Gene wrote:
> ... Just
>make sure you (or someone you've hired) backfills properly after the
>concrete cures and you've removed the form for the column (you WERE
planning
>on removing the form, weren't you?). The backfill material has to be
>compacted while it's being replaced. You can use a tamping plate to pound
>the dirt around the column as each foot or two has been shoveled back in.
A
>real PITA, but necessary. The commercial projects, rather than
>tamp-as-you-go, use a bulldozer to run back and forth across the fill after
>it's all been replaced.
Somewhere I recall that backfill and compacting should be done in 6-8"
layers.
One tool for doing the compacting is a "jumping jack compactor" which can be
rented at Home Depot and other tool rental places. It's a gasoline engine
on top of a piston on top of a 6" wide foot. You fire it up, and it jumps
up and down packing down the soil. Keep it off your foot and wear heavy
steel toe boots just in case. Makes short work of the compacting, must
faster and much more effective than doing it by hand or other makeshift
techniques.
73 de Bill N7VM
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