Hello Mike, thanks for responding.ÃÂ The pond will be at least 3" thick all around, I've pre molded the chicken wire so that I can just slip it on once I do my first layer of mix (about 1/2" to 1" thick) then finish it with another 2" of the mix (to ensure coverage of the wire), and for added strength. The pond will be above ground and on short squat "feet" made of concrete. The reason's for using hypertufa; I love the rustic charm of it, it would still be lighter than making it out of all cement, and using perlite instead of vermiculite will give me a "granite" kind of look. ÃÂ I did a test run using the sandy dirt from my yard to try and figure out how much of my 4 ingredients I will need. I don't have a problem re-sealing it but is there a clear coat "paint" to use instead of sealer? ÃÂ Can I add another fiber and which kind for added strength?? ÃÂ How long would you guessti ate for total curing time?? I will be pitching a tent over it to keep it from direct sun. Can one of those odjob concrete barrel mixers be used to mix the hypertufa? Thanks for any and all assistance.

Well, I went to Scotts and read the MSDS. The product lists compost, peat, manure and poultry manure. So I don't think that there is any of the 'blue stuff' mixed in. Why gloves? Well organic products contain a lot of bacteria, possibly some that might cause a skin infection if rubbed into a cut. But getting back to your question of 'now what?', I think you have a heck of a good start on soil for your raised bed, now what you need is mineral component for good drainage. If I were in your shoes I would find a supplier of large bags of perlite, mix maybe 2 parts soil, 1 part perlite. Equal parts would not be too much, the experts have said. I used to think that sand would be the thing to use, what could be cheaper than sand and it drains reasonably well. I was shocked to find that per cubic foot, perlite can be price competitive with sand. Many container gardeners agree that perlite is superior to sand. I buy my perlite at a horticulture supply company, but for a couple of dollars more a bag my Home Depot has it as well. I do note that in my area Home Depot has play sand on sale for the next day or two, so that would be another choice. But one thing is for sure, you can get a lot of mixed advice on soil formulas. I think you need: organic material to hold moisture mineral content for drainage allowing air to enter the soil fertilizer, either organic or chemical If you have those 3 in good supply, I guess you will have no problems regardless of the exact contents and percentages. Gary

Thank you both SO much! After I read your responses, I walked over to my next door neighbor's house. He was outside puttering in his yard like always. He's a retired contractor, and I asked him if he knew anything about grading. He was outside in 30 seconds with a string, and a small level and he held one end up to my foundation and told me to hold the other end on the other side where it's high, and we now know what we have to do to get a good slope. I have to add additional soil near my foundation, but it won't be touching the siding. It doesn't have to go that high. I've been busy all afternoon raking rocks into the deep areas where I'm going to need a good foot of soil. I've gotten about 1/5th of the first section done. It looks so much better without all the rocks. It actually looks somewhat nice. With all the grading I'm guessing I won't need more than 30 yards of topsoil. It's tough to figure out how to calculate when you're dealing with a slope. Oh, and with regards to the concrete block. He said Oh I can take care of that and I said no, please don't. I don't want to hurt our foundation. He said it will be fine, don't worry. He got a chisel and a hammer and started knocking it down piece by piece. I held my breath the whole time. When he was halfway done he got a call and he handed me the tools and told me to finish it. But my arms are sore from all the raking to hold that huge hammer, so I didn't do it.

