Cheap parking lot or barn floor option

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Tora
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Cheap parking lot or barn floor option

Post by Tora »

This first really wet week of year’s early rainy season reminded me of the very real possibility that one of our cars or guests cars would sink into the part of our field we use to park cars that can’t be parked in our driveway.

I’d thought about using a rototiller to work Portland cement into the soil and compact that but It became clear that if I was ever to have to remove it for any reason it would likely be similar to removing concrete and I think I’ve done enough of that for this lifetime. There’s a place selling crushed concrete 5 minutes from our house and the neighbor has a 2 ton flatbed truck he said I could use so I called a couple friends, bought some beer and waited for a sunny day (which also turned out to be really HOT and volunteers didn’t want to get out of bed in time to finish work before the sun was really shining down on the area we were paving).

We ended up bringing in 10 tons of crushed concrete on a flatbed truck, shoveling it off, spreading it out with hand tools and compacting it with the truck and a heavy car from 2 different directions. The finished size is about 5m x 10m x 8-10cm thick. Started about 9 am and finished about 2:00. Not much of a break for me as I was driving truck and backhoe and unloading but it sounds like everybody else was getting 10 minute breaks in the shade when I went for another load (5total).

The crushed concrete is in a vacant lot with a backhoe. Self service/“Mujin” style at ¥400/ton. You load it and transport. This is low quality “saiseki” crushed concrete with some tile, brick, glass and a lot of wire mixed in for good measure(?). We could’ve gotten better quality but it’s a longer drive and the place is not open on Sunday when my friend has time for a workout and a beer. You can get it delivered too but delivery costs can be relatively expensive compared to the cost of doing it yourself.

I’d never driven a backhoe but a YouTube vid to figure out what you can do and where the main controls were gave me a good start. Since the work was done on private property without other people working, the need for a license was in the light gray area. I didn’t see any signs say it was necessary and I was mainly mainly worried about damaging the borrowed truck and I thing I was successful on that one. It was slow and shaky at first but I kind of had the backhoe figured out by the 6th ton. It would’ve been nice to have a backhoe to spread the gravel out after unloading it, too.

A laser level would make leveling a lot easier but I think we did a good job just eyeballing it. You can get a better sense if you squat down and look across the surface and remove move the high spots and fill the low spots.

A week later and the finished product seems really firm and stable. The different size particles do a good job of filling in gaps a forming a pretty solid mass. I don’t know if it will sink into the mud over time but it’s cheap material so adding a little at a later time isn’t too much to expect I guess. I also need to figure out a way add lines cuz the wife already found a way to park her car so a 4 car park becomes a 2 car park..... I’d like to put a tin layer of cans or gravel down to make it look nice. Maybe take a bucket to the river of beach when I go...?

Best part of the whole deal is I learned a good way to make cheap beer taste like the best beer ever!!! Hard work on a hot day and SHAZAM!

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DocDoesFarming
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Cheap parking lot or barn floor option

Post by DocDoesFarming »

Tora wrote:
Mon May 31, 2021 8:25 am
I’d never driven a backhoe but a YouTube vid to figure out what you can do and where the main controls were gave me a good start.
They're so much fun to use aren't they?
The one thing that I couldn't get my head around at the start was the controls for spinning left or right, because you're pushing the stick forward and backwards you automatically assuming that that means the arm goes forward or backwards etc.
I write a load of bollocks, don't take me seriously.

Tora
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Cheap parking lot or barn floor option

Post by Tora »

DocDoesFarming wrote:
Mon May 31, 2021 8:16 pm

They're so much fun to use aren't they?
The one thing that I couldn't get my head around at the start was the controls for spinning left or right, because you're pushing the stick forward and backwards you automatically assuming that that means the arm goes forward or backwards etc.
Yeah, i think it would take a while to get used to that one. Apparently there are a couple different control patterns. I think the one I used was “Hyoujun”(standard). I somehow managed to avoid hitting the UNIC boom hanging over the back of the truck I was using. After a week I think I’d be back to zero. I think I need more practice but every time I even look at a backhoe my wife just laughs and says, “NO!”

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Zasso Nouka
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Cheap parking lot or barn floor option

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Tora wrote:
Mon May 31, 2021 8:25 am
I don’t know if it will sink into the mud over time but it’s cheap material so adding a little at a later time isn’t too much to expect I guess.
It will settle a bit as you use it but if you have to top it up later you will probably only need a single load.
Tora wrote:
Mon May 31, 2021 8:25 am
Best part of the whole deal is I learned a good way to make cheap beer taste like the best beer ever!!! Hard work on a hot day and SHAZAM!
Now that is a useful thing to learn :lol:
DocDoesFarming wrote:
Mon May 31, 2021 8:16 pm
They're so much fun to use aren't they?
The one thing that I couldn't get my head around at the start was the controls for spinning left or right, because you're pushing the stick forward and backwards you automatically assuming that that means the arm goes forward or backwards etc.
Tora wrote:
Mon May 31, 2021 9:31 pm
I think I need more practice but every time I even look at a backhoe my wife just laughs and says, “NO!”
Mrs Nouka always gives a longing look into the lot of the secondhand Yunbo yard nearby as we drive passed. We had one on loan from our house builder to level our land and she was on it every day.

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