The truck just left. The chap unloading was pretty darn good. He happily dropped the loads exactly where I wanted them. He showed me the boom truck, he has a long cable with a pendant control pad on the end of it from which he operates the clam for lifting the pavers and then adds a fork to lift the pallets for the retaining wall stones. First time I have actually got up close and personal with such a truck.
He was pretty interested in the work I have done and intends to come back for pictures when I am done. I gather his boss uses them for sort of promotional material. So far 16 bundles of pavers, four of Royal Gray retaining wall and another of big buggers the name of which I just forget. The remaining 14 bundles of pavers and 30 curbs come in a week or so. I doubt I will be ready for them by then but they will be ready for me. ----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Leavens To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 11:30 AM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Re: Patio project update. 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] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
