Cement Driveway 2

Another day and another track in my drive way. My soil and sand mix seems to be working well. I get many questions in my unorthodox approach, but it all makes sense to me.

Full of over confidence, it was a late start and a late finish - 6:00 by the time I could do the broom finish.



I went for the full bag mix with the cement mixer. It strained and groaned and even stopped when I went to unload the mix into the wheel barrow.
Here are some pictures of the soil and cement mix - much like mortar.
I got Liz go go to Bunnings to get some ordinary cement. The frigging idiots there pointed her to Builder Cement (has fly ash for more workability), but I did not want that. I wanted a stiff mix with low slump. I really got annoyed with Bunnings poor customer service and Liz had to go back and then they gave her some cheek about what the difference is.

bird netting for figs

I made up a couple of frames to throw bird netting over to protect the figs from birds. I hope they work as we have some nice figs on the trees. I got the bird netting from www.pestawayaust.com.au Very quick service - arrived in a couple of days.

Bunnings could not help me :( I find them funny - despite their huge store, a few times they have look at me and made polite noises as if I was silly to think they would stock _that_ item. And these sorts of big stores complain that people are buying stuff over the internet.

Ready For the Next Level, More Mistakes Found

After a furious three days, I am now ready for the next level.

I eventually managed to fill up the sides with 30 cubic metres of gravel. I've got a tiny bit left that is still out the front - but it will not be in the way of any trucks delivering timber. It is sure tiring work. I noticeably slow down as I got through the day - there are limits to my personal drive. I suppose it would help if I stopped for lunch and drank more water - but it all takes valuable time.

I did a basic tidy up of the site and I took a load of rubbish out to the tip. It contained some concrete cow pads that I said I would take to the concrete recyclers. It was a good idea as the council run tip only charged me $25 instead of $45 for the load.

If I have time on Monday I will sweep out the garage and try to get rid of some of the water from the bathroom.

I've finished leveling the blockwork - those guys were so dodgy. I used this non shrink grout to do the topping. The reason being is that you can lay it 10mm thin and being non shrink, it should not become drummy or develop any cracks. You can't really lay that thinness using normal concrete as initialy and over time it will just break up. It looks good to run your eye across the top - it looks pretty much perfectly level within a couple of millimetres. I troweled the top smooth and flat, but the sides are a bit crazy. You will not see them, so that is fine.

I discovered a new problem, one of the internal walls is out of plumb - around 5cm difference between the top and bottom. It is in the stairwell so I don't know whether it will be noticeable. To be honest, if I had noticed, I would not have paid them until it had been fixed up. Lessoned learnt I suppose. You don't want to mess with me when I get stroppy! Fortunately it does not present a structural problem. Unfortunately I don't have the time to take it apart and get it relaid.

On a different tangent, not that I am a fan of the big corp, but Bunnings employees seem to have more product knowlege than other hardware shops. The other hardware shops just seem to know about things they sell, but in bunnings it can be "yeah I know what you are talking about" or "we use to sell it, but.." where as the others tend to look at me blankly -looking confused. I guess there is an inherit conflict of interest between someone that owns a store and is the sales person. Foremost they want ot sell, where as in Bunnings they are not on commission and are just focused on giving good service.