[OT:] Manual cement pump?

This is known as "mud-jacking." I actually wrote an article about it once upon a time. d8-)

There should be mud-jacking companies in your area. They thrive around new residential construction, where the slobs pour concrete onto unsettled earth, after shoving it around with their front-end loaders.

It's one heck of a lot cheaper than new concrete. They have the drills, and the pumps, and all of the stuff needed. They mix mud and cement and pump it under the concrete with some pressure.

Thanks for my rescue once again, Ed!

Armed with that info, I found five mud jacking firms in my area that have an "A" rating with Angie's list.

I appreciate it.

--Winston

Good luck, Winston. If the details of your situation are suitable for it, it may be a lower-cost solution.

(...)

Thanks, Ed.

I'm optimistic about repairing the tilting slabs elsewhere on the property, too.

--Winston

Ouch!

Grok that.

You can jack concrete, but you can't jack dirt. It would rise in some spots and not in others. Confirm this with any local mud jacker.

Not a good idea. Excavate, compact, sand, and reinstall. It's time-consuming, godless, thankless work during the install, but it sure looks purty once you're all done. If you have much of a hill, be sure to install some sort of retainers along the way.

G'luck! Quick, while you still have a month left, hire some vacationing high school or college kids to do most of the work for you at 1/3 the cost of skilled labor. (Add a 2-case Heini bonus.)

-- Win first, Fight later.

--martial principle of the Samurai

Larry Jaques beamed:

(...)

Yup. That is what I expected, but I still was holding hope out that someone had pulled that particular rabbit out of their hat. Oh Well!

(...)

Roger that. I've located some 'blue rock' and I'm making a fork adapter for my hydraulic cart so I can disassemble the pavers and store them in proper orientation on five little pallets.

I have feelers out for pallets and I will either make or buy a simple compactor.

Thanks, Larry.

--Winston

Excellent. That will make the task go a whole lot faster. Days faster, fer sher.

$699-849 at HFT.

Or rent one at the local equipment rental store or Homey's Despot store. I dare you to use one of these, though. I own one. :( limit its use to maybe 6' at a time. Anything larger than that will rate a rental unit.

Jewelcome. Here's good pictorial progress for a project like yours.

Done right.

-- Win first, Fight later.

--martial principle of the Samurai

I cut out the adapter pieces from 2" square tube today and sent them off for welding. The pro's do a much nicer job and I get to focus on other stuff.

I'm picking up my free pallets tomorrow night via Freecycle. I had designed the perfect pallet for this project but the BOM ran above $200 so I decided 'free' was better.

Gonna lay in a stock of aspirin for sure.

Thanks for the info.

--Winston

If you can get a pry bar in between and lift them just a bit with it then you can simply sweep sand into the cracks

(...)

That'd work for one or two pavers that were slightly below grade, based on some of my previous efforts.

I've now got about 20 square feet that has sunk by 3/4" or more, in a sort of 'dish' shape. I think I understand that the soil under this landing slumped into a side cavity left by a water-main blowout. After repairing that blowout, I thought I packed soil back in pretty solidly but that apparently isn't possible working from the side rather than from the top.

I'm pretty much convinced that I need to make sure that the side cavity gets filled up and the soil under the landing once more has a solid base. This is going to take some careful digging because I don't want to break my plastic irrigation pipe with the shovel point.

Yeesh. :)

--Winston

Larry Jaques beamed:

(...)

Yup. That is what I expected, but I still was holding hope out that someone had pulled that particular rabbit out of their hat. Oh Well!

(...)

Roger that. I've located some 'blue rock' and I'm making a fork adapter for my hydraulic cart so I can disassemble the pavers and store them in proper orientation on five little pallets.

I have feelers out for pallets and I will either make or buy a simple compactor.

Thanks, Larry.

--Winston

Reply: Most all pavers are the same in a job. interchangeable. so just pull them up, put in a stack and build up the area you uncovered. I had sinking of my paver patio because old tree roots finally decomposed. I just pulled up a couple feet at a time, put sand and 1/4 dust in and compacted and leveled and reinstalled the pavers. do a little at a time and in a week or two you are done. You may have a bump during the job, but the driveway is still usable. Take a couple digital photos of the driveway before if it is a special pattern.

( Snip recovery from hardscape collapse )

I've got my digital snapshots, so I'm set there.

The entire border is comprised of custom-cut fiddly pieces that I want to be able to place accurately while hot, tired and sore. The pavers inside the border have no discernible pattern. I *really* want to put them back exactly the same way because I *really* don't want to engage in a game of "jigsaw puzzle" with pieces weighing 14 lbs. each. I can't stand jigsaw puzzles even when the pieces are featherweight cardboard! :)

--Winston

( Snip recovery from hardscape collapse )

I've got my digital snapshots, so I'm set there.

