Help me out of these holes, please!

[ToughButterCup]

5 hours ago, Construction Channel said:

it might be an idea if you have the time and a few spare blocks kicking about to have a practice before the end of the week, 

 

stack a few blocks up, drill 4 or 5 rods through them, Knock up some fairly wet concrete in a barrow and fill up the blocks. then try pulling them out at hourly intervals just to get the timing right for Monday,

 

also you want to make sure you pull out the rods the right way, e.g hit them with the hammer on the side with all the concrete and pull from the side with the insulation, no point pulling more rod through concrete than you need to.

 

Exactly . 's war I'm gonna do baby.... What an excellent idea

[ToughButterCup]

7 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Agreed. Only a welding God could weld a foot to a boot. 

?  ?

 

Blistering up nicely now. Never mind. @Russell griffiths will get his comeuppance; revenge best served cold eh?

[Ferdinand]

>2) how dry are your blocks, I have never worked with durisol but by the looks of them they will suck the life out of the concrete in no time, on that basis the only time you are likely to get a blow out is in the first hour or so, or while the concrete is pumping.

 

The texture is like shredded wheat, except in shredded wheat the fibres are aligned.

 

Kevin McCloud would love to do a demo.

 

@recoveringacademic kindly donated me one at the weekend, so if he ends up with a gap at the top like @Construction Channel, you know where ir went.

 

F

Edited August 30, 2017 by Ferdinand

[ToughButterCup]

18 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

being a welding god you should be able to knock something up in a jiffy. 

 

Harumph..... If proof were needed here it is

@Russell griffiths I am indeed a welding God  after all!

 

So there. Let that be a lesson to ya!

 

(We all gotta start somewhere)

 

 

[Russell griffiths]

Good on ya mate, smashing job?You can have a diploma ?‍?

[Russell griffiths]

I hope your going to put it up in your workshop. 

[ToughButterCup]

I'd be ashamed if I put that up.

 

I'll post it to you though as an official BH trophy IF you can show me (on BH) that you can weld any better.

Stick welder, any old bit of angle iron....

 

Weld the words Welding God, you may within the rules

• use any stick welding kit,
• any welding rod
• any angle iron
• grind off any black bits

Prize? Recognition of  The Honour and the Glory of welding something well.

And @PeterW will buy you a pie.

[Declan52]

13 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

 

Harumph..... If proof were needed here it is

@Russell griffiths I am indeed a welding God  after all!

 

So there. Let that be a lesson to ya!

 

(We all gotta start somewhere)

 

 

Is that in Braille!!

[Construction Channel]

[ToughButterCup]

OK, ok, ok, I'm the first official braille welder.... Who can say that they are an official braille welder eh? You?  Nahhhh, See.

[Russell griffiths]

I would cut a patch  larger than affected areas, clean area and prime stick patch on with stickaflex or ct1 smear around edges and smooth off with a paintbrush dipped in appropriate thinner, prime and paint over the whole patch. 

Go to pub with money saved from all those bent twisted welding rods. Ca Ching. 

 

if you remember my original answer to your dilemma regarding the container roof you will recall I recommended STICKING a patch on. 

So if you had followed this advice you would now be a. 

[Declan52]

A bit of messing about with the welder will do you no harm at all. Burn a few holes leave a few blobs who cares. Will help you get rid of some of that stress stuff that I am sure is building up in you.

 

[Nickfromwales]

17 hours ago, recoveringacademic said:

And @PeterW will buy you a pie.

[Construction Channel]

@recoveringacademic I realise it might be a little late for this pour,

but next time would it not be easier to just drill through the middle of the block so the bolts don't go in the concrete at all? 

you would need to pre drill the ledgers this way so you would need to weigh that in.....

[ToughButterCup]

All will become clear when I post some piccies later tonight, or maybe tomorrow, (in the pub at the moment), and just a teeny weeny bit drunkish......

[ToughButterCup]

Here's the experiment; the aim is to reduce the risk of the threaded bar being stuck in the concrete - and thus eliminate the cold bridges that would have been formed by the bar being stuck.

 

This is how I set the experiment up

As simple box with a few threaded bars, each exposed to the same size gap as the one in the Durisol blocks

 

Each bar except one was coated with a 'release agent' illustrated; except one (as a control)

 

I used a standard 1:3:3 concrete mix

 

and after mixing appropriately, filled the box

 

After 4 hours (when back from the pub) it was easy with @JSHarris set up (see earlier post)  to withdraw (unscrew) the bars: the one with no release agent was noticeably more 'sticky'

 

And the same effect was obvious just now (0920 the following day)

 

This isn't anything like a scientific test: more a 'quick and dirty indication'

I'm encouraged that there is at least the likelihood of being able to withdraw the bars, and so to eliminate the cold bridges. The job now is to get the release agent into the bars that have already been fitted. A job for tomorrow.

