Mixing a bucket of concrete to repair the front garden wall at the Birch Ridge Inn

Mixing a bucket of concrete to repair the front garden wall at the Birch Ridge Inn

It all sounds so easy. The label on the bag of concrete mix could not have provided easier directions...."Just add water"... And so started a 10 day spring project (half days) just after we got back from our vacation.

In front of the inn, between the parking lot and the sidewalk, sits the front garden of the inn. The garden is contained by a slate wall, roughly 60 feet, which slopes to match the grade of the sidewalk. 14 years ago, using scrape slate block we got from the Taran Brothers Quarry in Poultney Vermont, I spent the better part of 6 weeks putting together the intricate jigsaw puzzle which turned into the wall. In the intervening years, the wall has been scorched by bright summer sun, buried under mountainous snow banks, scraped by snow plows, hit by cars, sideswiped by delivery trucks... You name it.....but it has held up quite well over that time.

But it was time for some repair work. Most of the cap stones were loose, the result of many winter freeze thaw cycles. The top course of bricks (and then some in places) were loose, the result of car bumpers contacting the wall as people parked their cars. Yes it was time, before something major happened causing a catastrophic failure of some kind. So 2 weeks ago, the project began.

"Just add water" the six, 60lb bags of concrete mix proclaimed.

The project started with digging a trench in the garden right behind the wall. The soil of the garden was acting to bind the wall. This is normally a good thing as it provides stability; but for the repair project I wanted some instability so I could determine which stones were loose needing repair.

With the trench dug, I was able to get a true view of the magnitude of the needed repairs. The low side of the wall to the far right, was in pretty good shape. The last pier of stones needed the top row reset; but the next pier up had virtually no damage. This contrasted with the row closest to stairs leading into the inn. Being much taller than a normal car bumper, this section of the wall was very fragile. It required that multiple courses of stones be rebuilt, with some additional grout work required on the lower courses.

Once I started mixing concrete, it was pretty easy. Since there are other things to do at the inn, I limited the work flow to one bag of concrete per day. This gave me a realistic daily goal, as well as an opportunity to make adjustments along the way.

Early last night, I finished the job. I refilled the ditch I had dug with about 20 wheel barrows of dirt. Now it's Mary's turn to do her thing and get flowers planted for the summer.

Just add water....