Reinventing a Concrete Patio

Reinventing a Concrete Patio

A small pond liner in background

-Area before, midway through upgrade.  Old approx foot wide shelf made into 18 inch embedded monolith

-Created a shelf/tabletop to sit at outside and view garden and pond.

 

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Tiled My Bathroom

I tiled the middle bathroom a while ago but never put the photo’s up.  This look is more in keeping with the rest of the house.  The floor was carpet put over not nice white tile.  Now it is quite the same as the sink, just size variations.  Made small tiles to get around buying relatively expensive bull-nose tiles on the backsplash top.

Before

After

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Working with my preexisting masonry back patio

I’m currently working with my preexisting masonry back patio to make it able to hold a vine covered arbor/pergola. I have added wall parts and removed others. A little pond and plant spot will be to its right but attached to it. It will help hide support for the walls that were not anchored properly, while making the whole area more attractive. Fireplace is not used as such if you were worried of…

-on a bright New Years eve in 70 degree weather.

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YESTERDAY WAS DEMANDING

Today was a day of cleaning up and waiting.

I made and poured all my homemade concrete for the fountain project yesterday. There was lots of carrying sand/gravel in buckets, using a hoe to mix in the cement with, mix it, get it over to the fountain space and shovel and bucket it into place. After such work, I have to monitor my lower back to avoid having it go out.

When your back is really out it can be weeks before it even seems to improve. Hard to stand or sit or get out of bed. Anyway. Seems I am OK, so I am still able to do stuff, like finish this project. There is a bit of curing time involved, since normal concrete is curred in 28 days. But I can go ahead with preparing the top for nice Morrish tiles.

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I wanted to have a mono pour on this so there will be no seams to let water out, although there are some inside measures I could do to seal leaks as well. The floor is about 8 inches thick and reinforce by metal, as are the sides, so this fountain should last for a thousand years.

My Homemade Fountain Project-2

Here are the fountains forms just about ready for me to get the sand-gravel from the wash and add the cement to it. I still have to run a secret wire into it from behind for the pump. I have a small drain to make cleanup easier along the way. I am using recycled fense found on the curb in my neighborhood. I un-weave it and am using it as a wire mesh substitute. I intend to make this thing so tight that it will not likely ever leak.

This fountain holder is shaped this way to reflect the fountain gift received one Christmas. I have a couple re-bar pieces going around the circumference. In the corners I added an extra piece just in case. The base is actually thicker than the sides so it will never crack. To continue with overbuilding it, I’m also putting recycled fence in just to add a little more connectivity. On top of that, I’ll use a rather rich cement mixture for strong concrete.

I will add a couple wood cross supports in the inside just in case the weight of the walls press the inner forms sides in. As it sets up I’ll probably take them out so I can finish the bottom inside a bit. Those inner walls cant inward a bit for strength and ease of disassembly.

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-and finally this with tile on top.  Late evening photo, colors a bit off, however, side colors are darker on finished fountain.

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Next Concrete Project–fountain

Here is my latest home grown concrete project in motion. This is the initial phase, just getting the outside form started, it will have bevelled corners to match the gift fountain. I may match the color of the fountain to make the whole thing seem as one and much larger. Our small courtyard limits the size of the fountain, but it will be large enough to have a few goldfish in there. The outside width dimension of the fountain will be 6 feet, about 5 foot the other. I have not decided what cap to put on the fountain wall. Possibly a nice tile to sit on, or go with smooth finished concrete. The electrical will come through the wall I made like the hose does there.

I am going to mono-cast the fountain holding pond, so the inside will have a smaller beveled form which shrinks in just a little on the bottom for strength and to help with disassembling.

and

Eventually this courtyard and cat yard will have a smooth, stable floor, easy on bare feet and paws. Probably a stabilized home made adobe, to have an organic but clean feel.

this up front section is the inside dimension. Those overhanging boards will keep it level and balanced to the outer form. Now to put in lots of re-bar so it will not crack.

I poured the homemade concrete yesterday, and here is how that looked.

and finished at 8:15 pm. It was dark so this shot was a flash.

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I chose not to do heavy duty settling of this mix in case I wanted a more natural stone look if we keep it plain. Normally you do lots of tapping of forms and some downward shoving of a stick or similar item to mix and settle. We do not receive freezing temperatures here that last throughout day, so I am not worried about ice expanding in the fissures.

