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Tips & Techniques

Concrete Funnel

Avoid wet concrete when filling piers with this easy technique.

Issue 64
Click here to enlarge illustration. Edited and illustrated by Charles Miller.

Recently we had to fill with concrete the cells of some concrete-block piers. We naturally wanted the job to go quickly and neatly—no slopping wet concrete on the sides or at the base of the blocks. To help us with the pour, we used the plywood funnel shown in the drawing. It was held steady atop the blocks by the plywood ears extending into the block cells, and the curved cutouts allowed us to prop our buckets on the funnel edges without worrying about missing the mark.

— Gregory D. Lang; Cedar Key, FL

From Fine Homebuilding #64

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Got a Tip?

Do you have any great tips like this one on how to make a DIY concrete funnel? Share your methods, tricks, and jigs with other readers. Tag them @FineHomebuilding on social, email them to us at [email protected], or upload them to FineHomebuilding.com/reader-tips. We’ll pay for any we publish.

Originally published January, 1991.

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  1. CivilEng43 | May 10, 2017 03:29am | #1

    Could it be that this tip was published before? For some reason it didn't surprise me.
    Not that there's something wrong with the tip. Quite the contrary. If someone were concreting concreting masonry blocks for me, I'd be pretty pleased that they didn't spill concrete all over the place.

  2. user-6800184 | Aug 26, 2017 03:25pm | #2

    Nice idea

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