Thread: Condo Anchors

I have been planning to make my first PVC condo, anchoring it with a bucket. So I started to search the local restaurants. Seems there is a demand for buckets, everyone wanted to sell me their buckets from $1.50 and up. Not bad when you compare that to Home Depot which is just under $5.00 per bucket. I was a bit concern that the bucket would tip over after it hit bottom. So I started to think of a way to prevent this. I am planning to make a number of condos but since it appears that I would be able to get free food grade buckets, I needed another way to make an anchor for my condos.

I was sitting in the waiting room the other day and my wife handed me one of these home do it yourself type of magazines. (Trying to give me a hint of doing work around the house vs. going fishing) As I was skimming the rag, I noticed a very nice write up on how to make concrete castings. The rag made a cool fountain. My mind shifted immediately to making a nice anchor platform for condos and such. The article stated that concrete will not stick to the pink/blue Styrofoam insulation sheet which people uses on homes.

I went home and went through my pile of scrap wood and made a solid 24” box out of 1x6 and used 3/ 4 “ plywood for the base. I lined the box with the Styrofoam sheet, taping the seams with good old fashion duct tape. I placed to coat hangers tips in the concrete to allow me to run rope through. (For placement) I also put in the casting three 3/ 4 in PVC pipes. Two of them are to provide holes for the water to pass through to speed the decent and the other to secure the condo to. I kind of went over board and used too much concrete, 80lbs to be exact. The two PVC pipes are removed after about an hour, which allows the concrete to setup. These pipes are saved for future work.

I am now making a system to allow me to cast various sized in the box. 24” square was the largest size that I wanted to handle. The extra PVC I had left over went into my condo along with 40 feet of other PVC piping.

Now for future projects, my costs will be just for the concrete. I have achieved my two goals: 1) Have a stable platform/anchor for my condo 2) Have a system which does not require additional expense every time I make a condo. The casting idea solved both of these issues. There will always be the expense of concrete, there is no way of getting around this. Side benefit is that I can make any size smaller and any shape I want in my box. The Styrofoam is a blast to work with to top it all off.

Enjoy!

The cost for making the re-usable concrete form:
$11.20

I already owned the scrap wood and duct tape.

Concrete 80lb bag: $2.63 (Home Depot)
Dow 1/2" x 4' x 8' RS Styrofoam sheet: $10.00 (Home Depot.)
3/ 4 in PVC 10 ft: $1.13

it doesen`t take that much concreek to weigh down pvc . bamboo is a different story . it has air pockets between each joint . you can use boxes or plastic containers . wipe the cantainer with old cooking oil . that will make the plastick slide loose from the sack creek . or line it with the insulation you use in the box . cap off some of the top pvc so it will hold it up right .