Now comes the tile selection and surface changes.

Home Works–Planet Green + Steve Thomas

I saw Steve Thomas on Planet Green last evening. Planet Green is a cable/ satellite channel, 286 on Direct TV.

Steve was once the host of PBS’s “This Old House”, which is claimed to be the first big home improvement hit. Now there are many networks devoting much screen time to home improvement reality type shows.

Now I was a fan of This Old House, but not so much of Steve Thomas. In my construction days I had a run in with Steve which I will tell you about shortly. Anyway. I always thought of Steve Thomas as a kind of boastful character that was a bit full of himself. As host of the PBS show, he seemed to prance around and, more or less, seeming as the type to avoid doing much actual work. He just felt like one of those guys who showed they could talk up a subject, but not have the real hands on experience. This is a subjective impression based on character assessment type casting. Most of us have this kind of unconscious prejudice operating–first impressions and all. Generally, it is good to reassess such assessments.

The time he came to our job site, it seemed it was because the producers wanted him to at least give us a courtesy call. We were nearly two months into a major renovation and expansion when This Old House came to town. They wanted to track an improvement through the whole process, so we were not what they would cover at that point. He said they would have been interested if that job was going to be just starting.

Anyway. That day he came by, he announces on arrival that he had not slept much and was in a hurry, so we would not be doing any introductions and all that. So he went on to see the companies owner and made no contact with any of the rest of us, including no eye contact.

Well I did not care one way or the other. There are no media personality or movie stars I personally would go out of my way to meet. I did the work I was there to do. But many of the guys would come by and tell me what a jerk or whatever they thought he was. I thought he was who he is, behaving like I would expect. No disappointment to me. I frankly think it would have been quite an embarrassment to see the company I worked for, on display with its compulsive gambling owner. Perhaps the construction drama express would have arrived a decade sooner. Who knows.

But what of Steve Thomas Today? You may wonder?

He is great on his Renovation Nation show on Planet Green. He gets into the construction mix, and doesn’t mind complaining in a kind self effacing sort of way. His promotional energy is well spent on forwarding the construction technologies and innovations needed to conserve resources and help the environment out. His humor is allowed to come out and play more, which makes his presentation and character more interesting and dynamic. I like the guy who replaced him on This Old House, but Steve Thomas seems right in his element on Planet Green with his Renovation Nation experience.

So cheers to a job well done Steve!

Good to see you again.

Steve Thomas – stevethomashome.com

the bio: Emmy Award winning Steve Thomas has signed on with Planet Green to host Renovation Nation premiering June 4, 2008. He also consults on residential …

Authentic adobe block wall–photo

Authentic adobe block wall below. It is a real home, rain eats away at it.

the wolf did not come yet, but would have to blow really, really hard still.

YESTERDAYS PROJECT

HERE IS THE ISSUE

A wet area near the base of the wall indicated a leak inside the masonry wall or cement floor. This is how whomever did things; they put walls and footings directly in or on top of the plumbing. That has lead to the homes main water line to leak and require fixing last year. This other one is complicated, since as I break up the concrete I could fracture the pipe and have a worse issue.

So in these photos you can see the poor construction work; air holding up a makeshift concrete sink that is cracking and falling in. I am going to support that with a wall. That sink will likely become a planter under a whole redesigned area with a raised planting bed, wide concrete counter and an overhead arbor or trellis to hold a nice wisteria vine.

But for today, after yesterdays cutting in with a tile saw and fracturing of the cut areas with gentile hits of a sledge hammer, hopefully today I will pry out the pieces around the pipe and cap it off. I have put another water line this side of that hole with the water in it in the photo. There is already a water spigot 8 feet from this area.

Notice the non existing footing. That is not all; walls are not tied to slab by re-bar or any metal! I will go under in spots to put real footings where I do wall add ons for planter that will help keep walls up by being bolted to them with re-bar from wall to planter wall, grouted with cement.

Scary thing is, this seems to be an area the ex inhabitants were going to annex to the actual home square footage, since it seems to have had window spaces formed. A roof and a cut through to the home would have completed the new room.

Often with older homes (this one only 30 yrs.) one has to deal with homeowner ideas gone bad. But it is wise to watch your “contractors build confidence” group like a hawk as well.

FINISHED ONE FOR NOW + adobe photo

Projects report to self, and mysterious others who come around to post tags, and regulars.

Well. How are you today?

