Pouring your own concrete

[TOOLOW4I75]

Who here has actually poured their own concrete or made their own pavers or patio blocks? How hard is it? Can you do a driveway in multiple pours and maintain a uniform color? I cant afford to pay someone to do this, but I do need to add some and repair other areas. Is the mix it yourself concrete the same quality as what is delivered?

 

[rsanter]

I tried to do a 3x3 area, mixed in a wheel barrow by hand.
what a *****, wont do that again
helped a friend pour a strip about 2 ft wide and about 20 ft long.
he had done this stuff before and it was poured from a truck
what a *****, wont do that again

unless you have the tools and the know-how I think I would have someone else do it

doing the pavers for a side patio area using one of those plastic forms.
that was tiring but went fairly well. I think because you have a rather small area to deal with and you can stop and come back later if you need to

bob

 

[Torque1st]

The stuff from a bag is usually minimal quality and most people mix it so wet that it reduces even that minimal strength greatly.

Anything over about 1/4 cubic yard is not a DIY project, get professional help. Concrete is a real ***** when it is not done right the first time.

 

[ddawg16]

My wife and I just did a path from our front door to the sidewalk....

It took about 1 yard or concrete....I went down to the local building supply....they have 'totes' you hook up to your truck....back up to a machine....he mixes the concrete right there and fills the tote....drive that back to the house and pour.

My wife did the screeding....I did the smoothing....then we stamped it....the stamping was easier than I thought it would be....which reminds me...need to do a thread on that.

Yea....mixing from the bags is not easy....but it's cheaper than buying a 1/4 yard of pre-mixed. Remember...if you want more strenght....get a bag of just cement and add part of it to your mix.

Would I do a larger area like a driveway? Now I would....but I would need to get a long float.....

 

[sammerdog]

I've done a little bit of work with bagged KwikCrete. 12x16 garage (two 12x8 pours), 10x10 pool building, 14'-ish pad around a fire pit out back, 20' of walkway with the little plastic forms. Not a big deal if you have a electric barrel mixer. Does it take time? Yeah, but makes for a good work-out.

Strength? Middle of the road. The concrete companies will usually give homeowners their ****-crete unless you specifically order (and pay for) cement with a low pot-ash content up here in Michigan.

Your coloring will be fairly constant with bags as long as you don't go back and forth between RediMix and KwikCrete. Pick a mfr and stick with it.

You can rent a float from any decent tool rental place if you don't have access to one.

Try something small and if it comes out cool - move up to something bigger.

 

[Bigger Hammer]

If you are not using any color admixtures then your color will be pretty consistent in time.

If you have never done it before it would be helpful to have at least one person helping that knows what is going on. That one person will probably be able to round up the appropriate tools as well. I did a 700 sq. ft. stamped patio last spring and had 7 guys there to help. 6 of the 7 were skilled in either concrete or carpentry. We could have done fine with about 5 guys and did since two of them were useless drunks by about 10:30am lol.

 

[Bigger Hammer]

Here is a few pictures of what we did with 6 skilled and one laborer. The shape and limited access to the edges was the most difficult part. A larger slab would have been easy to do if it was more accessible from the perimeter.

 

[alkemyst]

I am debating whether to have some concrete poured vs buying about $200 of brick to do the area right in front of my workshop (people) door. It's 9x13' of grass that could be another area to drive on.

The concrete is about 2x that price (4 yards is pretty much the minimum charge....you can order less but still have to pay for 4 yards...you cannot leave any on the truck). The nice thing is they can get you a mix that will more or less perfectly match what you have. They asked me a bunch of questions.

If I get 4 yards I will probably extend my workshop slab a bit.

 

[Gary S]

I do all my own concrete work. For small things like setting fence posts, I use the pre-mix and hand mix it in a tub. For somewhat larger projects, I have a small cement mixer that can mix a few pre-mix bags at a time.
When I poured my garage floor (24x48), I called the cement trucks and they brought in 3 loads. It is hard and dirty work and you need lots of help for a project this size.

 

[-B-]

Bag concrete is ok anything over 12 bags and you will need a mixer or a decanted persons just to mix. Big tip on mixing one bag one gallon of water some times a tiny bit more water but not much.

