Forum Groups

 

Forums / Shop Talk / Curb Machines

Curb Machines

3 posts
  1. Clay Putnam
    Clay Putnam avatar
    33 posts
    9/25/2012 1:09 PM
    Anyone have input on curb machines? Brands? How to's? Etc.

    I have researched several different brands and they all claim to be the best. The Lill-Bubba machine appears to be the most interesting of the bunch. But as I said, they all claim to be the cat's backside.

    For those that have used curb machines, were you able to place the curb directly on top of black top or concrete? What about on top of soil areas? I have to imagine frost heave is concern, yes? How often do you score the curb? Did you reinforce the curb material? If so how and with what material?

    Thanks in advance.



  2. Andy Jorgensen
    Andy Jorgensen avatar
    1 posts
    9/25/2012 3:09 PM
    Clay,

    After paying about $8/ft for a commercial trench style curb, we opted to buy our own machine and play with it a bit. We found it was very successful and has paid for itself very quickly. We bought one from Northern Tool (http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200356921_200356921) and modified the form to make it a taller curb by adding 2" of flat steel stock to either side of the form. As you are pouring, you keep the bottom of the inside edge of the form on top of the path, with the outside edge about 2" above grade. This kind of gives you a wider footer that the concrete will overflow and pour outside the curb width. Similar to the commercial style trench curb machines they use on roads. I would not pour it directly on top of an existing path and there would be nothing to hold it in place.

    We will dig down next to the path about 2-3" and wide enough to accommodate the curbing machine itself. This area has to be perfectly level and smooth or else you'll be constantly adjusting the height of the machine. We then mix our own batches in our concrete mixer using 3 bags of quickcrete, 5 scoops of Portland Cement and 7 scoops of sand. You want the mixture just wet enough that everything is mixed, but dry enough that it will hold a form. If it is to wet, the curb will simply begin to slump as soon as it is poured out. The vibration of the machine doesn't help with this either. Too dry, and it won't stick together. If you can get a few bags of fiber mesh to throw in each batch, that's even better, but we have yet to do this. You could also get away with driving rebar into the curb trench with about 3" sticking out to stabilize it. We don't score or cut joints in our curb as I feel that leads to a breaking point. We have had some in for about 4 years now with no issues, even with driving tractors, carts and fertilizer trucks over them. It takes some practice, but with the right mix and operator, it turns out quite successful.

    With this method, we can do about 250' a day, with 4 people - two mixing and loading, one finishing and one pouring. That's prepped, poured and backfilled.

    I couldn't answer your question about frost, but could see it as an issue.

    If you want some pictures of the form, or curbs, let me know.



  3. McCallum David K
    McCallum David K avatar
    9/26/2012 12:09 PM
    After we opened we opted to have a company come in and add some curbing in areas we did not realize we would need them. The machine did a great job but we did drill and add rebar to the edges of our paths to give it reinforcment. In a few places that we did not it has since moved on us. Where rebar was included cannot tell it from the orginal work during construction. You can buy the rebar already bent and in just about any lenght you want it. We also used a concrete with fiber added to it to strenghten it even more.



View or change your forums profile here.