Firstly I commend you for getting stuck in and creating a rather practical pit, you have some very handy skills well done. I would like to mention though about the horizontal forces that will apply to the brickwork sides of your pit/trench. Bricks and mortar are great in compression but not very good if the force applied is horizontal. In the case of a retaining wall, essentially what you have, the earth is going to push in on those walls and could start bowing them inwards. Your reinforced concrete at the top will help the top part of the trench from collapsing but unless it's 'tied' to the bottom reinforcing ring it wont help the walls much. Sure it depends on many factors, type of soil, length and height of wall, height of the water table (which does look very low), etc, so it might be ok for a long time. However, I wanted you to be aware because 'if' it was to fail the chances are it will be when the force is greatest on the structure, which is when your car is on top of it and you are at the bottom. A more ideal solution would have been to use reinforced concrete (vertical and horizontal steels) for the whole 'box' and ignore the brickwork completely, the steel reinforcing would have made sure that the concrete walls wont flex at all. Keep up what you're doing, but stay safe.
Agree. that was my concern too while admire his skills and hard working spirit. I am thinking to build one for myself in my garage. I am thinking use rebar all the way from the bottom to the top to make a cage like thing and extend the metal all the way to the other side of the runway, even if I may have to pour the concrete section by section, the metal skeleton is connected . great job and very inspiring.👍.
I was wondering about the reasons not for casting the entire box, why lay the bricks? Did have a good laugh at the “I broke the first brick!” Lol. Without having any experience in building, I was also thinking about the weak part of this structure clearly being the earth pressing in on the brick walls..
