A Halloween Story

It was Halloween night in 1956, I was trick-or-treating with some friends near US Highway 82 in downtown Detroit, Texas, when one semitrailer truck sideswiped another, trapping the driver of the second truck in the cab. The driver of the second truck yelled "Help! Help! My God, somebody, get me out of here." Fortunately there were some adults nearby who assisted the trapped truck driver, but I had nightmares about it. It was the only time I have ever heard someone yelling for help.

Micanopy

A Road Trip to Micanopy

It was the Fourth of July, and I asked Sherry what she would like to do, hoping for an answer like "Go to Venice and have a milkshake at the Old Soda Shop".  Instead, I got "Let's go to Micanopy."  (MIK-ə-NOH-pee)  A couple of weeks before we had gone to St. Armand's Circle in Sarasota, and she had been worried about the crowd  we were exposed to in this year of the Corona Virus.  That would not be a problem in Micanope

We had been to Micanopy several times over the years.  It was never a thriving metropolis, but was a rather quaint little town, primarily known for antique stores. There was once a very cool used book store, made famous by Bailey White, who used to drive down from Georgia just to go to it.  Books were stacked everywhere, in no apparent order, but the old proprietor knew where every one was, and if you asked for something he could find it for you.  But the proprietor died and the store is closed now.

We didn't go to the historic downtown.  A light rain was falling, and we had brought stuff for a picnic.  So we looked for a place to have a picnic.  We found a place that looked promising, with historical markers and some small structures.  Turns out, there was a shelter with a roof but no tables, and another place with tables but no roof.  So we ate our tuna salad sandwiches in the car. Later the rain stopped and I took some pictures.

The little blue building was locked.

A good place to walk the dog

A Big Bathouse

Turning the Compost

I read that I should "turn" my compost heap every couple of weeks.  So far it has been more like every couple of years.  But yesterday, Thursday, April 9, 2020, I finally did it again.

It doesn't look like very much compost.  And, actually, it is not.  I had taken a wheelbarrow load out of the bin a few weeks ago and spread it on the back yard. 


Using a shovel and a garden hoe, I took most of the compost out of the bin and piled it in front.  It was pretty well stirred by this process.

Now all that remained was to get all of the compost back into the bin.  This turned out to be more difficult.  I could only use the shovel for this, stirring and aerating the compost that much more as I shoveled it back into the bin.

Back in the bin.

And, finally, the bin closed up.  Altogether, about 45 minutes of drudgery in the hot sun.  But I have the satisfaction of knowing that I have done the right thing by my compost.

Brickwork

On Wednesday, November 13, 2019, I finished building new deck panels for the catch basin.  

The next task was to replace the pavers abutting the panels in such a way that I could remove the panels when necessary in order to access the basin.  I also had to ensure that the sand under those pavers will not slough off into the basin when a panel is removed.  The previous deck had a 1 by 6 plank along the north edge of the basin to retain the sand and pavers.  This was not needed on the south side, because the panels were hinged on that side.  But I decided not to use hinges on the new deck.  So I needed some kind of retention wall on both sides.  I would not use a wooden plank like I did for the original deck, because that plank rotted in less than five years.

I needed something very thin, because I didn't have much space between the new deck panels and the pavers.  And I absolutely insisted on something that would not rot.  I decided to use heavy plastic "drive down" edging from Lowe's.

The north side of the basin had vertical strips of steel angle stock firmly attached to the basin.  In the original deck, these held the board that retained the sand and pavers.  I cut sections of the plastic edging to fit between these, and drove the edging into the sand.

Mission Creep

Rebuilding the Full Size End Section 

November 8, 2019
Shortly after declaring the deck panels complete, I decided that I did not like having the end section be a single full size panel that would be very difficult to remove.  Making this a pair of half size panels, like the other sections, would result in one corner of each half size section being above the discharge pipe. I didn't know how I would handle the problem of supporting the two corners of half size panels that would be over the discharge pipe, but I thought I could come up with something.

The New End Section

Note the notch in the joist at the bottom of the picture above.  This is where the pump's discharge pipe leaves the catch basin.  New half size panels will have to have space for the discharge pipe in that same position, which means that one corner of each panel cannot be directly supported on the basin wall.  Those corners would have to somehow be cantilevered over the discharge pipe.  It was not immediately clear how to do that.  But I boldly cut the panel in half.

