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Tips & Techniques

Corrugated column forms

Issue 32

Recently I bid on a job that called for 15 concrete piers, each 30 in. high. The loads involved weren’t much — about 100 lb. per pier, so the job didn’t require the bearing or expense of a standard 10-in. column. In addition, large-diameter columns would have appeared too massive for the job.

I used corrugated metal siding to form these short columns. It’s available in various lengths, widths and gauges. The siding I used has 1-in. deep corrugations that are 2 in. wide, spaced 10 in. apart. When I rolled up a section of the siding, it formed a column about 8 in. in diameter with three 2-in. flutes. I held these sections fast by securing the overlapping metal with three short sheet-metal screws.

E. L. Doonan, Aledo, IL

Edited and Illustrated by Charles Miller

From Fine Homebuilding #32

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  1. spzwd | Oct 20, 2018 07:32pm | #1

    But picking but wouldn't those raised areas be reeds not flutes?
    Nice way to dress up a boring column though.

  2. Harley67 | Oct 21, 2018 01:26am | #2

    How long would you have to wait before using these as load bearing columns?

  3. User avater
    StLHandyMan | Oct 21, 2018 02:18pm | #3

    Inside corners crack, especially with concrete. I wouldn't suggest this.

  4. User avater
    CivilEng43 | Oct 23, 2018 03:24am | #4

    So now let me get this straight, you bid a job with 10 inch diameter piers, you build with 8 inch diameter piers (64% of the cross-section), probably out of round and each with 3 flutes formed by the siding ribs? Did you get approval from the owner/architect/engineer? Or like some contractors I’ve run in to, after they win the bid, they start looking at how they can get away with doing less? How’d you know the load was only 100 pounds? That’s less than an adult person weighs. Or was this a cat-walk meaning meow-type cats. Contractors who chisel on the plans and specs - some people call them cowboy contractors. I don’t because I have too much respect for the noble profession of cowboy. Speaking of cowboys, imagine a rancher has his cowboys castrate 50 bull calves and afterwards there’s only 64 nuts in the bucket instead of 100. Some cowboys are going to get fired. That’s exactly what I’d do with a contractor who gave me 64% of what he bid to do – but the firing would be after I had him demolish the 64%.

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