[TowerTalk] Concrete cost comparisons

[Dick Green WC1M]

That's *really* cheap! Must have been leftovers from a job, or the
construction market in south Florida is worse than I thought!

I paid $783 for a truckload back in late September 2006. I believe that's 9
yards of concrete.

The nominal specs for my Rohn 55 tower were 2.6'x2.6'x4' for the pier, and
3'x6'x1.5' for the anchors (I went with the 110 MPG spec). That's 1 cubic
yard for the pier and 1 cubic yard for each anchor, or 4 cubic yards total. 

As many have noted, it's hard to dig a perfect hole with a backhoe or
excavator. The hole always ends up larger than intended, especially after
you get in and square it up with a shovel. The pier wound up closer to
4'x4'x6' and was more trapezoidal than rectangular (i.e., wider at the
base.) I estimated that it would need 1.5-2 yards of concrete. The anchor
holes were somewhat irregular at the bottom, too, so it was hard to estimate
the final dimensions. I think I estimated 1.5-2.0 yards each anchor, too. 

I ordered either 7 or 8 yards of concrete, and they sent a full truckload. I
believe that's 9 yards. The tower site is on a steep hill, and the concrete
company was worried about the truck tipping over or getting stuck in soft
ground, which was unusually moist that year. So they parked in the driveway
and we used the wide bucket on an excavator to haul loads of concrete to the
pier and anchor holes. It went much faster than I expected, less than an
hour to fill all the holes. Actually, it might have been only 30 minutes. I
can't remember now. We ended up using a little more concrete than I
expected. There was a small amount left over at the end, probably a yard or
less, and we just divided it between the three anchor holes. Those anchors
aren't going anywhere...

73, Dick WC1M

-----Original Message-----
From: Mickey Baker [mailto:fishflorida at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2011 12:10 AM
To: Tom Anderson
Cc: towertalk at contesting.com; Patrick Barkey
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Concrete cost comparisons

I paid $90/yard for 5 yards ready mix delivered, here in south Florida about
2 months ago.

On May 5, 2011, at 11:23 PM, Tom Anderson <andersonww5l at sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

> Patrick:
> 
> You might also check if you have a "U-cart" or similar named operation in
your area.  They sell you the already mixed concrete (I used them on a 40 ft
Rohn 25 base back in the 1980s).  You just pay for the already mixed
concrete.  It somes in a trailer of varying sizes and you pull it to your
site and back the trailer up and dump it in the hole.  All we were required
to do was wash out the cart before returning it. I just took it to a quarter
car wash and invested $1 or so to wash the cart out.
> 
> In the mid 1990s I hired a toweer contractor to put the base of a crank up
Tri-ex 51 ft tower because where we moved is permeated with underground
springs and the first hole 4x4x6 we had dug filled up with water overnight.
We filled that in and the contractor dug and poured the concrete in 1 day.
> 
> Tom, WW5L  
> 
> --- On Thu, 5/5/11, Patrick Barkey <n9rvee at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> From: Patrick Barkey <n9rvee at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [TowerTalk] Concrete cost comparisons
>> To: towertalk at contesting.com
>> Date: Thursday, May 5, 2011, 6:22 PM
>> Here were the recent computations I
>> performed when considering
>> different types of concrete options.
>> 
>> Amount needed:  2.1 yards
>> 
>> 1.  Red-Mix cost:  $345.98, includes:
>> 
>> $97/yard cost
>> $75 min. load fee (because its a small amount)
>> $68 mileage fee (I live in the sticks -- don't all true
>> hams?)
>> 
>> 2.  Quikcrete cost:  $362.54, includes:
>> 
>> $3.85 per  0.6 cu. ft. bag
>> 94.1 bags needed
>> 
>> no charge for mixer (borrowed from neighbor)
>> 
>> 3.  Mix your own cost
>> 
>> Lost my worksheet for this, but I calculated a cost of $190
>> for just
>> the Portland cement.  Given that I would have to make
>> two hauls in my
>> pickup bed to get the gravel and sand, I quickly concluded
>> that
>> Redi-Mix was the only feasible option.
>> 
>>   - Pat
>>     N9RV
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