorate pretty quickly in direct ground contact. They are around $10-$12 each I think. Coated rebar is probably a better choice. I'm no expert on this, so don't take my word as 'bible.'

 

[Tim Stuart]

Had a good day going got half of the tie backs in. Than I broke a u joint on my post hole digger. So I have get a u joint to finish.

 

[jinman]

Wow! I've never seen a u-joint bust a spider like that before.

 

[MacLawn]

Tim, I am very interested in this project, especially your retaining wall, since I need to do something similar at my place. Right about that ground contact wood - it'll be there! Good idea too with that rebar tie back thingamabob! I'd paint it with that old fashioned red lead paint if it is still available. Or, some good rust stopping super duper miracle paint.