Last few days was spent on the entry gate post. I had poured the footers when I had poured the deck footers several weeks ago. I was waiting for my cousin to weld an extension to the gate bolts to extend them to 20" rather than the basic 12". Thursday got the post laided up with standard 8" cement blocks doubled and turned 90 degree every other course. The finished post will be approximately 5' in heigth. Being that the gates will require "fine tuning" after hung I improvised and used 1" PVC as a sleeve. If I hadn't the filled concrete would not have allowed the bolts to be free so I could make that adjustment.
Yesterday I mixed and poured the cavities with concrete and inserted 1/2" rebar. I had already pinned the footer with 1/2" rebar before the blocks were laid.
Today I parged all four sides and after a few days of cure time and then I will form the cap and pour it . I can then lay the stone. But I have to make a trip to the factory to pick it up which is about 1-1/2 hours away. I will also get enough to cover the outside fireplace and deck piers. Oh yes I need another ton of sand. Seems that I go through that stuff pretty fast. But I guess I have poured and laid a lot of concrete and stone so you could say it is a necessary evil.
In the mean time I plan on making the deck beches.
Had a slight engineering problem last week. When I put the metal roof on the cabin and flashed the chimney one of the boys helping me made the flashing a little wider than I would have liked. So I laid the stone bridging from the block over on top of the flashing. I guess that the roof metal had expanded and contracted enough to loosen the stone and a couple of stones came tumbling down.
Not a real problem but a PIA to have to work off of a ladder and repair. I am thinking a piece of lathe wire attached with sheet metal screws should suffice and then lay it again. It lasted two years before it loosened.
