In a message dated 9/13/2009 7:07:01 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
towertalk-request@contesting.com writes:
> I thought I read on reflector or in a Tower installation book that
it is not a good thing to backfill the area around the tower base,
but looks to me from photos as that was done as concrete was poured into a
contained wood wall form and then area around
base filled back in with dirt...
> Am I missing something here or not interpreting photos right ?
I looked like they used a form around the rebar cage so they would
have had to backfill it. Typical tower base specs call for pouring against
"undisturbed earth" so the forms would have been against spec.
Undisturbed earth has the maximum soil strength - disturbed or backfilled
does not. You can use a form and then backfill it but it's not easy. You
have to tamp the dirt back to its previous solidity with powered jumping jack
tamper. It's outside of the scope of your average ham tower owner to do it
properly so I'd recommend sticking with undisturbed earth.
Cheers,
Steve K7LXC
TOWER TECH
author of UP THE TOWER - The Complete Guide To Tower Constrution
available from _www.championradio.com_ (http://www.championradio.com)
Cell: 206-890-4188
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