Indianapolis, IN Pond Build with a Blue Eco RDF #2 (Geist Reservoir)

[Russell Peters]

I also worked out the locations for the 3" line for the water fall, the 2" line for the Levolor autofill, two 3" line for midline intakes (possible future upgrade) and the 2" line for the sump pump.

[Russell Peters]

I finished raising the rebar and cleaning the mud off of it. I also marked the bottom drain pipes for the level of the concrete.

[Russell Peters]

I shored up the walls in the filter pit and closed up the ends of the walls where there are elevation changes.

[Russell Peters]

I ended up using all of the forms from the other build and did not think that I would use the radius forms again. Well, I did find a use for them. I set them on the North side of the pond to help shed water during the rain storms. I scavenged one of them today for some 2 x 4's so you can see the space where it used to be. The pour is tomorrow so I am going to be moving all of them in the morning.

[Russell Peters]

The pour went well over all and the finishers did an excellent job. I am very happy with the work they did as it means my grinding work will be much less than the last pour. We used 31 cubic yards of concrete.

[Russell Peters]

We did have one issue. I spoke about how the concrete pumping crew really wanted to fill the walls up all at once on the last job because it was very difficult for them to move the hose around and do several lifts. The way I build my forms they rely on an equal amount of concrete being on the forms, all the way around, as we fill up the walls. The taller the walls the more important this rule is. This is because the pressure of the concrete, as it goes into the forms, pushes the inner wall toward the inner wall on the opposite side. Therefore, if all the walls fill up, at roughly the same rate then there is constant pressure form all sides pressing into the center of the pond. This actually is what keeps the forms from blowing out.
This pour, unlike the last pour, has a filter pit behind the pond with walls that are 2' to 4' tall. I decided to fill this area up first, as it would make it easier on the concrete pump guys, and the finishers could then get a head start on finishing the entire area so they could then focus on the pond. When I ordered the concrete I asked for a 4" slump but it arrived looking like soup so this meant we could not finish pouring the filter pit area all at once. We could put enough concrete in to get about 8" into the wall areas which happens to be the same thickness of the floor. If you keep pouring it into the walls it would just flow into the floor area. The decision was made to go around the entire filter pit area, and pond area so that this first, small lift would start to harden to the base of the walls. When we did the pond area the concrete flowed into about half of the pond floor area so the first truck of concrete was used up just for this.
When the second truck arrived the concrete was solid enough, in the filter pit area, that we could fill up the walls to the top and this included the common wall between the pond and filter pit. At this point I walked away from the pour for a minute, figuring the guys would do a small lift around the entire pond. A minute or so later I heard the sound of wood popping and breaking, turned around and yelled some expletives just as I saw the bottom of the forms bow out about 4". When I asked the guys what they were doing they responded by saying they thought they could speed up the process by filling up the entire wall as they go. This was insane as it was as if we never had the discussion, on this job and the prior job, about how these forms could not withstand that much pressure all at once. I must say, for the rest of the pour, these guys moved the hose as much as I wanted and very slowly filled up the rest of the walls.
The issue was not with the shoring or the forms either. It was because the forms, directly opposite the wall they filled up, had no concrete in it to counter the force of the concrete they had just put into that side. Since there was a void, behind the opposite wall, it moved away from the center of the pond allowing the other wall to move to the center of the pond. The same seam, between the forms, was on the other side and it did not move at all once we filled it all up at the same rate.
These first pictures are of the wall that moved toward the center of the pond.

[Russell Peters]

The movement was enough to put a slight bend in the entire wall. This pond is going to be covered will boulders, stones and surrounded by plantings to make it look more natural so, when it is done, you won't notice the bend.

[Russell Peters]

Today it was my goal to strip all of the forms from the pond and the filter pit. I didn't quite make it as several of the outer forms were locked into place with concrete and it rained. First thing was to strip all of the shoring.

[Russell Peters]

All of the outer forms have been removed except for a few around the filter pit. The inner forms from the pond are all loose but a few have not been pulled off of the walls. the concrete underneath looks really good and there will be very little repair work. I couldn't remove all of the forms before the rain so they are stacked inside the pond.

[Russell Peters]

The filter pit area turned out very nice.