DIY Curbing - Part 1 (Mixing Cement)
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- After 14yrs, the black plastic bed edging around my landscape beds was deteriorating and needed to be replaced. I decided on concrete curbing for a better mowing & trimming edge and something that provided a better barrier between the rock/mulch and the grass. I had about 1200 feet of edging to replace.
After finding out that professional curbers charge a minimum $6 per foot ($7200 project!), I decided to purchase an Electric curbing machine from Northern Tool and try the project myself. I was able to figure out how to do it using Google searches, but mostly from watching UA-cam videos, primarily videos from Borderline USA (they have great videos). / borders06
I'd have to say this is one of the more challenging home projects I have done. It's also very physically demanding, at least on the guy running the mortar mixer (sand is heavy). You can do it with 2 people, but 3 is much more efficient (A mixer guy, a wheel barrow guy, and someone to run the machine and finishing) because you can keep the mixer running continuously. A 4th person could be a finisher, and then you'd really rock and roll.
List of Videos in my series
DIY Curbing - Final Result
DIY Curbing - Part 1 Mixing Cement
DIY Curbing - Part 2 (1st Section)
DIY Curbing - Part 3 (2nd Section)
DIY Curbing - Part 4 (3rd Section)
My biggest problem (after figuring out the mix) was small 'blow-outs' like in Parts 3 & 4. It seemed to happen when I let the front of the mold get too high (the rear wheels dropped) and the mix would push out the front. This happened when the the back of the machine dropped like when starting downhill (even a little).
I did have to do a fair amount of troweling after extrusion. This is probably due to my inexperience keeping the correct amount of back pressure on the machine and keeping the wheels at the right height (which keeps the mold parallel to the ground), and maybe my mix was a little dry.
The Klutch Curbing machine worked fine. We metered in the concrete with a shovel and it only jammed once or twice (an occasional rock got into the sand). I just turned off the power, opened the motor access panel and rotated the belt backwards a little and restarted the machine and all was well. Clearly the biggest pain was dragging around 200ft of #12 extension cord, but the electric machine was way cheaper than a gas unit.
Our mix recipe was:
4 5-gal buckets of Mason sand
1 47# bag of Portland cement
1/4c cup (3oz by weight) of 'curb Gravy'
2# of Solomon #417 Red
Water until the mix was right.
The goal is to get a mix that is wet enough but does not slump (it holds its shape). When checking if the mix was wet enough, Tom made a snowball and bounced it in his hand to see if it held together (looking for cracks). He was looking at his glove to see how much moisture was on his glove. After doing many mixes he was able to tell how wet it was based on that and how it bounced in his hand. We did about 20 mixes and he was very consistent all day long. Check out Borderlines mixing video: • Landscape Curbing - Bo...
The amount of sand determines a few things - the strength of the mix (too much sand and the concrete gets weaker). The amount of sand also determines the linear feet of curb you get per mix. We were getting about 19-20ft per mix using the Klutch slant mold. The recipe in the Klutch manual was 5-buckets of sand to 1-part cement, which would really make a lot of curb (like 25ft), but I didn't find any other recipes using that much sand, so we went with a 4-bucket mix. The borderline guy points out in his video that this is slightly more than a 4:1 mix.
I didn't show spraying Mineral spirits on the release powder or sealing the curb. These Borderline videos cover that:
• Landscape curbing - St...
• Landscape curbing - St...
Curbing Machine - Klutch #49404 (I paid $812 after sale and flyer coupons)
www.northernto...
From Bordeline www.borderline...
Curb Gravy water reducer 10#
Pink Troweling Lube 1gal
Aussie Slate Roller Stamp
Random Rock Roller Stamp
The borderline rollers were 5-1/2in wide, just a little narrow for the Klutch slant mold and my novice hand. A 6in roller would have worked better for me.
From My Local Concrete supply Company
Solomon Colors #417 (used ~2# per mix)
Gray powder release
A professional 3.5gal Chapin sprayer with a 0.2gpm spray tip
1/8 inch touch up roller
AS-1 25% solids acrylic sealer.
Things I rented
Sod Cutter from my local Coop (I purchased a 9in blade for it)
Mortar Mixer from a local contractor supply ($135/week)
From my landscape supplier
Mason Sand (finer than torpedo sand)
Miscellaneous
5-gal buckets, 7-inch roller and frame, 10Qt bucket, 1qt container, 2-wheel wheel barrow
After buying all this junk (equipment & supplies), I spent about $2500
Its nice to see a Kid actually working hard, you don't see this happen often.