I finished the one stucco patio wall project with window, for now. Now it enters that curring phase before this one is getting painted. My back and neck had too much irritation so now I need to take it easy. Don’t know how much of the exciting home weeding project will get done given my circumstances.

I have a complex concrete and stucco project at home to start soon. It involves adding block, tearing through pre existing concrete to get to pluming that was installed incorrectly, and since, settlement has caused it to crack and leak. Plus put in a little concrete wall to support a failing outdoor sink area all connected. In this last year and a half I have ended up doing more concrete than woodwork, which is a change.

My going native adobe project storage area where micro-burst tore an old shed roof of last year.  Blowing up photo shows old metal roof pieces sitting around, waiting if they are good for anything before going out to recycling.  Photo looking out from the front third of the space.

I made those bottom walls to a future height to serves as seats for who knows who. Adobe raised garden bed in the front of photo. It is in the most remote part of our yard. A skylight is letting sun hit shovel handle in photo. Skylight, as front aluminum roof, made from salvaged materials. Adobe from sand and soil in front yard, 300 feet and 20 feet down to the north.

JUST TO LET THE LIQUID ROCK LOVERS KNOW (concrete use)

I will find some more photos on concrete projects I have done for all you who come to check on them. I will get some on this post in a while, since so many of you are going to those projects here today, I thought I would let you know I will show more and talk more on the subject.

I worked on concrete pools in Chicago area in the summer of 1967, I think. That was all grunt work, wheelbarrowing and standing knee deep in concrete, throwing it up on the sides of the future pool until it stuck and quit sliding like an avalanche back down. The wire mesh and re-bar did not hold well when the slurry is so wet. Because of soil freezing there, at that time, the final four feet of the pools were fiberglass.

(I took photos of photos just now at sunset. Color and shadows are not quite right but one can get the idea I hope.)

This is a section of a front patio at the Tucson house I last lived at. Concrete was colored on finishing by applying cement dies to create stone like effects in a “puzzle” patio and walk. I did one section at a time in one area. Line in middle is approx. 18″ long.

ROCK STEADY

In construction in Tucson in the 90′s and even before, I did many footings and things such as that, helped with the occasional sidewalk or pool patio. I was geared more into tile work as time went on at the job as far a masonry work. Primarily, after being many things like, landscaper, pruner, home remodelling, furniture designer, art painting way back when, then carpentry and most aspects of house construction. But concrete is such a cool medium because for a while at least, it is so flexible as a material.

One reason why, with tints and additives plus your own possible experiments at materials to lighten its weight or add to it to reveal in grinding later, it has many more dimensions than traditional construction seemed to have placed it in the heavy (flat plane) industry. If you are making your own mix, you need to have the “right” cement and sand and gravel or other aggregate formula for your project. Some light weight pots for instance, might have a high cement ratio, to peat moss and pearlite, or sand. Martha Stewart can even give you a formula for that!

CONCRETE NEEDS BONES AND MUSCLE FIBERS ITSELF?

Reinforcing it by metal or other material will be crucial to the long term success of most projects. For home building, local codes or inspectors can tell you what requirements are needed for load bearing, and where in the pour these must be placed and how they are connected or suspended. To get a permit will probably require you to have plans that state these, plus the inspector will be called a bit before pour day to check and advise you on any issues.

For the do it yourself homeowner, they (inspectors) can be very helpful information wise on the future steps required by code. I would tend not to try to do a project on a major scale without getting experience or having someone experienced there. It might be a disaster to go on just having watched home improvement TV, or read some books.

Experience gives you that thinking on your feet awareness. While stepping stones or such might be do-able first try with a little self planning and thought. Pots and other things made in moulds might be done first try too. Those are up to your confidence level on crafts. Concrete is usually caustic and should not be on your skin for long. Clean tool used well. It is good to know where you can put some leftover mix. At times homeowners get a almost free small pad or step done by using up leftover mix in the truck.

Photos to come.

Here is the puzzle like effect, actual color of sections is way off in this photo.

That is a hat on left edge. Our cat Smokey chillen’ in the shade. Shadows caused much variation in the actual varying colors of sections too.

Water from rainstorm would flow down and into a concrete “gutter” sloping to this trees water well.

Flowers and other pots I made used in varying ways in yard. I put a branch as a kind of fence to keep one from drifting unknowingly off of patio.

Below. Looking to home from street. Flowers blocking most of patio view

An architect bought the home to live in.

