[TowerTalk] Re: Cost of pumping concretein my area

[Robert Shohet]

Hi Guys,

My property consists primarily of ledge and wetlands (I know - weird
combination isn't it?) on the top of a hill.  The towers are on ledge and a
concrete truck could not get to the tower site through the wetlands or by
climbing the ledge.

Solution:

Rent a LARGE backhoe - same one that dug my towers, have the concrete truck
park at the bottom of the ledge and extend the concrete "chute" into the
backhoe "shovel" (about 10' higher up at my QTH).  The large backhoe
receives the concrete directly into the shovel and takes it to the site
where he dumps it in.  The other concrete guy helps shovel it around
properly into the hole.

Backhoeing the concrete was a bit tricky given all the hills, ruts and large
rocks but was the only way to do it at my QTH.  The large backhoe shovel
took about 1 cu yard at a time and there was minimal spilling - he was quite
skilled.

We used this method for all 6 of the tower guypoints (2 towers) and 2 tower
bases
and were done with the 20 cu yards of concrete in under 2 hours and within
the time allowed by the concrete truck.  Since the concrete sets within
about 2 hours in the truck, this was also an important consideration!

The backhoe guy charged me for 3 hours of time  - $225 - but it was well
worth it.
A smaller backhoe could NEVER have done this at my qth and would have taken
much, much longer - I think that the smaller backhoe shovel is about 40% the
size of the larger one.  Of course, most qth's are somewhat level and don't
have the topographic obstacles that I had to deal with, so that may work
nicely.  They certainly cost less per hour to rent!

You are going to be pouring the concrete only once.  Spare no expense to
make sure that it is done "right" with the appropriate professionals there
to help.

GL!

Bob KQ2M




----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan" <dhearn at ix.netcom.com>
To: <N8DCJ at yahoo.com>; <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 9:56 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Lifting a TX472 off a semi & cost of pumping
concretein my area


> Dan: I have read of people using several 55 gal drums as rollers under a
> crankup to move it off a truck and to the install location. It seems that
> this would cause a minimum amount of damage to a lawn. The subject of
> getting concrete to a location where a truck cannot go has been discussed
at
> length on TT  recently. You can do a search of TT archives at
Contesting.com
> and probably find a mountain of info on the topic. 73, Dan, N5AR
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: dan bookwalter <n8dcj at yahoo.com>
> To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 5:07 AM
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Lifting a TX472 off a semi & cost of pumping concrete
> in my area
>
>
> > Hello All
> >
> > i will be receiving my TX472 shortly from US Towers ,
> > their recomendation is to use a wrecker (which is much
> > more cost effective than the alternatives) does anyone
> > have any experience/hints ??
> >
> > following a thread concerning hauling/pumping concrete
> > from a week or two ago i checked into it in my area
> > and discovered that it isnt really feasible here.... i
> > have to go 250' plus... the pumping guys charge
> > $165/hr with 4 hour minumum.... $2.50 per/yd of
> > concrete... since its over 140' run they have to bring
> > in a second truck with a one time fee of $100, which
> > is roughly $780 just for the pumper plus the $450 for
> > concrete...so i guess i am going to have to get
> > permission from the neighbors to let me rut up their
> > yard since the septic system is between the road and
> > the tower base....
> >
> > Dan N8DCJ
> >
> > __________________________________
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
> > http://search.yahoo.com
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> > See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless
> Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with
any
> questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
> >
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>
> _______________________________________________
>
> See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless
Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any
questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
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