Hey man. Thanks for the education. I'm a diy Jack of all Trades type of guy and in my 50+ years of life have never been any type of mason. But I've demolished plenty of it so I'm stepping up to an opportunity that has come. I didn't want to wing it so I searched on you tube and found you. Confident and sure that my work will be done right and look great thanks again to you and your content. Keep up the good work.
Thank you, I enjoy learning and doing new things myself. RU-vid is a great resource for learning and to see how others do things. I think it’s good to watch the same thing being done by different people to see the common traits of the project and the variations on how to achieve the end goal. I wish you the best on your project.
Thanks Joe - nice looking column! Question - where did you get the cap with the hole for the column light (same place as blocks)? Going to give this a try myself!
He said “ your column is as good as your base, which is the most important step”. However he did not tamp down the gravel or the sand before laying down the first coarse!
True compacting the sand and gravel is important. I did walk around on it before setting the first course but didn’t include it in the video since using a tamper would have been better and looked more professional but they are nice and straight and I’m happy. Have a nice one.
I spent two days demolishing the old columns and two days building the new columns. It would probably be best to buy a cap in the desired color. They can add color to the concrete mix when making the caps. I’m not sure if they offered that option at the time or if I ordered what they had. If you use concrete paint (paint marketed to be used on concrete) then it is something that can be done. Thank You
If it has a cavity in the middle, I would remove the cap to access it. Run some UF cable underground up to the side of the column, then use some PVC conduit to bring it out of the ground. I would drill a hole near the base from the outside to the center cavity. Keep the wire in the PVC conduit and run it into the center cavity. Once inside the column it doesn’t need to be in conduit. Cut a hole in the cap, run the wire through and reinstall the cap.
Having a gravel and sand base is typical for landscape walls and columns. Starting the blocks under the ground level will add strength. I will say that poring a concrete base and laying on top of that is a great method. That is basically a footer. To really strengthen the block assembly, you would need hollow blocks that you can run rebar through and fill with concrete to tie the blocks together. Without that each joint is a week point. In all reality for what these are that would be overkill. Those methods are essential though for structures and tall walls. These aren’t too tall and won’t be easily pushed over. They most likely won’t hold up to a car, but neither will the car.
@@JoeMcCoskey Agree. I was considering starting the first layer of blocks cemented 2" and then as I go up between blocks I would have put some cement or construction adhesive...so they stay together stronger...regardless how big the car is...you never know...! Great job !
A footing would be an added benefit, but this soil is already hard (clay & rock) and the posts I removed / replaced didn’t have a footing and they lasted over 30 years.
I bought them from a local dealer for Abbotsford Concrete Products. They are available in the western US and Canada. You can find a dealer on their website. If you’re on the eastern part of the US, you may be able to find something similar from another manufacturer. The top part was sold by the dealer but isn’t made by Abbotsford. These blocks can be used to make many configurations of walls and columns based on your design and are typically sold by the block.
@@JoeMcCoskey Love what you did here and we're hoping to do the same for our condos. But I'm also having a hard time tracking down these bricks for Abbotsford Concrete Products. Can you provide links by any chance, please?
@@lorrainesalazar3198 Thank You. I looked into it, and it looks like they now go by the name Belgard Canada now and it doesn’t look like they make this product line anymore. It also looks like this product was mainly produced for the northwest US and western Canada market.
I have all those tools. I couldn’t use a shovel due to the soil being rock/clay. I had limited space for the hand tamper but I did step on the base, I just cut that part out. I should have used the multitool for cutting the conduit off the caps.
I would generally use the guideline of 1” deep for every 8”-12” of height. The base for these columns isn’t very deep but they are on a clay / rock soil, and I don’t have to worry about movement. If these were support columns, they would need to be much deeper.
Thanks for your video, I’ll definitely copy your method, it seems much easier than others I’ve seen. What is the final measurements of these pillars? 24” wide?
@@rohitnaval5589 I also want to mention to keep the height to width ratio in mind, without a deep footing or reinforcement, columns like this need to be kept short. This one is 40”. It’s good to keep the height less than 3x the width and preferably closer to 2x the width.