Now I had to figure out how to support the sides of the new half size panels where I made the cut.  Note the notches in the joists near the center top of the picture above.  The horizontal run of the discharge pipe would have to pass under the panels in this area for a length of 9.5 inches, about half way to the next joist.

November 13, 2019
I made a new transverse joist for each of the new half size panels.  To make room for the discharge pipe, I cut away the lower 2.5 inches of each new joist for 11 inches from the end, making the end of the new transverse joists match the notches in the longitudinal joists. 

This solved the problem of making room for the discharge pipe, but now last 11 inches the new transverse joists were only about an inch thick, while all other joists were 3.5 inches thick.  I suspected that this would make those joists too weak, and that they could break if a person stood near the corner of one of the new panels.

Mechanical engineers take courses called "Strength of Materials" and "Statics" which teach them how to analyze structures like this.  Unfortunately, I have never studied those subjects and cannot deal with the problem quantitatively.  I tried to compensate by overdesigning the structure.

I added a 13.5 inch length of 2 by 4 beside the thin end of each of the new transverse joists.  This would run between the last two longitudinal joists and be attached to them as well as being firmly attached to the transverse joist.  The end of this 2 by 4 would rest on the concrete wall of the basin, and therefore would be securely supported.

I was still not confident that the joist would support the weight of a person standing near the corner.  To strengthen it further, I bought two 48 inch lengths of perforated steel angle stock.

I attached them to the top edge of the new joists with 3/8 inch bolts.  Below are pictures of one of the new panels, looking from each side of the new joist.  The new joist is at the bottom of the upper picture and at the top of the lower picture.

I was concerned that the heads of the bolts would cause a gap between the two panels if they aligned.  So I positioned the bolts so that the heads of the bolts on one panel would fall between the bolts on the other panel.

Here is the end panel in place.  It weighs 52.0 pounds.  Compare to 45 pounds for the corresponding panels that don't have to provide space for the discharge pipe.

Both halves of the end section in place.

The other new half size panel weighs 50.5 pounds.  I found that I could remove and replace each of them without undue strain.


The entire deck, with the new half size end panels in place.

Now I have to figure out how to interface the deck to the pavers on each side.

New Catch Basin Panels Are Complete

Wednesday, November 6, 2019 

The new panels for the catch basin are finally complete.

There are four sections, matching the four panels of the original deck.

Original Deck

The new panels are made from synthetic wood, and the frames are Lowe's "ground contact treated" wood. They should last a lot longer than the original deck did.  They are also wider, extending over the channel covered by planks in the original deck.  This would have meant that the panels would be much heavier than the original panels, probably too heavy for me to lift.  So for each section except the one on the end away from the house, I built two panels of half the length of the originals.  Each pair of half-size panels would replace one original panel.  I could not do this for the end panel, because the discharge pipe has to pass through the frame in the middle of the panel, where transverse joists for the half-size frames would need to be.

Frames for Original Deck

So the end panel is a single full size panel.  I have to think of it as unmovable.

Frame for New End Panel

I have confirmed that I can lift the half size panels without much strain.  And the deck seems quite stable even though the panels are just sitting on the catch basin and not attached to it.

While the deck panels are complete, I still have a lot of details to work out.  What will I use to hold back the dirt when a panel is removed?  How will I support the grate?  (It is currently sitting on untreated 2 by 4's just to show how it will look.)  How will I fill in the space around the grate?  I need to do all of this in such a way that the material will not need to be replaced in a few years.

Rebuilding the Catch Basin Deck

The first step in rebuilding the catch basin deck was some minor redesign.  When I built the original deck, I thought it was a great idea to attach each deck section to the concrete basin with heavy hinges.  The hinges worked well, and I could conveniently raise the heavy deck panels to get access to the basin.  But there was a serious drawback.

The top of the basin was five inches below the surrounding ground level and patio.  This allowed the top of the deck to be even with the surrounding ground level.  But it meant that there had to be space behind the deck for the lower edge of the deck panels to go into when the panels were raised.

I also needed a solid base for the panels to rest on when they were raised.  To this end I built a channel behind the basin, about five inches wide, and filled it with concrete up to the level of the top of the basin.

The concrete provided a firm base for the panels to rest on when they were raised, but now there would be a gap between the deck and the surrounding ground when the panels were in their normal position.  That would be a tripping hazard, as well as an aesthetic defect.

