Concrete for idiots

[igator99]

How the heck do you mix concrete? I must be the worlds worst at it. I seem to never get the mixture right. My pole with the Slimline is moving knocking my local spot beam on the 119 back and forth. Can you buy premixed concrete at the homedepot?

 

[raoul5788]

How the heck do you mix concrete? I must be the worlds worst at it. I seem to never get the mixture right. My pole with the Slimline is moving knocking my local spot beam on the 119 back and forth. Can you buy premixed concrete at the homedepot?

Get yourself a couple of 80 lb bags of Quikrete. It's easy to mix and use.

 

[Mike500]

The dryer the mix is; the stronger it is. Just pour the bag into a tub and turn it over and over with a shovel. A finger powered bottle sprayer makes it easy to ad just enough water to wet the entire tub, as you turn it over and over, without adding too much water.

If you tamp it into the hole with the end of a 2x4 and compress it down, it will quickly be strong enough to mount the dish.

 

[talos4]

Take the same two bags of Quickcrete and dump them into the hole with pipe in it.

Add a little water, mix and tamp with a chunk of 2x4 and be done with it.

I've done flagpoles and fence posts like this. works fine.

 

[Joe Diamond]

One can skip the water.
BUT...you should make the end of the pole irregular before putting it in the hole to stop it from moving with wind load. Beat on it. Pound a lag screw into it. Put a clamp on it. Bend it a little. Tap the top of the pole into the ground so it stands alone and set it plumb as you add the concrete powder.
Ground water will eventually harden the concrete. Pack the concrete hard with a hammer or board. The pole and dish will be rigid enough to tune.
Fence companies never add water. They auger the holes and dump the bags.

Joe

 

[igator99]

One can skip the water.
BUT...you should make the end of the pole irregular before putting it in the hole to stop it from moving with wind load. Beat on it. Pound a lag screw into it. Put a clamp on it. Bend it a little. Tap the top of the pole into the ground so it stands alone and set it plumb as you add the concrete powder.
Ground water will eventually harden the concrete. Pack the concrete hard with a hammer or board. The pole and dish will be rigid enough to tune.
Fence companies never add water. They auger the holes and dump the bags.

Joe

Thanks for all the advice. I've just never seemed to get it right from mailboxes, basketball goals to poles.

 

[jpn]

Wow! I admit to having made more than my share of lousy concrete, and I admit to buying the little pre-mixed tubs @ home depot for small jobs. And I would never have thought to fill the hole & skip the water.

But this is the first time i've ever read about concrete on satguys!

 

[JamesJ]

I just did my back deck with 6 new support beams, and never added water for the quikrete, that really is a good product.

 

[dfergie]

I live in the desert, I've never seen the water skipped here (we went 6 months last year with little moisture)

 

[Joe Diamond]

JPN,
It gets worse than that...........was told by a manager to skip the concrete. if you have a pole pounder you can get a pole in far enough to work for awhile.
I have gone back to test the dry mix procedure.......within a week the mix is hard; the post is tight in the hole and will not rotate. The benefit is no bucket or water to screw with.

This is a good topic for this time and this site. The 5lnb dish is a real pain to mount on a building. I put them on poles if at all possible.

Joe

 

[jpn]

JPN,
It gets worse than that...........was told by a manager to skip the concrete. if you have a pole pounder you can get a pole in far enough to work for awhile.
I have gone back to test the dry mix procedure.......within a week the mix is hard; the post is tight in the hole and will not rotate. The benefit is no bucket or water to screw with.

This is a good topic for this time and this site. The 5lnb dish is a real pain to mount on a building. I put them on poles if at all possible.

Joe

During my install last November, the tech skipped the concrete. Told me that in the native clay ground, it's solid-enough that he could run into it and it won't budge. Then I watched it wiggle in the wind after a good rain, and went bananas. Mastec blew me off for weeks, until I met a supervisor at the local license plate office. He gave me his supervisor's name/cell number. That guy finally addressed my installation, and wanted to know who the clowns were who skipped the concrete and left their empty boxes in my driveway.

Meanwhile I logged enough complaints at D* that I finally asked retention "at what point does installer incompetence void my commitment?". That got their attention, they gave me a $5 discount for 6 months; Showtime for 6 months; and free HR20 with installation.

------

Can we get this thread edited, made sticky, and call it Concrete For Dummies?

 

[JamesJ]

I live in the desert, I've never seen the water skipped here (we went 6 months last year with little moisture)

We have plenty here in ohio-in fact if you go out and step on my grass now your going to sink and get a wet sock I know because I am on my 2nd pair of socks today.

 

[charper1]

During my install last November, the tech skipped the concrete. Told me that in the native clay ground, it's solid-enough that he could run into it and it won't budge. Then I watched it wiggle in the wind after a good rain, and went bananas. Mastec blew me off for weeks, until I met a supervisor at the local license plate office. He gave me his supervisor's name/cell number. That guy finally addressed my installation, and wanted to know who the clowns were who skipped the concrete and left their empty boxes in my driveway.

Meanwhile I logged enough complaints at D* that I finally asked retention "at what point does installer incompetence void my commitment?". That got their attention, they gave me a $5 discount for 6 months; Showtime for 6 months; and free HR20 with installation.

------

Can we get this thread edited, made sticky, and call it Concrete For Dummies?

LOL, sounds like he used to be an installer for what some call hick fencing; cheap posts run directly into the ground with some ramming tool they created and then stretch/cover that with a chain link roll out. Are you in the mid-west?

 

[jpn]

LOL, sounds like he used to be an installer for what some call hick fencing; cheap posts run directly into the ground with some ramming tool they created and then stretch/cover that with a chain link roll out. Are you in the mid-west?

No, I'm in central NC.

 

[charper1]

LOL, guess its the same all over huh?

 

[Joe Diamond]

jpn,
MASTEC is the Directv in-house installation company. I could write a comic book about those guys. Their techs are pushed to turn out numbers and they have a real high turnover rate.
Those pole pounders are for tree stakes. Somehow the pole cannot move. Even in dense clay concrete is required. AFTER digging a hole they are fine but you still need a steel pole in concrete...............two bags for the 5LNB.
The reason I and other techs charge for the pole in concrete is that not only do they have to pass on the cost of the materials, the location has to produce a line of sight and the cable has to be dug into the ground to where it enters the building.
What you got was the HSP (Home Service Provider) "getterdone". The last thing you probably saw was the lettering on the back of the DTV truck that said "Now Hiring." Betya the pole was a no charge item.

Joe

 

[Joe Diamond]

dfergie,

Ya got me pard! Desert is different.
I had a conversation with a cx around here about desert like conditions. He had backfilled the foundation of his new house with the sand that came out of the hole. I needed to use a pole and didn't want to use the disturbed earth / fill near his building.
Surprise, surprise the pole blew over even though we dug a hole, tamped the soil in the hole before dumping two bags (mixed with water this time) and setting the pole plumb.
The sand blew away and was washed away by downspout water. This was with a round dish over a year...........Primestars or the new 5LNB would have gone over sooner.
In the desert you spike masts to rocks.

Joe

 

[dfergie]

Yeah my dad was a plumber and I built septic tanks out of cinderblocks and power walled them and got into wheelbarrow concrete mixing also for sewer taps etc...

 

[iafirebuff]

I have done several pole mounts and I use quickrite, and water into the hole. It seems real good and has been nice and firm/stable for a long time.

 

[johnml]

How hard is it to just mix a couple bags of crete ? My 5 year ols son can do it. Doesnt matter where your at,you need concrete when setting a pole.