Tom was doing all the heavy lifting! He thought it was a good workout
Looking good. One tip is to use a little less sand. Those 5 gallon buckets should only be filled about 2-3 inches below the brim. For smooth finish ur prob okay, but stamping goes a bit easier with half bucket less of sand 👍
Thanks. I'd say that was the hardest part to figure out, what the Right Mix was. Borderline recommends what you said, my machine recommended 5:1 which seemed too high, so I kind of compromised between feet per batch and strength. I've got a few hundred more feet to go so maybe I'll try a few mixes like you recommend and see what happens.
No problem. How big is your scoop for plasticizer?
@@richcramify I was using a 1/2cup scoop. So 4oz by volume (3oz weight), which was what was recommended by borderline... but you made me realize that his recommendation was for his 3-1/2 bucket mix, so at 4:1 i'm under by a little bit. One stamping effect I noticed were a few fine 'micro-cracks' on the surface and I was thinking it was due to the wetness or dryness of the mixture, but now I'm wondering if is more about the amount/type of sand...
Yes, most Curbes use only two buckets of sand to a 45 pound sack of Portland. As a contractor of 40 years, that was my same mix when doing stucco walls on the City Of Pittsburgh Party wall program
Is that 100% sand or is it a sand mixture with 3/8 pebbles?
It's what we call mason sand in Wisconsin. The next step up with the pebbles in it is called torpedo sand you don't want that. Although I do think some people use it. I don't think you want to deal with the pebbles in the smoothing and cutting and rolling.
Thanks for the videos and the additional written info. For the ~1200 ft, how many 47 lb bags and how much sand did you end up using?
Each 'mix' will do 15 to 19 ft, depending on how much sand do you use. So 1200 / 17 = ~70 bags!
@@timgoihl thanks! I plan on using the square style so I’m probably going to error toward 15 ft per mix.
@@craighadfield9816 if you watch the borderline guy, they use three and a half buckets of sand, which makes the concrete a little more 'toolable' I actually made a spreadsheet using the square inches of the slant mold and backward figured out how many feet I should get out of the sand. Chances are you'll be going back for more concrete because it's not exactly a science, sometimes you have more waste etc
@@timgoihl thanks for the idea on using a spreadsheet to calculate. I’ll do that. From the Borderline videos I did plan on using 3.5 5-gal buckets for the 4:1 ratio of sand to Portland cement with some “gravy.”
Hello. Great videos. I bought the same machine from a guy, who had only used it once. I noticed you barely had any jams, and put pretty decent sized scoops in. We had, I would say a very good mix with ours, but the machine jammed a lot, sometimes we would barely put any in, and the weight of it would jam the ram. the instruction manual says to adjust the crank arm if needed, but doesnt say anything else about it. Did you have to do that at all with your Klutch machine?
We were not able to fill the hopper. Tom was actually metering it in off the shovel quite carefully. The only jams I encountered was if an errant Stone got in the mix or sometimes we would get mortar balls in the mix from the mixer. Most of the time I was able to just turn off the power and turn the belt manually backwards a few inches and then restart it and it would work.
How long did this project take you to complete? Looks great!
I would say two solid days, and then a day for cleanup. As I mentioned in the comments things will go much faster with three guys, you have to keep the mixer going. And if you've never done it, you might just figure a half-a-day to kind of figure it out. You know just getting the mix right.
Where did you buy the superplasticizer and sealant?
Borderlineusa.com. if you expand the description of the video there's a lot of text and links and exactly what I bought there
hello excellent work to be the first time, I need a lot of help are the same as you in my garden I already have the machine, but I do not know anything about what the mixture takes and what to put powder takes before putting the prints please help me.
Expand the text below the video - Everything I used is listed. There are also links to some Borderline mixing and finishing videos - those guys are the real experts! Other than that, it just takes some practice
@@timgoihl what cement did you use for the mix
@@cactuslawnservice1105 Portland type 1 cement from my local farm and fleet. That was the best price I found $7 for the 47 pounds.
www.farmandfleet.com/products/233329-sakrete-portland-cement-type-i.html