Redneck mailbox repair

[wroughtn_harv]

The other day young son called and asked if I knew someone who could straighten up their brick mail box because the HOA was having fits about it leaning. He had a couple of quotes, three to four hundred dollars.

I told him I would look at it.

As most of you know I have hitch receivers built into the corners of my truck bed for vises and benders. The brick column was leaning over and out. So I put a two and five sixteenths hitch insert caddywampus into the passenger side tool holder/hitch receiver thingy doo. And then I backed up, first to straighten it out in line, and then I blocked the road and pushed it back the other way.

We put some sacrete in the cavity we had made with the move. It was plumb all ways when we got done.

I'm in the wrong business.

 

[radioman]

neat! If it works, then don't knock it!! :thumbsup:

 

[txdon]

It's always good to find the easy way, and it works!!

 

[Lloyd_E]

Fair invoice/fees would around $500.00...

 

[mjarrels]

Some of the best repaires I ever did on aircraft carriers was by using a coat hanger to fix air conditioners.

mark

 

[jinman]

Nice job!

 

[Mousefield]

That's pretty smart. Good pics, glad it's nice and straight. Price was right.

 

[Bird]

I'm glad to know where there's a good repairman in case mine ever gets to leaning.

 

[teg]

Good job on the fix!!! Is that a fire hydrant that close to the mailbox??? I don't think I could ever live where there a HOA... I guess I got this silly notion that it's actually my land. :confused2:

I have neighbors that were like Sanford and Son... It's his land and that's fine with me... Even used his yard once instead of going to the dump... *joking* I asked him with a loaded trailer, heading to the dump... "see anything you want?" I knew I was in trouble when he took me up on the offer and replied, "let me see... ya, dump it over here..." I really didn't want to and tried to talk him out of it several times but he explained what he want the stuff for... so I unloaded it and drove past the pile for a year or two until he got around to using the stuff and cleaning up the place. I don't joke around like that any more

 

[MicroPilot]

Yea, its funny that the HOA was concerned that the mailbox had settled and was leaning, but are OK with it impeding access and visibility to the fire hydrant.

 

[schmism]

Yea, its funny that the HOA was concerned that the mailbox had settled and was leaning, but are OK with it impeding access and visibility to the fire hydrant.

thats a fire chief call not an HOA call.... and would likely result in having to move the mail box.

 

[Kays Supply]

My Father and I used the same system to correct a few of the family stones at the cemetery a few years back. They are still up straight.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

The masons around here take advantage if you could call it that of the assumption by everyone that the brick mailbox has to be completely redone for a straightening. They don't most of the time. The way they're made is the mason levels the dirt and then lays down a mortar bed or a concrete cookie and then builds the mailbox. They just stand on top of the dirt.

Dirt is a misnomer around here. What we have is clay, seven kinds of it. We're in our dry season now but it isn't as bad as it usually is because we've had some rain in early July from the tropical storms. Usually by now you can stick a tape into the cracks in the ground a three to four feet. Now we're at two to three feet. I've seen them seven to eight feet deep. If one side of the mailbox is drier normally than the other then the ground will shrink in that area this time of year and the lean will start. When it gets wet the expansion will start and the wetter part will expand faster increasing the lean.

A friend of mine lives on a little elevation, we don't have hills, just elevation changes. His elevation where his home is located will change elevation six inches season to season based solely upon the expansion and contraction of the clays.

Most of the cities have some pretty serious standards for foundation or pier construction for columns. Mailboxes are exempt, mostly because they're on the street and there's always a lot of subsoil congestion with all the buried utilities. But also because of the safety concerns about vehicles and anything along the right of way not being a hazard. They look substantial but since they're made with mortar basically they crumble very easily, a bump will destroy them.

The fire hydrant has plenty of clearance. It's an optical illusion to think it doesn't have it. We have one of the top fire departments in the state and they on top of everything. We like it that way as homeowners, helps with the fire insurance premiums.

Back in the day on a multimillion dollar custom home I installed some wrought iron panels between columns. Day one I discovered the masons had installed the columns on the neighbor's property so I was going to pull off until they tore those down and built new ones where they should have been in the first place. The general stopped me and had the masons use a frontloader backhoe to lift the columns and the place them back down on new mortar beds. I refused to attach the panels to the columns because I knew they would move and I would be responsible for the repairs.

 

[weldingisfun]

Home Owners Annoyance??
Is that what it means?

 

[lakngulf]

Good job. How much practice did it take to get perfectly between the mail boxes

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I saw a mailbox today that was duct taped on.....

how's that for a redneck repair? :laughing:

 

[Grandad4]

I'm thinkin' that's a bit out of your usual line of work, but it pays to diversify. If you get to liking that masonry work and straightening things that are out of plumb, I understand they have this big tower over in Italy they've been trying to sort out for quite a while...

Good to see you're still kicking. All the best to ya.

Grandad

 

[txdon]

Cemeteries are usually looking for bids to straighten up the tomb stones. But it's too hot in Texas in August, except at night, when there is a full moon.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Cemeteries are usually looking for bids to straighten up the tomb stones. But it's too hot in Texas in August, except at night, when there is a full moon.

Some of our scouts have done this as service projects.

 

[Wis Bang]

Dad used to do something similar...the telephone pole out in the alley was our pushin' & pullin' post. Mounting the dump body I held the post hole bar against the pole while he backed up to push the dump body forward on the chassis...

Repairing the sheet metal on my old Willys jeep involved a chain wrapped around the pole while driving forward in low 4x4...

It used to shake & shimmy but it is still standing!