Concrete Advice

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I am going to mix concrete for 4' x 4.5' building for DC unit.

What off the shelf HD or Lowes concrete would you use? What are optimum conditions?

[LarryG]

Use the standard Quick Crete (or other brand) formula, not the fast-setting variety. Follow the directions on the bag.

[Slik Geek]

I just used 30 80lb bags of the Quickcrete brand yesterday (12 hours ago). I'm up at at 2:00 am because I'm so sore I can't sleep! I can barely move the mouse with my sore arms.

It seemed fine. Had one oversize rock in the whole batch that I tossed away as soon as it came out of the bag.

I got mine at HD, mostly because it was closest. Had to wait half an eternity for help loading them into my pickup truck. I gave up waiting in the store for help on my second trip (I was exhausted from the first trip loading, unloading, transporting,mixing and pouring). Finally received help after a 10 minute pause to regain my strength.

Contrast this with Menards on my last few trips for lumber, I practically had to fight off the hoard of workers offering to assist me. For all the negative press, locally, the Menards store blows away my two Home Depot's in customer service. Home Depot also had so much junk cluttering the aisles that it can be a challenge navigating large items through the checkout stations.

[jhart]

Hope you didn't have to mix all the bags by hand. I did 18 bags last summer and found out that there were a lot of muscles in my upper body I didn't know I had.

[Scottydont]

For more that 10 bags I would not recommend the bagged cenment. FYI many equipment rentals places will rent a Concrete mixer trailer as well as concrete or mortar mix. At 46 years old I more often heed the advice of my father "work smarter, not harder".

[crokett]

Jeffery,

You can use the standard concrete mixes from Lowes or HD. How thick a slab are you pouring? That size slab at 4" thick will take 11-12 80lb bags of premix, IIRC. You can stretch your concrete by adding rocks to the pour. If you do this just make sure you tamp as you go to get any air out.

[IBBugsy]

I'm not an expert by any means but I have helped an expert (my dad) many times. We poured a patio slab a few years back (large enough pour to have a cement truck deliver) and two things come to mind.

1) He got some kind of fabric to place between the house slab and the new patio slab. Not sure why but someone here might.

2) He bought some fence material (like chicken wire) to use as rebar. Might not be needed for a small pour like yours but again someone here might be able to advise.

He also has his own cement mixer and it's a lot easier than a wheel barrel. I'd rent one for the day for 10 bags. Can't be too much money and your body will thank you!

[crokett]

The fabric between the slabs is an expansion gasket.

For Jeffrey's slab, rebar would be cheaper and quicker, unless he has some heavy gauge fencing lying around. Otherwise he'd have to buy about 2.5 times as much remesh as he needs.

Jeffrey, for a job this size if you rent a mixer you can easily do the job in 4 hrs so long as you pre-form, etc everything beforehand. If you want it finished any smoother than your screed board gets you, PM me and I can give you some tips to float it.

Ideally you want to do this on a day that is warm but not too hot - 70s or so. If it is hot you should cover the concrete with plastic to keep it from drying too quickly.

[rh111]

I don't know about your area, but there are a few places close to me that mix the concrete, put it in a hauling trailer that is attached to your vehicle, and then you take it home, dump it out, smooth the surface, clean the trailer, and then return the trailer. I have used this before for a patio that was about 8'x10' and 4 to 5" thick. Worked wonderfully. I did reinforce the patio with rebar throughout as the mesh was way to much in quantity and price than I wanted. Did this slab about 6 yrs ago and looks wonderful still. The price for them to mix it was a little more than doing it myself, but the job was done quicker

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I got this completed 05/15/06. I found some rebar and formed it 12 x 12 in this small area. As far as the concrete, well that I did with sacks of pre-mix and a wheelbarrel. Wasn't too bad. Took about 12 bags.
It set up nicely and I have already built the addition. I have a post on it under Shop Design.

Good to know about the trailer option.