My wife had to go out of town (read, "partied it up in NYC all weekend"). Since the kids wouldn't BOTH fit into the pack-n-play (without a good bit of force) my time/progress this weekend on the project was due largely to my Mom and to Uncle Tony and Aunt Madeleine who came over and took the kids off my hands for several hours (thanks again).
A neighbor came over the week before last and looking at all of the "super bags" asked, "just how many wheelbarrows do you think that is?" Well, this (and an episode of Sid the Science Kid) motivated me to "estimate." Actually, it game me something to think about while I was shoveling. It turns out there are 15 heaping wheelbarrows per super bag. I have 7 super bags times 15 per = 105 wheelbarrows full.
From the get go I was disappointed by the (lack of) documentation that came with the Nicolock material. I emailed them though and got a call back from Alan who was great and answered several questions about setback (none required) gluing courses (recommended) drainage (nice but not necessary for my height).
So, here are some pictures:
Looking pretty good I think. The wall is pretty darn straight and level. I laid and relaid the first few blocks (top right corner) four times before I got it right.
The CR6 base is in pretty good shape (level and tamped). I've got probably another inch in some places to put down. I also figured out how I was going to lay the wall going along the back.
BUT, my pride and joy was the job I did creating the step in the wall....almost. Because the wall is on a hill, I decided to make a step in the base course so I wouldn't have to dig so much more dirt out from the top half of the wall. I didn't realize what was involved.
It gave me a chance to put my new laser level to work (David White 48-M2XLE fro $99 from ToolKing - about $80 cheaper than I saw anywhere else. Here is a drawing of what I was doing.
This meant leveling the lower block at a height where the upper block would also be level. I used my laser level to line up the top of the lower block with the bottom of the rightmost top block. After a while and a lot of tweaking I got the blocks level.I was proud of myself - just one catch I didn't realize till later. I used a random offset for the lower block (the orange arrow). The distance should have been four inches. My wall block widths are 12", 8" and 16" and four inches tall (I stand some upright). Distances that are divisible by four are easier to reach. As the top row continued along the bottom row, eventually (at the end) the blocks did not line up. I'll likely just ignore the offset - the lower course is almost two inches shorted than the rows above it but it will be hidden once the pavers get in. But, it bugs me.
I had the mechanical tamper all weekend (at $69 per day). This is really a waste of money because I only ran it a few times. It was fun though (and luckily, my office mate warned me about how the tamper can take off on you - it did). In the tight quarters of my walkway, the thing was pretty unwieldy. I went to our new home depot today and caved today for a hand tamper ($29) which will be handling my remaining tamping duties.
Here is what is left of the super bags (I've been through 4 and a half of the five CR6 and still have one of sand and one of river rock).
The guy who delivered the material recommended using the super bags for leaves. I've given up on that. If you cut them and open them like an old bag of jiffy pop, it is MUCH easier to get the stone out.
Best purchase so far: A tie between my knee pads and paying the extra $10 for a 3 pound hammer rather than a one pounder.
Worst purchase: The tamper rental
"Best" backhanded complement (from my Mom), "It looks good, it will be great when you can start seeing progress." :)
No comments:
Post a Comment