Peg your site out with stakes and mark your levels with a laser level.
How to build a concrete dam wall.
The concrete gravity dam has weight as its strength.
The dam is raised in steps of about 600 mm.
This website has a good explanation of hydrostatic forces on a dam surface.
This is done by diverting the river through a tunnel that runs around the intended construction zone.
Get your equipment and materials ready.
Remove the topsoil from the site.
Rollers are then driven over the concrete to compact it down.
Estimate the area of the reservoir a m 2 the evaporation and seepage losses per day e mm per day and hence the volume of losses per day a.
The edges are formed first by making low concrete walls on the upstream and downstream faces of the dam.
Concrete dams are built in four basic shapes.
Mix a bag of quick setting concrete mix with water in a large bucket or wheelbarrow and pour the wet concrete into the cracks.
For me it was a sheepsfoot compactor excavator skid steer and sodium.
How to build a concrete retaining wall a step by step guide to pouring concrete walls updated june 26 2020.
Robert it s entirely possible to build a retaining wall without reinforcing the concrete though not advised as the reinforcing will allow you to use less material so long as the concrete always works in compression this is how the first concrete dams were built or indeed many roman buildings.
I did some quick calculations and got the following.
Determine the water requirement per day r litres per day.
Poured concrete retaining walls can be colored textured.
A cross section of this dam looks like a triangle and the wide base is about three fourths of the height of the dam.
Cover the foundation with a 1 foot high layer of large rocks.
Saw tree branches to a length that equals the full length of the dam.
Dam construction must be started when river levels are low.
I also wrote the levels down on the pegs as.
Estimate the length of the critical period t days during which the.
Ideally you should.
With this high level of technicality comes incredible versatility.
If you want your dam to block or divert water for more than a short time you ll need longer lasting materials than rocks and stick.
Pack the branches downward tightly behind the dam on the dam.
Prized for their strength and versatility concrete retaining walls require precise construction methods.
You could build your wall with a submerged lip to help counteract the moment applied by the water pressure on the vertical face of the wall.