Hi Dan, You might like to investigate those retaining wall bricks. There are several configurations, one bunch I am getting today have a textured face and a flange hanging down at the rear. Each course sits about half an inch back of the previous course, maybe a little less. You can stick them together with construction adhesive and they even have cap stones for a top finish it you prefer. Beats the heck out of mixing and buttering with mortar and all that means. The dirt behind forces them forward keeping them in place. You can even form steps by laying a row then a cap and another row behind that. You should stick the steps as it might be possible to tip the cap stone if standing on it's edge particularly if you hang it over a little for best visual effect.
----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Rossi To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 11:06 AM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Re: Patio project update. Dale, I am tired just reading about your progress. Makes my basement door thing seem pathetically small in comparison. I dug a hole in the bottom of the pit on Sunday. I sunk a large plastic sump into the hole. I dumped a bunch of gravel at the bottom of this secondary hole, punched a bunch of holes in the bottom of the plastic sump and placed the sump into the hole and dumped a bit more gravel into the sump to weight it down a bit and keep it from shifting too much. There is a lid on the sump and there will be a drain passing through the cement slab and draining into the sump. There will also be some of that 4 inch perforated pipe running around the outside of the pit and dumping into the sump. This will hopefully keep the pit reasonably dry except in the case of continuous rain for several days. Now I just have to haul all the cement up the stairs and I can pour the slab. Then I'll just have to haul all the cement blocks up the stairs and build the walls of the pit. -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [email protected] Tel: (412) 268-9081 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
