Culvert Bricking with Cement Bags 

All these people criticizing the guy. You have to understand the goal and purpose and then ask does it meet the expectations and fulfill the goal? If so, it doesn't matter if the concrete isn't as strong or if the bags aren't bonded together. He needed to control drainage flow and prevent erosion....his method works and that's all that matters. Thank you for the video this is very clever...its better then using riprap around the culvert and way easier then pouring concrete or setting bricks with mortar.

Great idea! Thank you for sharing this idea!!! Looks really nice!

First video and already a Bon the Builder fan! Thanks for this video and for YOU! SO, very, incredibly succinct while easy for a layAnne like me to understand and make something beautiful! Post Script: Kygo rocks my socks! Musical choice pairing perfection!

this is really useful and beautiful. I am going to try this right away. thanks for sharing

Nice job man. Great idea.

This is GENIUS! : )

Here in south Georgia USA, a lot of rural homes have these. I do agree with the ppl who suggested rebar. Most people here just stack the cocrete bags without re-bagging.

nice idea...no...a very good idea...thank you showing the video... :)

do the blocks bond together or are they just stacked with gravity keeping them in place?

looks great. The only thing I would suggest is putting the seams of the bags facing inside. The more you can hide them, the more natural it looks. Thanks for the video.

I just spoke with TXDOT when they came out for reviewing my new second access 2 my property. They require 6 to 1 ratio concrete ends to my culvert. Luckily he informed me that I can use concrete bags in a similar manner dropping every foot instead of paying $600 for the pre-made concrete ends. Less than $100 in concrete bags. He said 40 lb bags but I could not find them anywhere so I'm going to use 60 lb

Pound rebar stakes through the bags vertically.

Pure BUNKUM !! This guy graduated from the PT BARNUM School of Engineering !!

Would a 2 feet deep foundation of the same bags with 3/4" rebars coming up from the foundation and sticked out from each bag's center would be a better structural support instead of piled concrete, either way an ingenious way of achieving a culvert repair, also 50 pounds of ready pre mixed concrete would cover twice as much area (less effort and less smaller bags depending of the width you needed to have, Great Work.

That is a sweet idea that I will use many times . Thank you for posting your work, that really looks great!

great idea

Wow! This absolutely GENIUS!! I have horse feed bags that do disintegrate with time that I am wanting to use but will use your paper bags...what about mesh between? would it matter? Now can you please post how to make an actual culvert, round drainage?

Loved the ending as I'm British

What a good idea 😊❤❤❤

when I worked at a county road and bridge dept. we would pour concrete into burlap bags and she'd them the way we wanted. that was it. when the rain would hit them, they would turn hard in time.

I think I'm going to build a small tool shed using this method, I imagine it would be absolutely solid if rebar stakes were put through the bags too. It'd probably be more like a bomb shelter lol.

Ok that's insanely clever. How has it held up?

Why not just put the full bags down and let them set up? That looks like a PITA to me.

Hi, looks great, I've never even thought of doing that before. Just out of curiosity, how many 20kg Mortar bags of cement were used ?

All,those lunch bag made me hungry. Ooops bell is ringing, got to run. Cheers

Will this work in areas that require require a deep footing for the frost line?

have you ever broken one of the "bricks" open to see if it is solid throughout? I'm just curious if the moisture penetrates through to the center before the outside solidifies leaving a powdery center? thank you for the videos.

“it is imperative to make sure its level otherwise it will look terrible” FACTS!!nice work!

Man, I have to patch a wall on my bridge I built like 20 years ago and you just gave me a good idea

Mine has been up since Nov 18 and its mid april of 19. Now I need to brace 22 feet of slope x 5 bags high where the slope has slid some into my ditch that adjoins the culvert. (not the culverts fault). I am araid the instability of the dirt with a 4"stone drainage base will fall toward the ditch if dirt washes. Any ideas? Oh I put a 18" rebar at each base bag vertically into the soil support the bottom two bags. I am thinking since the slope soil side is open , put in horizonal rebar every 16" into the bank and into the bag spaces up maye thrid row and pour in real cement to fill and make contact with the firmed up cement from these bags with gag peeled off. Hoping everthying will connect with that cement and prevent the wall base from caving over if dirt under destablizes. THOUGHTS AS no one has probably had this total problem and solution.

Did you add rebar to the stack while they were still powder?

