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Anybody know this material?

2K views 13 replies 6 participants last post by  Preeths 
#1 ·
Working on weird ideas here and spotted something I might like but no idea if it is a ready made or what?
Does anybody have a name for these wall materials as they look like they might be a shelf item or possibly just formed and poured concrete. In this case and to speed the job, I would like to find a source for these, rather than the time consuming DIY pouring (which also tends to crack over time!)
I'm working on a project for a space where mixing/pouring concrete is out and buying, shipping to site ,etc seems the better way to go.
Any ideas on sources? :confused:
 

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#3 ·
Yes, I thought they were some form of concrete but hoping somebody might know them as a trim item that could be bought at someplace. My reason to avoid doing the forming and pouring is that concrete in that thin sections tend to be really prone to cracking as it sets or during drying so that the loss would be too high for me to want to try to do it quickly. On this particular item the cost of the material, if we could find it as a trim item of some sort would not be a major problem and I would expect it to be fairly expensive but we could go that way for the trade off of being quick and sure, rather than a long drawn out pour and see how many we could manage.
Other ideas are on open for this but this idea was one that would do what was needed for a set of shallow "streams" for small native fish like darters. Probably with less loose stone and maybe deeper water in places
The reshape and design is easy enough but not if we have to build the materials from scratch. There was talk of buying the slabs like under AC units and cutting but that is a lot of cutting and not as smooth edges.
This was found on a site called "Pinterest" which seems to be mostly just an ad site that you can never get to the actual work of how things are built. Pretty pictures with lots of interesting stuff but little value for real info.
 
#5 ·
This was one idea I had as well but not able to find the shape in the length I was assuming.
I'm not a fan of Pinterest and this is the first real try at getting value and it seems to fall pretty flat for what I want. Lots of ads and referring to other sites with more adds but no way I could find to actually find any plans.

But your post did prompt me to go back and look at the full picture here:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AW8UL0Wg_nfNriVOCs3h9wSsrv00lfWZLYcp-MpcG65-ET3A1mrwfWw/

And that looking for signs of size led me to make a big discovery! It is likely to be something turned out commercially using a form for multiple "sets" of one basic size and shape, not a one of a kind DIY build.
Level 1,2, and 3 are actually all the same except 2 is turned 90 degrees!
Buddy, friend, employer? He thought he wanted something like this but not all that much! We think somebody probably sells them but we've already spent too much time scratching our heads, so he's moving on! :grin2:
Thanks anyway, guys. I'm getting a little goofy looking for entertainment while locked up???
 
#7 ·
I found lots of places where the idea is shown if I do a Google search for the image, but they all come up dry for an actual list of components. I'm not a Pinterest user normally and now I'm even less likely to use it as it seems to just lead me round and round in circles to put more ads in front of me, rather than giving usable info on building it. The U-tube idea is neat looking but my friend is in a high rise and wants something on the balcony, so mixing and pouring concrete is step one of a big NO! We could see dragging in a few pallets of materials and a bit of mortar mixing to tie it together but not for a full blown pour.
And that comes back around to how well thin concrete works out as it dries. I'm guessing it is very much a matter of experience and knowing what and how to do it but I would never expect to make a concrete last with those thin walls. The problem with concrete is that it takes experience but to get that experience, there has to be lots of "learning curve" while things don't work out over the long term.
We've discussed what might work and we both like wood as an easy one to work, so we are currently thinking 2X6 cedar mounted to treated plywood bottoms and sealed. Maybe foam blocks covered with stucco as bases? Perhaps thick black plastic for a liner in the stream and sealing the wood with some of the spray sealers that neither of us has used enough to know. Since this is a project that is not expected to last more than five years at most, it might be worth the try, even if it failed.
But he is not there much and had to go out and about, so we got cut off on the planning for this trip.
I may try one for my yard but adapt it to a fountain/ bird bath combo instead of a stream.
The only real way to say how a plan works is to try it???
Maybe build one for me to work out the bugs and then have it in "modular" form to drag to his place to finish when he is around!
 
#8 ·
I'd be interested in the patio block type stones from the OP if anyone ever found them. Hell, they'd be fun just for the kids to play around with.
 
#9 ·
I think we finally decided this must be a commercial concrete casting where they had forms, probably metal, to turn our a large number of the same size and shape in a specific patterns. Then they used several of the same molding turned different directions to stack the fountain. I have given up on chasing where the moldings might have been sold but I might guess it would have been some high end yard decor place and whether it is still available might simply depends on how many they made in the first run, before changing to a different pattern. Kind of like chunking out concrete blocks, if you've ever seen that?
I may eventually take a shot at turning the idea around and making it from cedar but right now the weather here is not making me want to go outside any more than totally required as it is topping out at 107 actual temp! the one saving grace when the temp goes that high is that the relative humidity may go down into the teens. Less sweat but more like an oven than a sauna!
My brother in Missouri has asked if we can even get water out of a hose at hose levels.

Can you see 2X6 cedar sidewalls for ease of building, treated 3/4 inch plywood bottom, with black plastic overlay to waterproof with the top edges of plastic trimmed with a wooden trim along the top of the sidewalls. Maybe a variety of plants in the spaces where they have the large river rock?
Problem is that I have all these pumps left over when I moved most of my tanks out and it seems a shame to just leave a good pump in the closet collecting dust!

How about a couple inches deeper water with a few crawfish, darters, and snails? If a guy wanted to get totally crazy, add a couple plants in the creek? :wink2:
 

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#11 ·
Nice thought on digging a hole but missing the point that we set on a limestone layer that is only covered by 6-18 inches of topsoil. Digging a hole to set a barrel requires a jackhammer!
It does vary from place to place but just setting a fence post is a question at times. One reason for so much mesquite and cedar for trees is that they are some which don't need to root deeply. East Texas has trees, West Texas, not so much! We are kind of at the dividing line where the fault line lifted to make the "hill country" a few hundred feet higher than the "blackland prairie" to the East of the fault.
Balcones (balconies?) is the local version of the Spanish term.
 
#13 ·
No good on digging as the original "need" was for a setup on an apartment balcony up a few floors! As I got into it more, it looked like something I might do for myself as well if we worked out a plan but the primary is one for the balcony. Sort of thing that the planning is the harder part and building two is almost as easy as building ne, if we get the right plan.
 
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