The Home Improvement Thread

Oswego

n00b
These DOD pics? Seemed to have blocked out the tomato farm in the background lol

Amazing what wind can do. I remember my mom telling me she had seen straw pushed through a telephone pole by a tornado when she was growing up in tornado alley in IL.
 

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
These DOD pics? Seemed to have blocked out the tomato farm in the background lol

Amazing what wind can do. I remember my mom telling me she had seen straw pushed through a telephone pole by a tornado when she was growing up in tornado alley in IL.
;)
 

achirdo

2WD FTW
Forgot to post pics of the sail. I blocked out houses and all that for a little privacy.
The blue part is what was patched where the sail ripped from a random tornado that came through our properties.
View attachment 10642
View attachment 10643
These are the two pads I put in to help the pole hold stay in place. The galvenized pole is ten foot in the ground and filled with concrete and the sail still pulled it forward. We then added the guy wire to the back but that eventually started to pull out despite how far into the ground we got it.
The pad around the pole is 1500# worth of concrete and the pad at the back is around 1200# of concrete. I didn't get a great finish on top because I don't really care how it looks at the back plus my concrete trowels walked off (I just found them the other day) lol
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Holy canoli. I can't believe that still pulled it forward. Would it have helped you think to. Have the concrete shape be square and not pointed like that? How much further back could you dig? What if for the line anchor you went back another 20' or so, dug a big ass hole poured a big ass ball of concrete, and buried it and attached to that? I can't imagine that would move. A big ass dead weight buried in the ground, no way, no how, not once, not neva
 

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
If my attic was empty I'd spend the coin to foam the roof. @balakay @Silverback
Do NOT use foam in Texas. I can't say it enough. It's too hot and humid here for foam. It'll trap moisture behind the foam which will rot out the house in 20 years. I HIGHLY recommend using natural cellulose insulation, especially when they can pack it in.
It's awesome sound deadining material and insulation.
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Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
Since your obviously not redoing the pole, what if you had someone inject that expanding foam in there they normally inject under driveways to level them with? That should help stabilize it I would think. @Anathollo
It all depends on the soil beneath your slab. It might level it out for a year or two but then sink down because the ground underneath isn't compacted enough.

EDIT: Derp, my morning coffee is still kicking in. If this pole moves again, I'm bringing a front end loader in, digging all that crap out, leveling it and then pour a massive slab for it. I'm gonna take it from a residential project to a commercial project lol
 
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Taco Loco

Tired and Lazy, married to ‘The Laundry Fairy’
Do NOT use foam in Texas. I can't say it enough. It's too hot and humid here for foam. It'll trap moisture behind the foam which will rot out the house in 20 years. I HIGHLY recommend using natural cellulose insulation, especially when they can pack it in.
It's awesome sound deadining material and insulation.
View attachment 10653

Or a home with those fake stucco exterior walls.
 

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
Holy canoli. I can't believe that still pulled it forward. Would it have helped you think to. Have the concrete shape be square and not pointed like that? How much further back could you dig? What if for the line anchor you went back another 20' or so, dug a big ass hole poured a big ass ball of concrete, and buried it and attached to that? I can't imagine that would move. A big ass dead weight buried in the ground, no way, no how, not once, not neva
I pointed the front slab because it matched the curve of the garden edging in front of it (put the dirt and edging back after I pulled the forms out). I can't mess with my mom's garden or shrink it in size. Gardening is one of her hobbies.
I can't remember how long the line anchor is but it's far down in the ground. My stepdad borrowed a friends tractor and dug it down.
I already told my mom that if these two slabs don't hold then I'm bringing in a concrete crew and some heavy equipment lol but it should hold fine. The pole didn't even move when I hooked the sail up to it. :)
 

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
Or a home with those fake stucco exterior walls.
Yep, I spent $10k fixing the stucco walls of a $5 million dollar mansion. Within a couple of months, new cracks started forming in new areas of the property lol Luckily I had pictures to show the owner that it wasn't the same cracks we had fixed already. He sold the property a couple of years later because (and this is a direct quote from him)- "this house is going to bankrupt me" which is hilarious because he's a mega millionaire.
 

