concrete is hard work

[00Bolt]

steve-o is hookng me up on a hot tub, thanks again btw... anyway so i had to lay a slab of concrete in my backyard.... i called around and asked how much for 8x8x4 and people were saying anywhere from $900-$1600 so i figure, heck Ill just do myself. HAHAHAHAHAHA, big mistake. Good news is i got it, and i got it right... its level, its smooth, it square, even, etc... its perfect. but bad news is this was ALOT harder than i ever imagined. It took about 60 bags of the 80lb concrete mix, and ALOT of mixing up in wheelbaros.... i feel like jello!!! next time i think i might buy all materials and find some cheap labor off cooper street to help out

[jmlay]

In L-ville there is a place that mixes and lends carts. I used them when I pored my drive. I just put up the forms & rebar then dumped in the premix & started leveling.

MIke

[00Bolt]

ya next time ill at least rent a mixer

[Beaudee]

One of the things to keep in mind when setting forms is how to square your string lines.I had an addition done and my driveway and had to explain to these concrete guys who were idiots that any combination of 3-4-5 will square 2 lines.You can use 6-8-10 , 12-16-20 and so on.Measure 3 foot down one way and 4 foot the other and when you meas. 5 foot diaganaly those two lines are square.A good thing to remember when framing and lots of other projects. :tu:

[PoorSvtman]

should have let me knowm. neighbor across the street is a head guy for a concrete place. When we did our patio we just paid for the concrete(delievered by a huge truck) and bought lunch and beer for a few of his mexican workers to come out and level it after we took it from the truck to the back yard in wheel barros

[tliss]

When we layed the 10x10 slab for our storage shed we actually paid a couple of the guys that were working on houses in our area (it was a new neighborhood at that time). They brought a cement truck with leftover cement in it, layed the 'crete and leveled it. After it was dried they built the shed with leftover lumber from the houses being built. 10x10 shed, ~9' tall at the peak, on a concrete slab cost us about $500 total. You can't buy a prebuilt with no foundation for that...

Tom

[cpeapea]

as one of those odd maintenance jobs i have done is lay concrete for roadway exp. it is a major pain in the ass. all day job