The blocks and stone arrived Thursday, and the reality of having to build these retaining walls sets in. They arrived on two separate trucks, with the first bringing the stone.
The second truck brought four pallets of Allan Block retaining wall blocks. The truck had this nifty "piggy back" fork lift that attached to the back of the truck. Using the lift mechanism, it could easily lower itself to the ground, and lift it self back up after the delivery was complete.
The work crew arrived Friday night to enjoy the PS3 and get a good nights rest before a full day of work Saturday. The band, "
MBJ Rock Armada", melted faces all across America.
It was a wet start on Saturday. After waking the troops at 8am for breakfast, we were immediately welcomed with a downpour as we surveyed the
work site. The gold star goes to Micah for suggesting we erect a tarp over the work area. We finally got to work around 11am, after a return trip to the Depot for the jumbo tarp.
Micah and Bill discuss the excavation.
How many men does it take to start a plate compactor? I rented it from Home Depot since the block manufacturer recommended using it to compact the stone base.
Not only was it difficult to control, it really wasn't worth the $80 investment. A hand tamper seemed to do a sufficient job without the hassle of lugging around a heavy piece of equipment. The plate compactor seemed to be more suited for a larger patio project. Here Jackson helps rescue Micah from a runaway plate compactor.
The first block is placed!
Jackson
backfills the blocks with stone and rakes it smooth. The first course of block is buried and has 6" of compacted stone for its footing.
In order to place the stones on a radius, the back "wings" are knocked off easily with a hammer and chisel.
Jenna lends a hand with the tamper.
As the workday came to a close, we were greeted with a rainbow. Although the camera couldn't actually capture the rainbow for some reason, this is an accurate artist's re-enactment.
Yes, they are holding it level! Thanks to Micah, Jackson, Brian, Jenna, and of course my wife
Cendy for all their hard work.
The work crew was treated to a
barbeque Meat-fest for their hard day's work. The menu included
baby back ribs,
marinated flank steak,
salmon with habanero-lime butter,
Asian grilled chicken, corn on the cob and zucchini - all cooked on the grill. I'm a big fan of
Allrecipes.com, and the reviews were favorable for most of the menu. Two thumbs up for the ribs and steak. Those recipes are keepers.
The following day, sore backs and all, we continued work on the walls. For the third course, I decided to dowel-in the wall into the concrete foundation. A two-foot #4
rebar rests comfortably in some notches I created in the first two blocks. Some construction adhesive holds the bar in place. The landscape fabric is used to prevent silt from seeping through the seam between the house and first block.
The block joints need to be staggered from course to course, so this creates odd-length blocks at the start of the wall. I couldn't find a suitable saw blade, so instead I drilled some perforations with a masonry bit and hammer drill. With a few whacks of the hammer and chisel, the block splits relatively easily. However, after doing this twice, both blocks fractured. To fix this problem, we switched to
synchronized hammering. I would use a hammer and chisel on the front face, while
Cendy would strike the back face simultaneously. By splitting both faces at the same time, it reduces the stress on the block side walls. As expected, the piece split using the simultaneous splitting technique and did not break after being handled or placed.
I use a hoe to
backfill behind the fourth course. The wall curve takes shape! It definitely was a tricky turn, but
Cendy and I figured it out.
Here's the progress at the end of Sunday. One more course, and this section of wall is complete.
Mama K lends a hand with the hose.
The sidewalk side is finished. One day (hopefully) those little guys will grow up into full-size adult plants.
The crew poses proudly in front of the weekend's accomplishment.
We would work on the walls a little after work everyday. Here four courses are finished, with two more to go.
I would not be outdone - I followed up her hole-in-one on #7 with my own. It was then that I noticed that it was a Par 1, and you were virtually guaranteed to make it in one shot if you kept it on the green.
This is hole #11 - where the wheels fell of for me. I double-bogeyed, and Cendy parred to tie the game.
The intensity increased as we went putt for putt the following three holes. Then I bogeyed to her par. Then she triple bogeyed 16, while I bogeyed...I was now up by a stroke with two holes remaining. I had her just where I wanted - her confidence was low after the triple bogey, and there's only two holes left. Her first shot on 17 was too strong, and actually rolled over the hole without going in...but wait, it bounces off the wall, and back into the hole...a hole-in-one. I par, and it's a tie game. Her first shot on 18 - another hole-in-one. This is ridiculous. I barely miss my own hole-in-one on the first shot so Cendy clinches the win. As misery was setting in, I could tell this was one moment that Cendy will be telling our grandkids. I'm already planning to hit the practice green to prepare for the rematch.
