The shed wall

[J. Clarke]

And after that how does one determine that one or another purveyor of same has the kind that have "quality"?

Don't try to be a curmudgeon, you're not any good at it.

[HerHusband]

If you poured an area 6" deep and 8" tall, it would take about one 60 pound bag per foot. That's maybe 8-12 bags depending on the length of your wall. Mix one, pour it in, mix the other, pour, continue. Start at one end and work towards the other. As long as you don't take too long between bags you'll be fine (assuming standard concrete and not quick setting).

I use one of those "party" ice buckets and a mixer on a strong electric drill to make quick work of mixing concrete and mortar.

In any case, blocks will work fine too. Just be sure to use "mortar" and not concrete to set them in.

Leave the PT beam exposed and only bring your siding down to a point that is 8" above grade. You could add flashing to the exterior of the beam if you wish for added protection (and to keep water from working it's way under the beam).

No worries though, sounds like you have a plan worked out.

Anthony Watson

[clare]

Don't know Hartford - but weight is a pretty good indication. Fly-ash and cinders are a lot lighter than sand, rock, and portland.

[J. Clarke]

Thanks, that's actually useful. Now if I can find the bathroom scale and find out what the ones I have weigh--they feel heavy compared to the

25 pound box of mortar mix though, so I suspect they're OK.

[J. Clarke]

Well, got the crud and whatnot ground off of the concrete. Dewalt 18v

4-1/2 inch grinder and cup wheel from Home Despot do a fine job but make sure you've got lots of battery packs because it goes through them faster than they charge.

So today I drilled the holes for the sill anchors and rebar (two sill anchors for each section of wall--one's 4 feet the other's 2 feet) with rebar in each void space of the blocks. Debated rending an SDS hammer for 60 bucks from Home Depot or buying one for 90 from Harbor Fright and went with Harbor Fright--I figured it would do for 9 holes I needed to dril and I'd have it later if I needed to drill a few more for some reason. Went with the 10-amp version, comes in a nice case, with a little tub of grease and a spare set of brushes. I'd never used a real SDS hammer before and I'm impressed--a while back I drilled three half- inch holes in that slab with a half-inch hammer drill and it took me over an hour to do it it. This time it was four 1/2 inch and five 5/8 inch and the HF drilled them about as fast as I can drill studs. Only complaint I have is that the depth bar doesn't lock very tight and I ended up going a little deeper on a couple of holes than I intended.

Found out my blow nozzle had walked off so off to Home Despot for a blow nozzle (HD is enough closer than HF for the gas to make up the difference)--got the 7 piece kit 18249HOM which has a long tip perfect for blowing out the holes--got a half-inch pipe brush from the plumbing department to clean them out--word of advice, if you have both 1/2 and

5/8 holes, do all the 5/8 first--brand new the brush is a tight fit, but once it's been in a couple of half inch holes it loosens up a lot in the 5/8.

Anyway, got the holes cleaned out, shot the Sika (more advice--keep pumping it through the nozzle until it turns light gray before you use it--they say "until it stops streaking" or some such but the dark gray doesn't show any streaks for a long time and set the rebar and sill anchors. The first piece of rebar went in with the dark gray, but by the time I figured out what I'd done it was set anyway, at least enough that that rebar wasn't coming out without more effort than I wanted to put into it.

I'd never used a caulking-gun epoxy before. Having read that it took a lot of effort with the caulking gun and being somewhat arthritic but too cheap to spend for a powered gun, I did a bit of research and found that they make guns with up to 26:1 thrust ratio, so I ordered one of those (Newborn 375-XSP) off of Amazon and it worked a treat for the purpose. Sika squeezed out easy as you please with no effort at all. Gonna be interesting to see how that gun works for other stuff. I suspect it's going to prove to have been 35 bucks well spent.

[HerHusband]

Several years ago I had to drill some holes through a concrete basement wall to replace a broken water line. All I had at the time was a standard rotary drill. It took a couple hours and I burned up several masonry bits in the process. I got the job done but I really didn't know what I was doing.

I later bought a Dewalt hammer drill and discovered it worked much better for drilling holes in concrete, but it was still very slow. OK if you just need a few small holes, but inadequate for big jobs.

A couple years ago I needed to split several granite boulders so I invested in a SDS rotary hammmer. Wow, what a difference. Makes easy work of drilling large holes in concrete or stone. I wish I had bought one years ago.

Wouldn't a shop vac work for cleaning out the holes?

