This must be ‘odd jobs’ week… After doing some siding repairs on their sunroom, a homeowner wanted me to put a birdhouse in her backyard on a post. They have quite a bit of wildlife back there and the birds had been kicked out of the house… (remember this post?)

So I bought a 10′ pressure treated 4×4 and dug a 2′ hole that was probably 10″ across or so. I leveled the post and braced it using some spare lumber and a couple 2×4 stakes that I made. This would hold it in place while the cement set up.

I used Quickrete’s fast-setting concrete mix that you can use for posts without even mixing! You just pour the mix into the hole and add 1/2 gallon of water for each bag you use. My hole took 2 bags.

Next, I built a couple brackets to hold the birdhouses out of pressure treated 2×4 and attached them using some 3″ and 2 1/2″ deck screws. By the time I had these brackets cut and assembled the concrete was solid and ready to go! The bag said 20-40 minutes to set up and it was right.

I attached the brackets and the birdie’s new home. Now it’s ready for it’s first residents…

-Peter