200 meters of fence, hundreds of tons of stone by hand!

Hi guys!

5 months ago i started building a huge and long fence and the summer ended in Poland so I got time for an update!

I dug in the last post to the frost line whats around 60cm deep this is needed to avoid frost heaving a process where the frozen ground expands as water expands when it freezes. Then in the spring, it melts and you have a weakened fundament. So it's a deep fundament filled with old stones and then poured concrete over it.

Above you see I've cut the panels in shape and made concrete forms from old furniture. The boards generally used in modern cheap furniture are melamine fiberboards that aren't waterproof so they tend to break after using them twice.

The stones arrived we bought them at a local sand mine that considers this a waste. 450 euro's for 28 tones of rock including delivery to a semi-remote place! The stones are a mix of limestone from an old ocean that was above Poland (million years ago) & river rocks. An added benefit of using a limestone fence is that it will make the forest ground a bit less acidic.

In any project it's always smart to do some basic calculations and write down how much material you've used to avoid problems.

• I currently used 40 tons of sand, I will need 50 more so the tractor that brings 8 tons at a time has to come over a couple of times more. Even though I could dig up the sand myself as I live on sandy soil the price is 25 euro's for 8 tons including delivery...I can't justify the effort for saving 25 euro's.
• 28 tons of natural stone I calculated that I need at least 50 tons so another order can be made. Letting them know in advance saves time and money.
• 60 tons of rubble mostly old concrete is used as a free source of stone that's strong enough for concrete that has only a static load. No truck or any other peak force will drive over it.

Describing the problem in detail often gives the answer to your problems and I'm happy the science subjects at school thought me that!

Posted with STEMGeeks