Poring concrete is not hard as long as it is accessible via the chute or wheel barrel ( do not fill more then 1/2 full) Things to know most deliveries have a minimum of 2 yards , you need to be prepared well in advance and when the truck show be prepared to work hard for several hours in a row non stop. ( no pee breaks, no lunch )

 

[Kevin54]

You can do your own but it is time consuming. You need a mixer, bags of cement, and a large load of sand/gravel mix. You can make your cement stronger by changing the mixing ratio somewhat. Your local gravel pit can get you a load of sand and gravel mix that equals what is in the big trucks. As far as mixing in a wheelbarrow....forget it. It will take too long. You can rent a mixer, or buy one for a few hundred and resell it later. But by the time it is all done and over with, I'd have the truck bring it in and be done with it. Even with the convenience of the truck, it will still be a lot of work. Mixing by hand won't cut it. A portable mixer of cement is equal to a wheelbarrow full. So you know that a wheelbarrow full does not go far. You would have to have someone mixing fulltime and wheeling, while one is waiting and working the concrete. I've done my fair share but never again. Two of the hardest things I have found to do is concrete and roofing. Hate 'em both

 

[walrus]

First and foremost, Concrete is a young mans job. I work around guys who pour pads over gas tanks and around pump islands all the time. Its hard work. Guys who know what they're doing can make it look easy but it isn't. Access to the pad area is key and front dumps with a good driver can place the concrete without much hand labor. Set up and tying rebar *****. Rain and/or snow can ruin a days work pretty easily

 

[49stude2r6]

I think it really depends upon the project and the experience. Concrete is intense work in bursts of time. I have done some of my own projects and like to pair myself with more experienced folks. Like Walrus said truck access is an issue, lots of the details you learn like managing any construction project. The more experience you have the better you get. I had my shop floor poured as I don't trust my own abilities on that large a slab. It is a skilled labor job, but the skill can be learned. Coax some friends into pouring sidewalks, then once you learn from all the mistakes and have them indebted to you pour your own project.

Some of you stamped/stained DIYers do in fact need to post info about those projects, please.

 

[mesquiteforge]

It can be done by yourself (or with the help of friends and family), BUT I highly advise against it. You will spend a lot of time and money to mix the concrete yourself and it is like making a cake in several mixing batches. It is not likely that the end result will be uniform. I have poured and mixed a lot of concrete in my relatively short life(30 years old) and what I would do is: demolish and remove any damaged areas, spread base material and pack, form up the drive as desired(include rebar-not mesh wire), measure your formed up area and then schedule a finish crew and concrete truck to come finish the job. I am sure that the price of concrete varies across the country, but I still think that the difference in price between delivered and self mixed would be minimal-with all factors taken into consideration. Unless you have all of the tools and knowledge to do the project-by the time you buy the tools you could have easily paid a small finish crew to do the job. I poured a driveway, sidewalk and foundation for a storage building for my in-laws in Houston, Texas. I had a finish crew come after I formed it up. They hauled concrete for the backyard storage building using wheelbarrows, filled the forms, screeded, floated and finished all three projects for less than $300 and it was done in less than 2 hours.

To do this job yourself you will need a good sturdy wheelbarrow, shovels, hoes, hammer drill and bits(if you must tie into any existing structure), concrete mixer, screed boards, bull float w/extensions, finish trowels, water buckets, edge trowels, seam trowels, expansion joints, a finish broom if you want a broomed texture and I am sure I missed a few other items. Add all of this up and it will be well over the cost of hiring a crew. I am not a wealthy person by any stretch of the imagination, but I am not a fan of wasting time and money either and I think that hiring a pour/finish crew and ordering premixed concrete is money well spent. My 2 cents worth.

 

[bop_pa]

If you can mix pancake batter you can make concrete. I it is very straight forward. Don't get discouraged. If your doing something fairly big, you should just call up the local concrete place and have them bring it out to you. Around here it is about $75 a yard. You basically just wheel it to where you need and dump it. Use a long straight 2x4 and screed (saw it back and forth) until is it flat. Fill in until it is level if it is low. Then use a bull float to smooth it out. You and pick up cheap concrete tools at places like Harbor Freight for under $20. It will include edgers, and other hand tools. Not hard.

 

[Mike83]

I would consider the fact that if you screw it up yourself, you are left with the repair cost and effort. If the concrete company and his crew screw it up, they are left to fix it. It may be worth it to pay the extra cost for that extra insurance. Because sure as hell if my slab cracked or the finish looked bad I would be on the phone with contractor.

 

[john mac]

I would do all the form work and prep work. I would also do the labor part for setting concrete from truck ony, no mixing and have a finish crew to finish. Do your prep work and have your finish guy check your work and before the day you plan on the concrete truck. Have you finish guy show up a couple of hours before he has to do his thing so he is ready when the concrete is ready. I am in the construction biz and have done the prep work for 1000's of yards but still have a finish crew. They do it every day, have all the rite tools and the end product is always better. The finish crew will have enough help to do it fast enough and make it look easy, if they are any good. The only time that I finish is when it is a broom finish sidewalk, thats it. You want a steel finish hire it out.