To avoid having the gap I bought a 4 by 4  beam (seen in the picture above) to put into the channel when the panels were lowered.  The top of the 4 by 4, would come up just to the bottom of the deck planks.  So I added deck planks on top of the 4 by 4 to create a level surface.

This provided a level surface, even with the surrounding ground level, and I thought it was aesthetically pleasing.  The only drawback was that I would have to remove the deck plank and the 4 by 4 in order to raise a panel.  This negated a lot of the benefit of having the panels on hinges.  But it was the best solution I could think of.

A problem that I didn't anticipate was that the 4 by 4 would swell as it absorbed moisture, making it much more difficult to remove.  After a while I had to use a crowbar to prise it out of the channel.

The upshot of all this was that I decided that the hinges were more trouble than they were worth.  With the new deck, I decided not to attach the deck panels to the basin and  just remove a panel when I need to get access to the basin.  There would be no need for the channel and the wood to fill it when the deck panels were in their normal position.  The panels should be heavy enough to be stable without being attached to the basin.

This raised the question of what to do with the channel.

One solution would be to cover the channel with more pavers, and continue to have the deck exactly cover the basin.  But the pavers had been installed by a professional, and I was not confident that I could do a good job of installing more of them. Plus I didn't have more pavers.  If I bought new ones, they would probably not match the old ones.  My conclusion was to leave the channel and pavers alone and make the deck six inches wider so that it would cover the channel.

In an effort to make the new deck last longer than the first one, I decided to use synthetic wood deck planks.  These are more expensive than wood planks, but they presumably will never rot.  Also, they don't need to be sanded or stained.  The downside, in addition to cost, is that they are considerably heavier than wood planks of the same size.  The old wood panels were so heavy that I could barely lift them.  The new panels would be wider and made of much heavier material.  If I made them match the old panels, there would be no way I could lift them.  There was no choice about the width of the panels; they must be the width of the basin, plus the channel.  I decided to make the new panels half the length (long dimension of the basin) of the old one.  So two new panels would replace on old panel.  They would still be heavy.

There was still the issue of what to use for the frames that hold up the deck panels.  I used "pressure treated" pine 2 by 4's for the original deck.  Despite the pressure treating, some of these boards had rotted.  I considered using metal for the frames, but decided against that.  I don't know anything about metal work and don't have any tools for it.  I thought about trying to get the frames constructed for me by a metal fabricator, but decided that that would probably be too expensive.  

I found that Lowe's now has lumber designated as "ground contact" pressure treated lumber.  The signs on this lumber indicate that it is more rot resistant than the ordinary "pressure treated" lumber.  I decided that this was the best alternative available.  I bought enough 2 by 4's and synthetic wood deck planks to make two new, half size, panels, which would replace one of the original panels, about one fourth of the deck. I wanted to check out my design before buying enough material for the entire deck.  Just this much material cost more than $200.  And it was as much as I could carry in my Prius. 

As with the original deck, I would use construction hardware and screws (no nails) to build the frames for the deck panels.

Construction Hardware

      

Angle Brace                       Joist Hanger

I would use an angle brace to connect two 2 by 4's at a place where they would be supported by the basin.  I would use a joist hanger to connect one 2 by 4 to another at a place where there was no support.


I drew up detailed plans for the two distinct kinds of deck panels, one with the planks running across the basin and one with the planks running parallel to the basin.

In the final product, each of these half size panels would be paired with another of the same kind to make an approximately square section with all of the deck planks running the same direction, matching one of the original panels.  But initially I wanted to make one panel of each kind in order to check my plans.  I started with the panel having planks running across the basin (the lower one in the picture above.)

Having only two hands is a distinct disadvantage when it comes to assembling deck panel frames.  I tied the crosspiece to a table to hold it up while I drove in the screws to attach it to the end piece.

OK, this was a hack, but it got the job done.

I did the same thing again and then put the two parts together.

All of these joints would rest on the basin.  So I used angle braces and construction screws to attach the 2 by 4's.

Then I used joist hangers to attach two cross pieces in the inside of the frame.  I put the finished frame onto the basin in order to check the fit.

This looked good.  So I cut three deck planks to the width of the frame and attached them to the frame with deck screws.

Half of one section was now complete.  This panel weighs 45 pounds.

I followed the same steps to build the other panel, according to the plan at the top of the plans picture above.  This time I needed to cut eight deck planks 18 inches long, to run across the frame in the narrow dimension.  Here is the final result.  This panel weighs 42 pounds.

With that step, one quarter of the deck was complete.

To be continued.