Pier pipe megalith.

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Tuesday: This morning the excavated hole had 4" of water in the bottom. I still needed to cut away right around the hole to make more room during the drop. The gravel "crater" made it very difficult to balance on the surroundings. An old, plastic beer crate solved that problem. I dropped it in and stood on it as I worked around the hole with a spade. Getting the crate back out of the ooze afterwards took a long lever, a rope and patience!

Finally satisfied with my excavation, I stuck some lengths of pipe against the opposite wall to stop the pipe from digging in as it fell [hopefully] upright. 

By rocking the pipe from side to side as I worked downhill I was able to bring it down to the hole and then rotate it ready for the big drop. My long length of water pipe was then used as a lever inside to lift the pipe quickly upright on the edge of the hole.

The pipe dropped but lodged at a steep angle on one of the upright steel pipes. Excavating around the steel pipe with crowbar solved that problem and I used a Prusik loop and long lever to pull the lodged steel pipe free. 

Now the concrete pipe could stand almost perfectly upright in the bottom of the hole. It looked much too tall at first but a quick check with a long straight edge showed its height was perfect. Now I used my long pole to rock the pipe in the sludge at the bottom of the hole. It took very little effort to get it perfectly upright with the builder's level. 

I expect the 300kg/600lb pipe to sink slightly more due to its sheer weight and soft ground, but I am unlikely to hinder this much by compacting gravel inside or out. The important thing is that the pipe's height, at or below the finished gravel surface, is now ensured.

Barrowing of gravel can now continue once I clear all the junk and tools out of the way. The area to the left has not had much gravel dumped there yet.

A couple of hours of barrowing later the surface of the gravel is rising towards the top of the pier pipe. Each new inch layer of gravel was well stamped down in turn to ensure firm compaction around the pipe. I tried using a sledge hammer as a tamper but it had absolutely no effect.

The view inside the buried pipe shows the high water table after a few hours. Kicking the rim of the heavy pipe had no visible effect on the water surface so it must be well damped.

We have an unused well in the garden whose water surface rises and falls with the seasons. It is far too contaminated with agricultural run-off to be potable.

The presence of water has confirmed the need for concrete [carport] anchors as footings for the four "4x4" pier posts. Any plans to simply "immerse" the posts in gravel, while resting on more gravel would be foolish. As would adding concrete to the base. Cast concrete footings will lift the timber clear of the water while simultaneously providing a larger footprint. A bed of small stones will aid resistance to the footings sinking by firming up the 'ooze' to just above the water surface. The stone I dropped into the water yesterday looks exactly the same today.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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