I sorta committed to using this interlocking block system to the point of no return on walls around the pool. Hindsight being 20/20, I'll go back to what I know -- spend the money for wood, build forms and pour the remaining walls needed on the lot. I'll do it old school with plywood, 2x, stakes and duplex nails.
It'd be about a wash on materials even if I couldn't reuse the forms elsewhere on the lot (I can/could have). The savings would come in time and labor expense. Setting these blocks so as to get a wall that runs level and true is more tedious (and heavier) work than I anticipated. It's the bottom couple courses that take the time -- and seem heavier since you're bent over working down in a trench to set them.
2 comments:
If you've got a trench, why not pour a concrete footing and be sure your level at grade?
Seems like it would save time and back work.
It's about tradeoffs. Poured wall footing would need to be a bit wider for code and of course there's the time/expense of doing steel and forms. The stacking block has a "design" look that worked in these walls. A poured wall would probably have needed stucco in this spot.
That said I'll go back to what I know (poured walls) for the wall above the shop pad and at the bottom of lot (between foot of playfield bank and bottom loop of the drive).
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