CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION

METHODS AND COST

BY

HALBERT P. GILLETTE

M. Am. Soc. C. E.; M. Am. Inst. M. E.

Managing Editor, Engineering-Contracting

AND

CHARLES S. HILL, C. E.

Associate Editor, Engineering-Contracting

NEW YORK AND CHICAGO

THE MYRON C. CLARK PUBLISHING CO.

1908

Copyright. 1908
BY
The Myron C. Clark Publishing Co.

PREFACE.

How best to perform construction work and what it will cost for materials, labor, plant and general expenses are matters of vital interest to engineers and contractors. This book is a treatise on the methods and cost of concrete construction. No attempt has been made to present the subject of cement testing which is already covered by Mr. W. Purves Taylor's excellent book, nor to discuss the physical properties of cements and concrete, as they are discussed by Falk and by Sabin, nor to consider reinforced concrete design as do Turneaure and Maurer or Buel and Hill, nor to present a general treatise on cements, mortars and concrete construction like that of Reid or of Taylor and Thompson. On the contrary, the authors have handled the subject of concrete construction solely from the viewpoint of the builder of concrete structures. By doing this they have been able to crowd a great amount of detailed information on methods and costs of concrete construction into a volume of moderate size.

Though the special information contained in the book is of most particular assistance to the contractor or engineer engaged in the actual work of making and placing concrete, it is believed that it will also prove highly useful to the designing engineer and to the architect. It seems plain that no designer of concrete structures can be a really good designer without having a profound knowledge of methods of construction and of detailed costs. This book, it is believed, gives these methods and cost data in greater number and more thoroughly analyzed than they can be found elsewhere in engineering literature.

The costs and other facts contained in the book have been collected from a multitude of sources, from the engineering journals, from the transactions of the engineering societies, from Government Reports and from the personal records of the authors and of other engineers and contractors. It is but fair to say that the great bulk of the matter contained in the book, though portions of it have appeared previously in other forms in the authors' contributions to the technical press, was collected and worked up originally by the authors. Where this has not been the case the original data have been added to and re-analyzed by the authors. Under these circumstances it has been impracticable to give specific credit in the pages of the book to every source from which the authors have drawn aid. They wish here to acknowledge, therefore, the help secured from many engineers and contractors, from the volumes of Engineering News, Engineering Record and Engineering-Contracting, and from the Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the proceedings and papers of various other civil engineering societies and organizations of concrete workers. The work done by these journals and societies in gathering and publishing information on concrete construction is of great and enduring value and deserves full acknowledgment.

In answer to any possible inquiry as to the relative parts of the work done by the two authors in preparing this book, they will answer that it has been truly the labor of both in every part.

H. P. G.
C. S. H.

Chicago, Ill., April 15, 1908.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER I.—METHODS AND COST OF SELECTING AND PREPARING MATERIALS FOR CONCRETE. 1

Cement: Portland Cement—Natural Cement—Slag Cement—Size and Weight of Barrels of Cement—Specifications and Testing. Sand: Properties of Good Sand—Cost of Sand—Washing Sand; Washing with Hose; Washing with Sand Ejectors; Washing with Tank Washers. Aggregates: Broken Stone—Gravel—Slag and Cinders—Balanced Aggregate—Size of Aggregate—Cost of Aggregate—Screened and Crusher Run Stone for Concrete—Quarrying and Crushing Stone—Screening and Washing Gravel.

CHAPTER II.—THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PROPORTIONING CONCRETE. 25

Voids: Voids in Sand; Effect of Mixture—Effect of Size of Grains—Voids in Broken Stone and Gravel; Effect of Method of Loading; Test Determinations; Specific Gravity; Effect of Hauling—Theory of the Quantity of Cement in Mortar; Tables of Quantities in Mortar—Tables of Quantities in Concrete—Percentage of Water in Concrete—Methods of Measuring and Weighing; Automatic Measuring Devices.


CHAPTER III.—METHODS AND COSTS OF MAKING AND PLACING CONCRETE BY HAND. 45

Loading into Stock Piles—Loading from Stock Piles—Transporting Materials to Mixing Boards—Mixing—Loading and Hauling Mixed Concrete—Dumping, Spreading and Ramming—Cost of Superintendence—Summary of Costs.


CHAPTER IV.—METHODS AND COST OF MAKING AND PLACING CONCRETE BY MACHINE. 61

Introduction—Conveying and Hoisting Devices—Unloading with Grab Buckets—Inclines—Trestle and Car Plants—Cableways—Belt Conveyors—Chutes—Methods of Charging Mixers—Charging by Gravity from Overhead Bins; Charging with Wheelbarrows; Charging with Cars; Charging by Shoveling; Charging with Derricks—Types of Mixers; Batch Mixers; Chicago Improved Cube Tilting Mixer, Ransome Non-Tilting Mixer, Smith Tilting Mixer; Continuous Mixers; Eureka Automatic Feed Mixer; Gravity Mixers; Gilbreth Trough Mixer, Hains Gravity Mixer—Output of Mixers—Mixer Efficiency.


CHAPTER V.—METHODS AND COST OF DEPOSITING CONCRETE UNDER WATER AND OF SUBAQUEOUS GROUTING. 86

Introduction—Depositing in Closed Buckets; O'Rourke Bucket; Cyclopean Bucket; Steubner Bucket—Depositing in Bags—Depositing Through a Tremie; Charlestown Bridge; Arch Bridge Piers, France; Nussdorf Lock, Vienna—Grouting Submerged Stone; Tests of H. F. White; Hermitage Breakwater.


CHAPTER VI.—METHODS AND COST OF MAKING AND USING RUBBLE AND ASPHALTIC CONCRETE. 98

Introduction—Rubble Concrete: Chattahoochee River Dam; Barossa