[Towertalk] 'Toes' of a tower concrete base -- Summary?

[Steve Maki]

K3GB wrote:

>Digging a hole of the "L" shape would be physically impossible for me.  LXC
>raises the point about safety, too.

A fairly easy way to accomplish this shape - I just did one last year
- is as follows:

1) Dig a straight sided hole, insert rebar cage and pour the pad.

2) Set a light form for the pier (Sonotube works well) on the pad.

3) Continue the pour while simultaneously backfilling around the
pier form to keep everything (the form and pad) in place. 

Of course, the backfill is disturbed earth, so in a self-support
application won't be as strong, at least at first, as a hole dug the
dangerous way. My tower is guyed, so it made no difference.

73,
--
Steve K8LX

p.s. Mike, the only reason I went through all this is cuz it was
engineered for commercial purposes <g>