Over Memorial weekend, we finished getting the NE retaining wall ready for shotcrete.  We added Basalt Roving to the fiberglass rebar for added strength. This stuff is amazing! It looks like twisted twine about the diameter of a pencil. Yet it has an equivalent tensile strength of about 3/4 inch steel… and it’s made out of rock. We even used it to tie an old tire to the wall.  This will act as an anchor when it gets buried in the “berm” and give extra support for the retaining wall.

In these two pictures you can see the corrugated material that will act as the form that the shotcrete will be sprayed against.  This will give us a the look of corrugated concrete on the outside of the wall.  Some of the panels were purchased (green) the others were donated scraps from our neighbors at Oregon Oyster Farm.

On Saturday, Nolan from MortarSprayer.com, delivered our handheld sprayer.  Unlike the shell of our house which was sprayed by a high powered shotcrete pump, we will be spraying our retaining walls using the Low Velocity Sprayed Concrete technique. LVSC

As you can see, this sprayer has a hopper. After mixing the concrete and pouring it into a wheelbarrow, we simply scoop it into the hopper.  Compressed air blows through jets that expel the concrete onto the wall.

Everything is ready. The back of our forms are all supported so they can’t move.  Next weekend, if Mother Nature cooperates. we will get this wall done and the move onto the next.

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