 

Today's our wedding anniversary, so we're off to St Annes Kite Festival, and fish and chips on the sea front. I know how to treat a girl right!

[Construction Channel]

SOOOOOOoo Its Tuesday.......

how did you get on?

[ToughButterCup]

Well..............

Mostly it went well. Mostly. A combination of swearing, sneezing (ManFlu: I'm in bed today, but not yesterday)  and heroism got  over a hundred of the bloody things out successfully (130 bars in all)

 

But; well have a look:

 

On the North face of the house I managed to partially extract these

 

So annoying when the impact driver and stud puller are working their nuts off  extracting the rod slowly, and then for an indecipherable reason the extraction process runs out of steam.

I tried at least two methods of extraction on the dozen or so recalcitrant bars from both inside and outside: have a look

 

This photo is from the inside, (the previous from outside). Since the end in mind is to prevent cold bridges, if (as immediately above) I have withdrawn a good 400 mm or more of bar, then all that needs to happen is for it to be cut and sealed with insulation foam from the outside.

Its the pesky bars which have sulked in their sockets that concern me. I recon that the falling wet concrete during the filling process  bent the bar, and so the impact driver hasn't been able to turn it at all. And by now the concrete has a vice-like grip on it.

 

Strategies in no particular order

• For those that have partially extracted 'out' of the building: drill a hole in the corner of a hefty bit of angle iron, bolt it onto the bar, get the digger bucket up to that level, connect up with a shackle and strop ;  yank (Dangerous?)
• For those that have partially extracted 'in' to the building: leave them in, chop them off at the inside wall, fill with low expansion foam from outside, and forget them
• For those sods which  just sat there leering at me, drill in from both sides (200mm) and seal them into their tomb. Bastards.
• Grind two flats on each bar. Use a spanner to unwind (or wind - whichever works) by hand the bar in (or out) Time consuming.

What do you all think?

Ian

 

(It's OK, I don't need any sympathy about Manflu. What a bloody time to get it)

 

[A_L]

17 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

 

• Grind two flats on each bar. Use a spanner to unwind (or wind - whichever works) by hand the bar in (or out) Time consuming.

 

- or add a nut, weld, use spanner etc...?

[Onoff]

TRY.....add two nuts to the end of the stud and lock them together with spanners.

 

Crank out with a bfo adjustable for leverage. Or a suitable socket on these and try whizzing out with the drill:

 

https://www.toolstation.com/shop/p31432?table=no

[Construction Channel]

Don't use the digger. Too much potential for a huge disaster IMO. 

 

I assume you tried drifting them out?  

 

What about a big assed washer. Then just keep tightening a bolt up against it. "Should" pull the bar through if you can get enough torque on it. 

 

How big is your biggest hammer?

[Jeremy Harris]

I'm with couple of nuts on the end and a quick blob of weld on the end of the stud.  You can then get a decent spanner on them too try and screw them out.

[ToughButterCup]

2 hours ago, Construction Channel said:

Don't use the digger. Too much potential for a huge disaster IMO. 

[...]

 

Debbie likes you. 

[ToughButterCup]

1 hour ago, JSHarris said:

I'm with couple of nuts on the end and a quick blob of weld on the end of the stud.  You can then get a decent spanner on them too try and screw them out.

 

Hmmm, well since your answer to the previous question was (118/130)% correct, and I'm a 'blob-of-weld-on-the-end-of-a-stud-competent-welder', looks like I'm going with this one.

 

2 hours ago, Onoff said:

[...]

Or a suitable socket on these and try whizzing out with the drill:

[...]

 

I've tried that, I really have.

I recon the core issue is that they were bent during the process of filling the ICF with concrete. And so even under ideal conditions (well lubricated and free of the concrete grip) would have been almost impossible to withdraw any type of drill, impact or otherwise.

 

I don't hold out much hope: I'm as weak as a drink of water at the moment (did I mention ManFlu?), so by the time I get to it, tomorrow - all will be in the vice-like grip of the concrete.

 

Can't take a joke? Shouldn't have started.

BTW did I mention I have ManFlu?

[Onoff]

For what it's worth I don't reckon there's a cats chance in hell of wet concrete bending those to the extent you cant get them out. I'd have wrapped them in DPM AS WELL AS "greasing" them. You'd have just been pulling through a well lubed tube and not had the threads to catch on anything.

 

Can you, in some cases draw them out so far as to get say an M10 stud in from the other side to use to drift the M12 out and not get stuck itself?