I tiled the steps with sandstone like ceramic tile.

(I probably have much better photos of this and other concrete projects, just have not gotten around to organizing them.)

Here is a block wall I just did. I connected two short 4 foot walls and a gate.

BUT YESTERDAY’S GONE

TO SPEAK OR SPEAK NOT, IF YOU HAVE NOTHING GOOD TO SAY. THAT IS A QUESTION.

A questionable thing about blogs is that you get to complain all you want.

I don’t know how popular that makes one. When I come across a young persons post on tags, there is often trouble at home apparently, or with friends. It all seems natural, especially for those of us who have no one to complain to about our story, can’t tell those at home, or don’t want to lose all our friends for being a drag. There are probably other reasons as well.

ALL YOU DO IS…

As adults, a lot of this complaining is thrown into politics, to make it seem it is really all someone “out there’s” fault for our discomfort and angst. Some complain about the boss or a co worker who they are having trouble communicating with, or have given up on. Some complaints are about home relationships or love life’s confusion.

There are often shows on TV and movies that show the kids both ruling the home and doing the complaining for many entertainment or dysfunctional reasons. When I was little, overall, complaining was not on the agenda, it usually ended up working against you, or left you with the blame.

DO AS I SAY OR AM OR ELSE?

I have worked in many a company where the companies behavior, much reflected personality traits of the owner, (as also national leaders) for better or worse. It weighs on workers or employees when it is for the worse. Responsible workers end up trying to pick up the slack and often receive no acknowledgement for it, since the owner seems not to value the trait. On rare occasions, they (owner) might notice you have something they really need.

It is unfortunate for uncomfortable work environments where expression of problematic elements of the individuals “story” are not encouraged to be heard. These may come home to greet the family instead with the expression of discomfort, which can both bother the family members or a mate to a great degree, or model frustration encouragement as a family value apparently.

One way or another I have experienced most of these phenomenon. As a volunteer for an alternative to domestic violence treatment, many guys especially need to learn how to compartmentalize work troubles from contaminating home relationship ones, for if we do not have the tools or were modelled with dominator/force (emotional or physical) tools, we can end up burying the love at home and planting fear on top of the pile of anger.

One technique someone used was to place the anger under a rock outside before coming into the house, to pick it back up on the way out to work in the morning. Only to find someone must have stolen the problem overnight. Sometimes a ritual can remind one of both what is sacred and important in ones life.

NOW THAT I HAVE SET THE STAGE FOR MY WORK PROBLEMS YESTERDAY

Luckily I have someone to tell all my troubles to and I hope vicea versa. The object is to tell your story so you can move on or get advice, maybe even have someone share the pain with empathy. I have to remember to pass on the good experiences as well or a downward focus can set up quarters.

Anyway.

My yesterdays whine list is quite short. On the wall I was finishing, in one aspect of top caps, I had to lay on top of it to reach down as far as I could to cut Pyracantha bush branches that were jambed in on the last 5 feet of the wall. They have wicked barbs akin to reaching around in a rose bush. I forgot my long pruners but happened to have a small hand one. My hand was down the side of the wall, with me laying flat dangling off of the top of the wall. My hand became literally covered in blood. As you get older, most of us see our skins become a mere film of what it once was.

The bush kept pushing back into the wall as I cut, so I was there for several minutes with some branches over one half inch thick, difficult with little hand pruners. Being beaten up, I had to shimmy(?) backwards over cement block to try to get to the crocked ladder. Getting onto the ladder, it collapses so I go backwards and sideways blind to the ground. I crash into the wheelbarrow with some mortar mix in it. It goes flying, but for some reason I had mixed the mortar in my rubber cement mixer inside the wheelbarrow. It slide out, leaving the mix still safe and sound.

Since I have neck and back problems, and hit on the side my neck issues are, I did not know how I would be come morning, but I’m not that bad. I’m always soar and stiff by morning, so only more so a bit today. The back of my hand burns, and I have a number of largish scrapes on my arms where I hit the wheelbarrow and ladder on the other arm. Good to go for today.

Whah, whah, whah,. You liberals are such whiners. Why I had an arrow shot right through my head and you don’t see me complaining. Good for nothing, commie pinko sun brothers camping going to Guantanamo springs for a respite I think?

Thanks for the shoulder. OK, the eyeballs, whatever.

Just kidding about those last two paragraphs.