 

[Dmaxman]

I work next door to company that tests concrete and soils. Just to day i helped the guy unload a mixer and 8 or so bags of cement. The bags were all off the shelf stuff from Home depot and such. Some company wants to have it all tested so he said he has to make 48 cylinders which will be tested for strength and stuff. He said some of it should be very good...50 mpa whatever that is in PSI. I will find out what brands came out on top...but only in 28 days.

He tested a core from my garage floor last year....loaned me their core drill My floor just made the 4 inch mark after he trims it square and it tested at 5900 psi....he said thats good for a residential garage floor. The press they use for testing is cool....think he said 200 tons.

 

[IHI]

Good luck finding a crew to show up, sit around and wait while you and your buddies puddle and pull mud and then leave them to float it out.

Wanna save some green, you do everything, demo, set grade, fill/tamp it, get it ready so all that needs to be done is pour and float, this cuts down on cost alot. The only downside is, preparing grade is crutial for a long lasting job. I get to see all kinds of homeowner projects gone bad, get to fix alot of them too. One things for sure, never take on any job you cant afford to do twice. Otherwise paying the little more now is the best investment you'll ever make vs having a crappey looking job for years/decades later. Friend of mine got bitter towards me since i would'nt help him layout and do his garage to save some coin even though i told him, "most people think concrete is easy, they see the typical bums on crews doing the work that make it look easy but it's a very expensive and labor consuming task to get it done right" my buddy did'nt care.

Once we were able to walk on it, he was sick and hated that garage floor until he sold it and said never again, he'll spend the money to have it done right next time.

 

[Dragster Racer]

I did an approach to the shop last fall, and it was my first time doing it myself. I studied and planned for about a month I swear. Then I dug out, had some gravel delivered, rented a compactor and set the forms with proper drop. Remember to support forms more than what you think you need to. Could save a disaster. Our pour was about 18 by 18. I have a friend who has done concrete a couple times, and he helped us. The driver was very helpful and patient. After all, I think my wife and I could do it ourselves without help. The only thing that I was disappointed with is that the first slump was dry, so the driver added water. too much. It took forever before I could broom it. I know that is a compromise with strength. I borrowed some good tools, and they were a life saver. The aluminum float with the twist grip means that you don't have to have the pole over your head. We will be doing three more pours around the garage. I'm not one to do the inside concrete, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Just prepare well. Oh, we did rebar too, big enough spacing to step between. I would not do much with bags. Bags have thier place, but if you can do enough to get the minimum order, get the truck. Just my little experience.

 

[IHI]

but if you can do enough to get the minimum order, get the truck. Just my little experience.

There is no minimum order, just a small load fee is all which you will pay on any load under 5yrds regardless. What you can do however, get all your stuff ready, call the redi mix plant and tell them you need 1/2yrd, 1yrd and they will put you on a list so when the trucks are done at a pour in the area, they will always have a little left since contractors always order a bit strong, so instead of washing out they will go in route to your address and dump the remaining.

We do a ton of peir footing for decks and such, esspecially last year, and many times when we had landings/multiple landings/stairs pads i would call in an order for all the main peir footings and then ocne main deck was constructed so we could get finalized locations on landing/stair fall outs i'd just order a tiny batch or have them bring me waste, just have to tell them a minimum psi, and if they happen to call and say they're on the way and have some M4, be ready to finish you azz off

 

[Dragster Racer]

You are right, but the small load fee around here was a little steep, and I'm a little cheap. hey, that rhymes! Anyhow, I just try to plan for more than the min if I have that option.

 

[IHI]

You are right, but the small load fee around here was a little steep, and I'm a little cheap. hey, that rhymes! Anyhow, I just try to plan for more than the min if I have that option.

I hear ya, here's it's a $100 charge regardless but i have an "in" When it comes to work stuff like this, i am a firm believer in spending money and doing less work, but i'm baised since this is all that i've done since a kid so i'm over trying to pinch pennies, if there's a tool, if there's a sub, if there's a machine that makes the job faster, better i'm on it. Neighbors laugh when i hire guys to do work around my house, and they cant grasp the reality of my time is worth money, i can make more money doing my job and allowing subs to come in here and do their gig than if i were to take a day/week off, bring in my guys to do the work around the house. funniest ****, i came home when i had a crew stripping my roof to resheet before re roofing it had their sign in my front yard, and then i had some of my trucks parked here and of course they give the run down of all we do and ROOFING was on there plain as day

Besides, everytime i've ever tried to save a penny in the past, i've regretted it so i've just learned that i will make more money working, why give myself a half azzed product i wont be pleased with Like they say and i tell HO's:

remember that the bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is gone

&

Only rich people can afford to be cheap, they can afford to do it twice.

I cant think of a single case/scenario where doing something right, spending the money to do it right has ever been a bad thing