Taco Loco

Tired and Lazy, married to ‘The Laundry Fairy’
Everything is so green at the house, we must of got significant rainfall while we gone. I was worried how dry everything was before we left and being gone over the 4th cause there were numerous brush fires everyday.
 

achirdo

2WD FTW
Everything is so green at the house, we must of got significant rainfall while we gone. I was worried how dry everything was before we left and being gone over the 4th cause there were numerous brush fires everyday.
Seems like every where around me here in DFW got rain this last week but us. Pretty crispy around here with Temps over 100 all week. Water well has been getting a work out lately
 

Taco Loco

Tired and Lazy, married to ‘The Laundry Fairy’
Seems like every where around me here in DFW got rain this last week but us. Pretty crispy around here with Temps over 100 all week. Water well has been getting a work out lately

I'm 28 miles SE of Sant Ant.
Before we left town everything was brown, stupid hot 100+ & dry & daily brush fires burning.

I kept my sprinklers on a lot before we left, to keep my main yard green in case there was a brush fire in area, well last months water bill was $627, I was expecting it to be $400...

85D9FD1D-8668-4016-9997-9C0A78ED7630.jpeg
 

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
I'm 28 miles SE of Sant Ant.
Before we left town everything was brown, stupid hot 100+ & dry & daily brush fires burning.

I kept my sprinklers on a lot before we left, to keep my main yard green in case there was a brush fire in area, well last months water bill was $627, I was expecting it to be $400...

View attachment 10674
giphy.webp
 

achirdo

2WD FTW
I'm 28 miles SE of Sant Ant.
Before we left town everything was brown, stupid hot 100+ & dry & daily brush fires burning.

I kept my sprinklers on a lot before we left, to keep my main yard green in case there was a brush fire in area, well last months water bill was $627, I was expecting it to be $400...

View attachment 10674
Holy canoli. I thought our $100 water Bill was high.

If I didn't have free water on my property I can't imagine what my water bill would be to keep this whole acre green.
 

Taco Loco

Tired and Lazy, married to ‘The Laundry Fairy’
Holy canoli. I thought our $100 water Bill was high.

If I didn't have free water on my property I can't imagine what my water bill would be to keep this whole acre green.

Let's say $626 lol
 

Oswego

n00b
I'm 28 miles SE of Sant Ant.
Before we left town everything was brown, stupid hot 100+ & dry & daily brush fires burning.

I kept my sprinklers on a lot before we left, to keep my main yard green in case there was a brush fire in area, well last months water bill was $627, I was expecting it to be $400...

View attachment 10674

Yikes! in 14 years Ive never paid more than $80 a quarter for water. One of the benefits of having one of the largest aquifers in the country under your house.

Blue is our aquifer, the Kirkwood-Cohansey. Takes up more than 50% of our state. Also why we actually have a state forest. State stole the land from a wealthy guy who bought it to sell clean water to Philly. At least they named it after him after they robbed him.
NJ%20Provinces,%20KC,%20Pinelands,%20xsection.jpg
 

Taco Loco

Tired and Lazy, married to ‘The Laundry Fairy’
Yikes! in 14 years Ive never paid more than $80 a quarter for water. One of the benefits of having one of the largest aquifers in the country under your house.

Blue is our aquifer, the Kirkwood-Cohansey. Takes up more than 50% of our state. Also why we actually have a state forest. State stole the land from a wealthy guy who bought it to sell clean water to Philly. At least they named it after him after they robbed him.
NJ%20Provinces,%20KC,%20Pinelands,%20xsection.jpg

~30" of rain per year here, evaporation rate is more than twice the rainfall amount.

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