Great video! Here is my question. Our home already has a concrete retaining wall. It sits about 10feet off the concrete back porch. It has already been anchored and partially filled. Until now it has had a deck over it. Unfortunately treated wood doesn't last like it used to. After seeing your video and other prelates how to's, I'm wondering if we could level the ground under the deck and lay these out instead of using pavers. I haven't found anything else related to it, so I'm wondering if you think this would work? Thank you! Mistie

How many 80 lb bags did it take to complete this project? Are you using ready mix or Portland cement?

Can you update this video by replying with a picture of how this has held up over time? Thanks.

GABIONS! Kind of funny though.

What does this look like close up? Are you still happy with it?

Drive rebar through the bags into the ground

Wants metal spikes piercing through each column to act as some sort of rebar

Can you please do a follow up video of what it looks like now? I am thinking of doing this

What kind of soil are you working with , I am in northern central Texas where we have a black gumbo solid clay , we like the way your retaining wall looks but we are trying to decide the best methods of securing it since its a lot of work to build and failure is so frustrating , we will use a gravel bed and a gravel back fill with landscape fabric and drain pipe .

I really like the way you varied the size of the bags rather than using all the original 50 or 80 lb bags. Can you share what kind of bags you used and where you bought them?

2:47 As the americans would say "Not a big fan." as this would cost a fortune for that amount of cement.

Why not pin the bags together?

No Re-Barb?

Please bear with me as I offer a constructive critique of this method. It seems clever, but it is actually missing something crucial. This is method is ignorant of how cement works. I just listened to an audiobook called "Stuff Matters" by Mark Miadownik, about the material science behind all the common materials that make our modern world-paper, concrete, steel, etc. and in it, the author explained that cement and concrete made with cement and aggregate doesn't dry to harden; it actually cures in a reaction with water such that it incorporates water at a precise ratio in its chemical structure in order to become strong concrete. An incorrect ratio of water, whether too much or toot little, results in weak concrete. The water needs to be mixed into the concrete so that all of the mix gets properly hydrated at the right ratio; you can't just hope for it to percolate through the bag and the mixture in the bag, otherwise you get the worst of both-too much water near the outside, insufficient water in the middle. He recounted a story where one construction site consistently got good concrete in the morning, but the concrete made with the afternoon shipment was consistently inferior. It turned out that the cement truck guy was hosing down the concrete with extra water thinking that it would prevent it from drying while he took his lunch break, since he was totally ignorant of the fact that concrete doesn't dry-it cures. He managed to do nothing but ruin the concrete by giving it the wrong water to cement ratio, permanently weakening the foundations of whatever building they were casting the concrete into. You also seem to be conflating cement with concrete. Concrete is cement + aggregate. Cement itself is not concrete, and is not as strong as the mixture of cement and aggregate. In these photos, it appears that bags of cement are being wetted down. Even the bags labeled concrete are suspect unless you can be sure that it does not require additional added ingredients, akin to boxes of pancake mix requiring added eggs. For the strongest construction of this type, the concrete should be thoroughly mixed separately with the correct ratio of water, and the mixture should then be bagged and stacked.

No steel?

So that's how they built the pyramids

So, the blocks will never be bonded together..... because the paper won't let them... Got to agree with a few others, a little rebar staked through would be a good idea..

you have to show the finished project. should have waited 6 months to show what it looks like out of the bags.

you left out the bottom, the water will erode the base and the bricks will eventually fall in, you should have at least bricked the bottom.

could you use the whole bag of mix? thanks!

the XX tho

did this actually work?

Ba without mortar between... why not just make a nice dry stone wall, the bags of cement simply come down to really expensive stone, and the cement is really not environmentally good and will age really badly and quickly, compared to good old Pierre, really Bof sorry

привет из россии

Can't belive how much ignorance in the comments. You need the correct ratio water-cement-sand/ballast you'll never get something close never. And i dont want to talk about the enviroment, I could do a much better wall ( just a good wall) with 1/5 part of that cement. what a waste. poor world .. and poor customer.. sorry but this is the worst way to make a retaining wall I've seen in my life so far.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-o1lqzIQ34FM.html Link to video part 2. Looks great, btw!

L

This is a terrible method for a RETAINING wall. The ground will exert lateral force and you have just piled up blocks that a child could push over. Dangerous and useless. These types of youtube videos will result in people that don't have experience with this do unsafe and costly useless projects.