I just went through the same thing. But then I'm a rehabber and get my fixer uppers at foreclosure sales at half their final market value. Hand the contractor a copy of your photos, and then simply lock the contractor out of the house. Ignore any payment the contractor thinks they have coming. And start over. Document what's there. but it looks like you have plenty of pictures in hand in case the contractor has the gall to complain later formally or try to take credit for someone else's work. Moving on, the first thing you'll want to do is change your mindset to only contracting out a room or two at a time. If the contractor doesn't work out, there is less money involved. I've never seen a floor contractor who would or could show the work of his last job, especially with old rehab floor boards. I'm sure it is difficult since they often times got fired from their last job. It is true that a good contractor can take one look at your floor and assess it on sight. The problem is that you can't, and you can't tell a real contractor from a poser, and you can't believe anything that you are told by a poser. Next you'll need to assess a room of interest. You'll need to drum sand at 36 or 40 grit. A Home Depot $75/day drum sander will work fine. Always spread lowering the drum control over a 12" long rolling movement to prevent burning the floor, which is the term for a hard drum drop. An untrained millenial with that instruction could do it if you take away his cell phone for the day. You'll need the millenial for the day anyway to lift the sander. Subsequent sandings at higher grit numbers will follow. End with an orbital 12x18" sander finish buff at 100 grit starting with pencil marks on 5 separate occasions then twice with the 12x18" screen buff with use of a $1 carpenters pencil to scribble on every sq ft of sanded oak between every grit number. Any floor contractor could do it, but few will do it piecemeal. A 6" 60 grit disc on a Harbor Freight $130 Hercules Sander is used for edge sanding and to feather out any accidental drum drops which are simple to find after the first coat of stain is applied. Stay clear of professional edge sanders, which homeowners often times call the Tasmanian Devil. Stain and finish are applied wearing an FDA Approved air pressure mask fed by an air hose from a $500 HobbyAir machine plugged in outdoors. The proactive approach is more like feeling out the unstained floor with finger tips like Helen Keller or shining daylight or hallogen light on the bare sanded oak before staining to find any dips caused by hard drum drops. Using a flooring contractor, probably the best you could do would be an option to quit at $1 a sq/ft or two if the drum sanding doesn't yield accceptable results. If the floor gets too thin or the marks you wish to lose are too deep to sand out before making the floor too thin, then you have your answer, and you are ready for new wood. New wood doesn't cost much. I paid $3.20 sq/ft for the wood material plus self installation. Always pay more for longer boards in the mix. And your floor looks beat and pet or plant water stained half to death anyways. New red oak of dubious quality is widely available on Facebook for $1/sq ft in any sized quanity. You'd think you died and went to heaven if $1/sq ft new oak flooring in 2.5" width was installed in lieu of your existing flooring, moisture content, acclaimation time, and warpage aside...start really small. Dark stain like Minwax Jacobean, two or three coats, and a 15 minute wait time will cover almost anything in minimally acceptable fashion on really beat floors. Once you pull that thread in the sweater of rehab, the whole sweater often times unravels. Replacing wood flooring is not an all or nothing proposition. In one house with 1700 sq ft, I had 2 sq ft replaced in 4 different rooms, before final drum sanding. They can reweave in a repair for about $300 a spot and if the carpenter is good, you can't even tell. It is a refinish contractor who knows the good temp floor carpenters that do good spot repairs. In another house, I paid a demo contractor to remove all the existing boards and then nailed in 3286 sq ft of new red oak using a $160 floor cleat nailer from Harbor Freight, a $50 jig saw, and a $90 Porter Finish nailer from Harbor Freight, and a $160 air compressor from Harbor Freight, and a $110 10" framing saw from Home Depot. It took weekends for a couple of months. Cleats are about $10 a box at Harbor Freight. Any handyman with access to youtube videos can do the installation. The trick is hidden female-female join strips available over the counter from Lumber Liquidators for 50 cents /ft and special order nose pieces for $4/ft that have the 1/4 female grove for level drops like stairs. Works just like lego. Cleats only go in the male connection or tongue side. I hired an unsuspecting millenial handyman through Angi's List by asking for floor leveling and trained him using youtube videos to do the leveling, sanding, staining, and polyurethane paid one day at a time. Even that has to be limited to a room or two a day. Cost was less than half professional estimates and few flooring contractors will do anything without a contract for everything, and you never know which steps he can do well, and which he will fail at. In Chicago, a good flooring contractor has a cost of $1.5 sq ft., but they only like to work in the city limits. In Ohio, it's more like $10/sq ft for just the finish contractor even on simple unfinished new wood installation, which is what they all figure they are worth. You'd have to do a room complete yourself to qualify for project managing others, but then you'd be very capable for knowing when to fire someone. 90% of professional flooring installers fail at floor leveling or rather floor smoothing in older houses. After talking with the president of the NHWA, and the all of the most expensive flooring contractors in my area, it is obvious that I'm the most knowledgeable in leveling or smoothing out 20 year old big box Homes believed to have been built by the cheapest contractors in all the land. Don't allow removal of any wood strips or other underlayment pieces especially those glued or stapled in place under the existing flooring or you risk entering into the wonderland of the next level of skilled craftsman, the floor leveler who will offer to remove your floor boards to the rafters and install new underlayment plywood in lieu of leveling on top of your existing floor underlayment.