The entire border is comprised of custom-cut fiddly pieces that I want to be able to place accurately while hot, tired and sore. The pavers inside the border have no discernible pattern. I *really* want to put them back exactly the same way because I *really* don't want to engage in a game of "jigsaw puzzle" with pieces weighing 14 lbs. each. I can't stand jigsaw puzzles even when the pieces are featherweight cardboard! :)

--Winston

Reply: my border is both repeating cut pieces and a few custom cut. I just laid them to the side in order as I removed them. My pavers are all the same pattern.

Talk to Criss Angel. 'Course, he'd cost more than a new driveway.

DON'T! It takes a helluva lot of compaction to do it right, and automatic is the only way to go. DAMHIKT.

You will if you try it by hand. ;)

It's much easier to rent a couple of strong backs for a day or two. Driveways are much more even and smooth that way.

-- Fear not those who argue but those who dodge. -- Marie Ebner von Eschenbach

(...)

I'll forget the blue rock and toss in a few bags of sand, crunch it with water and the hand compactor. She'll be right, mate.

(...)

That's what got me into this mess. I think the contractor had major communications issues with his team. I see defects everywhere. No thank you!

--Winston

I meant known masonry men, Americans who are out of work and using a temp agency to keep food on the table, Winnie. The construction industry is still at half mast.

-- Fear not those who argue but those who dodge. -- Marie Ebner von Eschenbach

Tried that.

Chap who did several stucco repairs a couple months ago is a genius. He and his team recovered from all my efforts and addressed issues that I simply could not have done. After paint, the place looks a *lot* better than it did. I wrote him a glowing Yelp entry.

I emailed him with a quote request for this job and he couldn't be bothered to even reply.

Four local guys on Angie's List with 'A' ratings all disappeared off the list within two days time. Vaporized! Where did they go? I don't know.

I'm up against an eternal diabolical quandary. We are in a deepening recession, and I can't find a guy to do this simple repair. For Money even.

On the up side, I notice that most of the retail stores in my area have finally noticed the linkage between not snarling at a customer and the likelihood that customer will return to spend money. That took *forever*, but they are generally much nicer now, as a rule.

But I Digress!

--Winston

Try Service Magic.

Good man.

Weird, but he might just be too busy and forgot to get back to you once he read the email. I've accidentally killed phone messages and email instead of saving it, then kicked myself for it. 5 bogus messages, one right after the other, automatic kill mode after hearing several words of the phone spammer. Then the good messages plays and I hit the button to repeat it, but my finger automatically flew to the delete button and I screamed...

Have you asked Angie and Crew? They might know. BTW, that's why you print the lists when you see them. Sometimes advertising swamps a guy and he has to start turning down work. Maybe their ads ran out but they're still wanting work. Sucks2BU.

What, a deepening recession under the Obamamessiah's reign? I M P O S S I B L E, they say.

If I'd thought about it (after cutting down 2 trees for my sister) I might have been bribed to come down from Concord the week before last and grudgingly help with your driveway. I was an hour away from your neck of the woods. [insert hindsight cliche here]

This is A Good Thing!(tm)

Feel better? Good. ;)

-- Fear not those who argue but those who dodge. -- Marie Ebner von Eschenbach

Funny you say that. I went shopping for vendors and noticed it is like it was becoming when the economy started sliding, but squared. Not good for my confidence meter. Half moved or went under, and a portion of ones there have sites with no address, act screwy on the phone, pick and choose customers, ineffective job handling, blatant refusal of the customer being close to being right or needed.

Strange how people hold their jobs or businesses together when they don't seem to do anything. Kinda like dealing with banks now days, hey, my mom was a book keeper, they haven't a clue how to do anything or know squat in the answers department. Starting to sacred me it is.

I ran into a couple businesses that are way off the other direction and almost make you uncomfortable in all the niceness and attention. Maybe a large part of them have sharp cookie cutters as mental tools and if there isn't much of you left they fill you with non-since bull shit till you give up and go away.

You know, I've done what you describe your problem is... Need at least one picture, no advice over the phone. I use to argue with customers all the time with swimming pools < I can't tell you how much till I see it.>. Been waiting on the outcome of the concrete pumping idea. I'd almost pay to watch. I suspect it would be up there like the time I saw what a excavator does to about a foot of solid communications lines in the bottom of where the pool was going.

Think compacted ground slate if no pictures.

SW