It's gotta be better than my first attempt... blowing into the hole and having all the dust come back in my face. Learning experience, something you only do once. :)

Me either. The few times I've needed masonry epoxy I just bought the little squeeze tubes from the home centers. Nothing fancy, but it did the job for a few holes.

I know they have air power caulking guns and cordless electric models, but I haven't used either type.

I've always bought the best manual guns available at the home centers. Haven't run into anything yet I couldn't squeeze out with them.

When we built our house I bought one of those large sized guns that we used to lay down all the construction adhesive for the subfloor panels. For big jobs that's a lot nicer than squeezing out a bunch of small tubes.

Kind of late now, but for your small job I would think concrete masonry anchors (the kind that expand in the hole to lock in place) would work just as well as rebar. Could have saved the cost of the epoxy and fancy caulking gun, but at least you have a new tool now! :)

Glad you're making progress with your shed.

Anthony Watson

[J. Clarke]

Yeah, I learned "don't lean over the hole".

The Sika instructions say "blow, brush, blow, brush, blow". Figured if I was going to use the stuff I may as well do it right. I added an additional "brush, blow" to that and was still getting crud out.

Besides, once you get used to having a compressor with a blow nozzle you miss it--I was going to have to replace the nozzle anyway.

I thought about those. I've used them before. Trouble is the local suppliers (well, Fastenal did but I'd have had to take time off from work to get to Fastenal) didn't have any threaded ones long enough to go through the block and the sill with enough left to put a nut on. Once the decision was made to set threaded rod for sill anchors, adding a piece of rebar in each void space that didn't have an anchor didn't really add much effort, and I've got way more epoxy than I need for the job.

[DerbyDad03]

Many years ago a wise man told me "If you are working too hard, you are probably using the wrong tool."

He then lend me his electric jack hammer. The drain I had to expose in my basement slab came quickly into view.

[clare]

Anything power assisted beats doing what I had to do as a young fellow - putting lag anchors into high strength concrete (about 40 years old) with a star chisel and a 3 lb hammer - - - - - - -

[Martin Eastburn]

I feel it - used a star drill to cut a 2.5' x 2.5' hole through a 6" thick concrete slab that was cured. Worse it was under a shop table - limited work area. Bomb shelter - what else... It was in the 50's.

Mart> >

[HerHusband]

When drilling into rocks, I learned to wear safety glasses. When the drill starts hammering into the first half inch or so chips of rock and dust fly everywhere. Once the bit gets down in the hole a bit it's not so bad.

I have one but rarely use it. To me they're just like a leaf blower. They blow stuff out of the way but it just ends up somewhere else. I prefer suction to vacuum up dust and debris. Keeps the dust out of my eyes and nose and keeps my workspace cleaner.

You could have added couplers and threaded rod to get any length you want.

But, you got the job done and have new tools. Now you'll just need more projects in the future so you can use them again. :)

Anthony Watson

[HerHusband]

Yep. We got the call at 8pm from my mother-in-law that a pipe had burst underground outside her house and was flooding her basement (she lives about an hour away). We had the city turn off the water and dug it up in the dark. I had to replace the old pipe that was running through the basement wall. I'm not sure why but the concrete was over a foot thick at that point. The only tool I had available at the time was a cheap rotary drill and some chisels and masonry bits I picked up on the way to the in- laws.

I knew I was doing something wrong, but had never done anything like that before so I didn't have a clue.

That job would sure have been a lot easier with my rotary hammer. :)

Anthony Watson

[HerHusband]

The local hardware store showed me one of those when I stopped to get more masonry bits. I'm like "yeah right, you've got to be kidding"... :)

In hindsight, it probably wouldn't have been any worse than a spinning masonry bit. Without the hammer action it's practically worthless.

Anthony Watson

[J. Clarke]

One way or another the blocks are down and filled. I started in on the carpentry today, got one sill plate down, was fixing to do the other one when I realized that the #$%^&*ing MORON who built the thing had ended the wall on a void space in the crosswall. Two inches longer and it would have been on a stud, but NOOOOOOOO. And the slab is of course poured the same two inches short and the roof ends the same two inches short, so building it out would be a major operation.

Long term I need to open the wall up and add a stud in the right place. Short term I can think of several ways to rig it.

Just venting.

[HerHusband]

Assuming you have some kind of plywood or OSB sheathing in the cross wall, I really don't think you have a problem. Driving several deck screws long enough to penetrate the sheathing should be way more strength than you'll need.

However, if it bothers you, you could drill holes and install several toggle bolts. Short of a hurricane or tornado, the new wall won't be going anywhere.

Glad you're making progress.

Anthony Watson