We spent a few hours on the beach afterward, then we hit the road to go home. Sounds easy enough, but as we rode with the top off the Jeep, we noticed unfriendly skies ahead as we approached New Castle County. It started drizzling - no big deal, we weren't even getting wet. The wind currents around the Jeep from driving 70 mph shielded us from the rain. Then it started raining harder...maybe we should roll up the windows? Amazing, hardly a drop on us. Then the big ol' fat rain...OK, now we can feel some drops falling from the collecting rain on the roll bar and visors. Now I need windshield wipers for the inside of the Jeep. After checking the radar on the cell, we decided to plow forward. "We're only going to get wetter if we stop to put the top on" was our reasoning. We must look pretty funny to passers-by at this point. We kept going, and after about 15-20 minutes, the rains subside, and we start to air-dry the Jeep. I've had the Jeep 5 years, and that was the first time I intentionally left the top off and drove through rain. We barely got wet! Good times.
As the other two worked on the wall on the other side of the sidewalk steps, Steve and I start the base course for the flower bed on the opposite side of the house. In this picture I use a rubber mallet to level the block, while Steve is in the ready position with the level.
Here's the finished product of Micah and Jackson's handy work. These walls will not have caps, but instead will be covered with mulch to the front lip.
This foursome had a quite productive day. It was good working weather, and we were able to finish both walls adjacent to the driveway and sidewalk. We finished one course for the flower bed on the opposite side, with five more courses to go.
To celebrate, we got the band back together. With this lineup, the hits just kept on coming...Everlong by Foo Fighters, Jessie's girl by Rick Springfield and Mr. Brightside by Killers, to name a few. To avoid upsetting Farley again, we kept Micah away from the microphone...well, at least away from the Bon Jovi songs. Look for the band, "MBJ Armada +1" on tour this summer.
It was a wet start on Saturday. After waking the troops at 8am for breakfast, we were immediately welcomed with a downpour as we surveyed the work site. The gold star goes to Micah for suggesting we erect a tarp over the work area. We finally got to work around 11am, after a return trip to the Depot for the jumbo tarp.
Micah and Bill discuss the excavation.
How many men does it take to start a plate compactor? I rented it from Home Depot since the block manufacturer recommended using it to compact the stone base.
Not only was it difficult to control, it really wasn't worth the $80 investment. A hand tamper seemed to do a sufficient job without the hassle of lugging around a heavy piece of equipment. The plate compactor seemed to be more suited for a larger patio project. Here Jackson helps rescue Micah from a runaway plate compactor.
The first block is placed!
Jackson backfills the blocks with stone and rakes it smooth. The first course of block is buried and has 6" of compacted stone for its footing.
In order to place the stones on a radius, the back "wings" are knocked off easily with a hammer and chisel.
Jenna lends a hand with the tamper.
As the workday came to a close, we were greeted with a rainbow. Although the camera couldn't actually capture the rainbow for some reason, this is an accurate artist's re-enactment.
Yes, they are holding it level! Thanks to Micah, Jackson, Brian, Jenna, and of course my wife Cendy for all their hard work.
The work crew was treated to a barbeque Meat-fest for their hard day's work. The menu included baby back ribs, marinated flank steak, salmon with habanero-lime butter, Asian grilled chicken, corn on the cob and zucchini - all cooked on the grill. I'm a big fan of Allrecipes.com, and the reviews were favorable for most of the menu. Two thumbs up for the ribs and steak. Those recipes are keepers.
The block joints need to be staggered from course to course, so this creates odd-length blocks at the start of the wall. I couldn't find a suitable saw blade, so instead I drilled some perforations with a masonry bit and hammer drill. With a few whacks of the hammer and chisel, the block splits relatively easily. However, after doing this twice, both blocks fractured. To fix this problem, we switched to synchronized hammering. I would use a hammer and chisel on the front face, while Cendy would strike the back face simultaneously. By splitting both faces at the same time, it reduces the stress on the block side walls. As expected, the piece split using the simultaneous splitting technique and did not break after being handled or placed.
Here's the progress at the end of Sunday. One more course, and this section of wall is complete.
