Concrete driveway

[Boneill230]

Just bought a house a few months ago, gravel driveway.....the winter sucked majorly with it as well as when it rains. Anyway getting to the point.

-25' X 40'
-6' slab
-4"-6" crushed stone base (sandy soil)
- #4 rebar on 1'-2' centers (up for discussion)
-Would be soft cutting the joints not troweling

That's the gist of it, the rebar I wanted to put in seeing as I am a mechanic/fabricator I work on allot of stuff at home. I wanted to be able to lift pretty much whatever on a jack and not have to worry about it cracking because of that. I would pretty much be doing it all myself, Have some experience with flat work along with my uncle with finishing concrete so we should be ok on that part. Let me know what yall think

 

[Playwme]

Do it. I just put in 120 square metres of concrete driveway and it's awesome being able roll a trailer or furniture dolly anywhere I want with little to no effort.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

Sounds like you have a plan. I don't see anything wrong with it. Compact the base well and slope it just enough for water to run off.
My first driveway everyone told me to have a brush finish so it didn't get slippery. That was the only thing I did wrong. It held dirt and was rough on my skin when sliding under a vehicle.
The drive I have at my current house is smoother and I like it much better.

 

[NUTTSGT]

6' is mighty thick, at 6" that 18.5 yards. That's a decent sized single pour for two guysbut sounds like you have the plan worked out.

 

[Jlbc212]

Buy air-entrained concrete. http://www.cement.org/cement-concrete-basics/working-with-concrete/air-entrained-concrete

 

[Boneill230]

Do it. I just put in 120 square metres of concrete driveway and it's awesome being able roll a trailer or furniture dolly anywhere I want with little to no effort.

exactly my thoughts I don't want to have to worry about it. Did you have your rebar on 1' centers? that's really the only variable I have. The compacted stone I will probably do 5"

 

[Boneill230]

just to add I will most likely have more than just me and my uncle. food and beer will help bring assistance (beer AFTER the pour is done though)

 

[Gwarren]

Did you want a 6 FOOT base?


J/K....I know you mean 6 inches..

 

[Dick in Wisconsin]

What bag mix?

Consider having the fiber in the concrete, I did that last year and only one tiny crack over winter.

Think about where you're going to cut the joints. If you're going to be positioning things on the driveway, backing up a trailer and need to have some reference lines to get the trailer square to the garage and in the right location. I didn't do that, and the first time I backed a trailer up, I wished I had! I'm going to have the concrete guy come back this summer and make some more cuts just for that purpose.

 

[Cyberbear]

Looks like a killer driveway when done. Be sure to use lots of re-bar and go for a 6 or 7 bag mix. I've always used a concrete sealer to retard water loss during the curing period and in my several pours over the years I've never had any cracks, including my latest at 2400 sq/ft and no saw cuts. I prefer my floors to not have saw cuts that always trap dust and dirt, or chip when heavy loads are rolled over them on steel casters.

 

[BrianC636]

Our driveway done the same way you described but with rebar and wire. Joints were troweled.

 

[Kmt803]

I did something like that in my garage,mixed 55 -90lb bags of Sakrete 5000 ,did one foot pour on the left,one foot pour in the middle and one foot pour on the right so that I had my screeding points then had a truck fill the two sections . A couple of friends helped me and it came out nice.

 

[wssix99]

I wanted to be able to lift pretty much whatever on a jack and not have to worry about it cracking because of that.

The rebar won't do anything for you in this regard. The depth of the slab and the quality of the base will give you resiliency here. The biggest thing you can do for strength/quality - IMO - is making sure you vibrate the base really well and get it compacted before the pour.

Rebar will help you control the cracking that may occur outside your control joints. It will lessen the probability that those cracks will occur and, if they do occur, it will keep them tight and smaller. The problem is... the thicker the slab, the more rebar you need to control that cracking. (The thicker slab develops more stress related to shrinkage, which means you need a greater cross section of steel to give you the same crack control you'd have in a smaller slab.) The relationship is linear. If you have a good rebar spec for a 4" slab and you go to a 6" slab, you'd want 50% more steel to scale the design.

 

[Firebird 1]

Rebar is not necc. Use a 6 x 6 wire mesh instead. Or you can get fibremesh concrete. Use an expansion joint at no more than 12' x 12' areas, cut the slab at 6' or so. The exp can be 1x4 cedar, treated, pvc. An expansion joint and cuts are different in how they effect the slab and both are necessary. Screed, bull float, the use a mag float one and done. Don't overfinish. No need to broom a driveway. After a year you will not know the diff. The more a slab is finished, the weaker the surface becomes. I tell my customers the two rules of concrete 1. Concrete gets hard as it sets up, 2. Concrete WILL crack.