Got'er did, now I sit waiting
- Thread starter Rick
- Start date
With those blocks the max gravity wall height is 6 ft.
Beyond that is required. Smaller blocks would have required an engineer to design the wall and approve it. I have access to a mechanical engineer but not a structural engineer. She majored in the wrong field to save me money. Damn kids.
Smokey, we have enough ant and bug issues already. We live in a wooded area so bugs are a fact of life. At least carpenter ants and terminates don't eat concrete. Yet.....
Beyond that is required. Smaller blocks would have required an engineer to design the wall and approve it. I have access to a mechanical engineer but not a structural engineer. She majored in the wrong field to save me money. Damn kids.
Smokey, we have enough ant and bug issues already. We live in a wooded area so bugs are a fact of life. At least carpenter ants and terminates don't eat concrete. Yet.....
Yes. A drain tile at the bottom. Two feet of gravel and geotextile behind the wall to prevent soil infiltration. Geogrid every few courses to prevent any tendency to bow.
They will dig back about 7 feet from the wall for all the proper back fill. Lots of dirt to be moved.
They will dig back about 7 feet from the wall for all the proper back fill. Lots of dirt to be moved.
Luckily the wall holds back little flat surface. Not more than 10 feet behind that wall are the front stairs and everything the other side of them drains to the other side of the yard. The only downspout from the roof carries water from a very small area of roof and it will be tied into the drain tile for the wall and flow to the street.
Water destroys walls like this. Proper drainage and grading are key.
Water destroys walls like this. Proper drainage and grading are key.
smokeywolf
Well-Known Member
Don't know about your retaining wall, but my son may be able to design your next house. He's interested in architecture. He just finished his sophomore year in high school, all advanced placement/honors classes including one that counts for both high school credits plus 3 college units.
We just got a letter from his school, he finished the year with a 4.375 GPA and placed on "Principal's Honor Roll".
This Summer he's taking Intro to Architecture and Intro to Drafting at the local community college.
We just got a letter from his school, he finished the year with a 4.375 GPA and placed on "Principal's Honor Roll".
This Summer he's taking Intro to Architecture and Intro to Drafting at the local community college.
That is about how my daughter started. Math, math, math. Can't do any of that without math.
Lots of good paying jobs out there, just have to have the right skill set or education to do them.
And never, ever underestimate the importance of good communication skills. Both written and verbal. Your knowledge is only as good as your ability to communicate it to others. My daughter isn't the brightest engineer but she has communication skills way beyond those of her classmates. She got a job, many of the top students didn't. Businesses are hiring a person, not just a brain.
Lots of good paying jobs out there, just have to have the right skill set or education to do them.
And never, ever underestimate the importance of good communication skills. Both written and verbal. Your knowledge is only as good as your ability to communicate it to others. My daughter isn't the brightest engineer but she has communication skills way beyond those of her classmates. She got a job, many of the top students didn't. Businesses are hiring a person, not just a brain.
smokeywolf
Well-Known Member
At 3 years old he was doing double digit addition and subtraction in his head. At 4 he was calculating squares, cubes and their roots. He loves math and has never gotten anything other than "A"s. He knocked out his pre-calculus last year.
Sorry to drift from topic, but I'm bursting.
Sorry to drift from topic, but I'm bursting.
Pistolero
Well-Known Member
Sounds like a really smart kid, but since my wife has a BS degree in archy, I have not too
good of an opinion of the field and the way she was treated by the UF Archy school. Understand
that architecture is (or at least was) almost totally inhabited by ART student types. And - they
act pissed off at "engineering types" who get into architecture. She was hasselled a LOT by her
instructors for taking "too many engineering courses" in her permitted optional course work,
even though she had taken, and done well in her required archy classes. She took almost of all
the courses for a civil engineering degree, in addition to the archy courses.
Eventually, she bailed out of the school about 4 credit hours short of her Master's Degree because the pukes (profs in charge)
who approved the subject of her final major research project (mandatory) decided after she had spent 5-6 months
on it that they didn't like the topic and would not approve the work. Said, " start over". Middle finger extended, exit
school, work for 35 years as a designer for a major civil engineering company, almost a civil engineer working
with civil engineers, happy in her job.
The point is: Someone who loves math may find that archy types typically do NOT love math,
they love art and are not happy with folks who get "too techy" on them. I think they feel
inadequate or something, but that is what is was like in the 1970s at UF. Might be different
elsewhere and different times, but archy and engineers always seem to have some friction. Archys
seem to look down on engineers, think that their design/art is somehow superior to nasty old math and
calculations that engineers do to actually make their buildings stand up.
Hope he finds great satisfaction in whatever he chooses. People who are really good at math are
valuable resources for our country, I wish him all the best.
Bill
good of an opinion of the field and the way she was treated by the UF Archy school. Understand
that architecture is (or at least was) almost totally inhabited by ART student types. And - they
act pissed off at "engineering types" who get into architecture. She was hasselled a LOT by her
instructors for taking "too many engineering courses" in her permitted optional course work,
even though she had taken, and done well in her required archy classes. She took almost of all
the courses for a civil engineering degree, in addition to the archy courses.
Eventually, she bailed out of the school about 4 credit hours short of her Master's Degree because the pukes (profs in charge)
who approved the subject of her final major research project (mandatory) decided after she had spent 5-6 months
on it that they didn't like the topic and would not approve the work. Said, " start over". Middle finger extended, exit
school, work for 35 years as a designer for a major civil engineering company, almost a civil engineer working
with civil engineers, happy in her job.
The point is: Someone who loves math may find that archy types typically do NOT love math,
they love art and are not happy with folks who get "too techy" on them. I think they feel
inadequate or something, but that is what is was like in the 1970s at UF. Might be different
elsewhere and different times, but archy and engineers always seem to have some friction. Archys
seem to look down on engineers, think that their design/art is somehow superior to nasty old math and
calculations that engineers do to actually make their buildings stand up.
Hope he finds great satisfaction in whatever he chooses. People who are really good at math are
valuable resources for our country, I wish him all the best.
Bill
I didn't do well with math in school but I did get enough of it to figure out that the generator in it's first full year has cost $37.83 per minute to power the house not including propane. That's minutes of run time divided by cost of the unit installed. Only one way to get that figure down, more power outages. 
RBHarter
West Central AR
Save the fridge and the freezer just once and that will be priceless. $100/day goes a long long ways if like our freezers you have $1000 to loose . I bought a small generator for the hunting rig it's run time in dollars is substantially less than yours but it has run 2-5 / day every trip coming up on 30 days over the last 3 years . Knock on wood I haven't needed for a major power outage but it would be worth every penny if we did . Down to under $3/hr ..... Money well spent.
Oh yeah, no doubt. I didn't install the unit for pesky one or two hour outages, they aren't anything but annoying. It's reason for being there is the possibility of major outages from several days to weeks. The well pump of course, loss of food in the freezer and fridge could be quite costly but just as important for me is I keep my insulin in the fridge cause it has to be refrigerated. The refrigerator has to keep humming along.
.
.
