Did I post this before? If so, it’s disappeared.
Anyway — digging holes for sonotubes for a small deck (4X4 posts, 8 in sonotube, 14 in footing). Holes filling with water at 3 ft depth. Our frostline is at least 4 ft. What to do?
Other sonotubes in vicinity for several years not affected by frost heave.
Recent rain, heavy.
Not a lot of options for moving the deck.
Replies
pump the water out, and have a pump on hand to remove water up until the time you begin placing concrete.
you should pump ahead of time to make sure that pump can remove water at the pace you wish to place concrete, which means in english that if you have to wait 45 min for pump to remove water from each hole you will be paying extra for truck time, especially if you have a dozen holes.
it is normal to wet before placing concrete anyway, you just have to remove excess water. wet is fine.
"Pump"? "truck time"? -- this is just me, a bucket, a wheelbarrow and a perforated hoe! I should have said, it's just two holes. But, thanks for the tip -- I'm getting it now.
The tremie trick still works, make one with a piece of PVC, carpet tube or whatever. Place it at the bottom of the hole and shovel the concrete in. Pull the tube up after you get it full, pushing the concrete down with a stick. Repeat until the hole is full.
"Recent rain, heavy."
No kidding! My whole yard is squishy!
dig and pour. Crete displaces the water. Only prob is you can't backfill against wet cardboard sonotube until it has crete in it, so you have to use wood to hang it from at top.
Best to have a bubble at base of the tube anyways by holding it off the bottom of hole a bit.
Also, if this is out on the island, the temp is moderated by the pond water so the 48" is less critical than it would be in Camden or Union.
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If you use a tremie (a tube that protects the concrete integrity until it gets to he bottom of the hole) you can place the concrete underwater. For that matter a pump hose is a tremie if you put it at the bottom of the hole and pull it up as the hole is filled.
Guys do that ll the time when they are setting PVC pipe in the water and pumping them full of concrete for dock posts. The water will "float" out on top of the concrete. You just need to get it in the bottom of the hole intact.