[TowerTalk] BAG CONCRETE QUESTION

Tue May 3 12:49:12 PDT 2011

Do rent a concrete mixing machine!  And be sure to buy more bags of concrete than you think you will need; you can always them the extras back for credit.  When I put up my crank-up tower last year, I miscalculated the number of bags of concrete I needed.  We bought 43 bags, and at 8:30 at night we realized the hole was only half full!  If we had let it dry overnight and finished the job in the a.m., we would have a non-bonded mess with one rock sitting on top of another!  We rushed to the store just as it was closing and got 40 more bags--just in time.   At 2 a.m. we finally finished--much to my neighbors' delight, as the concrete machine had a BIG SQUEAK in it <g>.  Do the right math.

					DALE   K4ROZ 

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 3 May 2011 08:30:04 -0400
From: Bill Coleman <aa4lr at arrl.net>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Bag concrete question
To: r miles <greenacres113 at charter.net>
Cc: towertalk <towertalk at contesting.com>, antennas
	<antennas at mailman.qth.net>
Message-ID: <E16C75E8-C30C-4F90-87B3-DA9DC3BC73BB at arrl.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

On Mar 28, 2011, at 6:53 PM, r miles wrote:

> 
> I just purchased a used HyTower & I'm getting ready to dig the hole. 
> I've poured a bit the concrete before. Either redi-mix or small bag 
> jobs. I have looked  several places at the 60 lb. homeowner type bags. 
> Those are OK  but my question is cubic volume. None of the 60 lb. bags 
> show cubic volume. I'm guessing it's 1 cubic foot of concrete in one of 
> those. Anyone know what the cubic value is?
> K9IL

If you have more than one cubic yard to pour, I would strongly suggest a ready-mix concrete service instead of trying to mix your own.

If you have less than a cubic yard, you might consider doing it yourself with bagged concrete. It really isn't that hard to work with, you just have to be able to lift the 60-90 lb bags. Don't hurt yourself.

If you are mixing more than 3-4 bags, I would STRONGLY recommend renting a small mixer at your local home construction store. Much less work than trying to mix a bag at a time in a wheelbarrow.

My Rohn 25 tower base took 28 bags of concrete. I wrote about it here on my blog:
http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com/2009/01/putting-up-tower-pouring-foundation.html

The picture quality isn't great, but you do see a picture of the small electric mixer I used, plus my technique for doing the pour. Pouring the base took about 2 hours of constant work.

Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
            -- Wilbur Wright, 1901

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Tue, 3 May 2011 08:35:22 -0400
From: "Diane & Edward Swynar" <deswynar at xplornet.ca>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Bag concrete question
To: "Bill Coleman" <aa4lr at arrl.net>,	"r miles"
	<greenacres113 at charter.net>
Cc: towertalk <towertalk at contesting.com>, antennas
	<antennas at mailman.qth.net>
Message-ID: <006801cc098e$939a7100$650aa8c0 at yourlk4rlmsu41>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi K9IL,

I don't know if your location experiences frost or not, but if the ground
does, indeed, freeze-up where you are, bank on a hole depth of no less that
4.5-feet, on penalty of the whole affair "heaving" after the onset of just
one winter...

I've had two self-supporting steel towers installed in my lifetime---48-feet
tall---and the prescribed hole-in-the ground for the concrete base is a
4-feet per side, 4.5-feet deep, & with the bottom foot "belled" outward
around the base.

It took about 3, to 3.5 cubic yards of pre-mixed cemet to fill the hole.

~73~ de Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ

****************************************************************************
********************

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Coleman" <aa4lr at arrl.net>
To: "r miles" <greenacres113 at charter.net>
Cc: "towertalk" <towertalk at contesting.com>; "antennas"
<antennas at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 8:30 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Bag concrete question

>
> On Mar 28, 2011, at 6:53 PM, r miles wrote:
>
> >
> > I just purchased a used HyTower & I'm getting ready to dig the hole.
> > I've poured a bit the concrete before. Either redi-mix or small bag
> > jobs. I have looked  several places at the 60 lb. homeowner type bags.
> > Those are OK  but my question is cubic volume. None of the 60 lb. bags
> > show cubic volume. I'm guessing it's 1 cubic foot of concrete in one of
> > those. Anyone know what the cubic value is?
> > K9IL
>
> If you have more than one cubic yard to pour, I would strongly suggest a
ready-mix concrete service instead of trying to mix your own.
>
> If you have less than a cubic yard, you might consider doing it yourself
with bagged concrete. It really isn't that hard to work with, you just have
to be able to lift the 60-90 lb bags. Don't hurt yourself.
>
> If you are mixing more than 3-4 bags, I would STRONGLY recommend renting a
small mixer at your local home construction store. Much less work than
trying to mix a bag at a time in a wheelbarrow.
>
> My Rohn 25 tower base took 28 bags of concrete. I wrote about it here on
my blog:
>
http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com/2009/01/putting-up-tower-pouring-foun
dation.html
>
> The picture quality isn't great, but you do see a picture of the small
electric mixer I used, plus my technique for doing the pour. Pouring the
base took about 2 hours of constant work.
>
>
> Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
> Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
> Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
>             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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