This is a typical DIY. Every male in the immediate family is obligated to show up for the concrete party. Sorta like the modern version of a barn raising.
Water level (google) and a compactor (rented) for leveling, 3 4 5 for squaring sides of forms.
Most concrete trucks in my area will bring you a bow float. Depending on weather and size, renting a power trowel is optional. Hand trowling gets old but is doable.
Wes
I had a couple of mason contractors,,,, they were all good but they all drank too much. Not reliable. I hated to pay them at the end of the week because I knew they wouldn't be back till tues or wendnesday of next week....
John
Ralph Henrichs wrote in article ...
In a similar vein......
A friend of mine was building a new shop for his race car, and he had the surveyor lay out a perfectly level floor on which to set the race car up.
He had the slab contractor come in and told him that everything was set the way he wanted it to be, and to just pour the slab.
When he got home from work, there was his beautiful new slab.
The contractor said everything was going along fine until he discovered that the surveyor had, apparently by mistake, NOT included a slight slope for drainage.
"You'll be happy to know I caught it in time, and took care of it for you." he boasted.
I got 1800 sq.ft. with 30" wide footers, a stemwall, 5" slab, digging, mesh, rebar, forming, labor, compaction (not counting the fill, itself), for $11,200 here in boomtown, FL.
LLoyd
Yesterday, I found out my forklift has a blown head gasket and a bad water pump. I guess I'll be getting that fixed before worrying about my pad of concrete. :)
I put in a concrete driveway and back yard patio/hot tub slab 2 years ago. The soil/gravel mixture around the home was put in place while the house was being built. It was partially compacted by "time" (12 months/4 seasons) and by various machinery driving on same. Immediately adjacent to the home(~4'out from foundation) the soil was compacted in 2 ft lifts. For the remainder of the 30' one side/65' other side (a 90 o curved driveway) I added about 4" of what they call "roadbase" around here (1" minus gravel/sand mixture). I formed up 4" high 3/8" ply strips, double layered/screwed to 3/4" on pegs making the top of the 'form' 5" above grade. I rented a vibrating plate compactor and pummeled the roadbase (it was conveniently raining at the time). After that, I ran 3/8" rebar on 2' centers throughout. I'd called a concrete crew that worked on the house next door to placxe the concrete. They arrived at 6AM (while we stared at a dark gray cloudy sky..Will it Rain ??) We decided to go ahead..the concrete trucks (2) arrived and they laid about 6 yards of 3000# concrete (IIRC) They put control joints at about 6' centers and did a "light broom" finish.
Following that, we took another load behind the house with a concrete line pump and did a 250 sf slab with 3/8" and 1/2" rebar (under the hot tub area) and they finished it the same way.
My cost..a lot of physical WORK..about $ 400.00 in rebar, $ 300 for the line pump and another $ 100 for forms, $ 150 for the gravel ..40 bucks for the compactor, 10 bucks in rebar ties = $ 1000.00 The crete was about $ 1000.00 My cost for the concrete crew 45 cents a square foot.. Yes $ 0.45
They (3 of them, one left after 2 hrs) were here for about 3-4 hours and he took $ 500 cash for the 1100 sf job.
So, I was quoted $ 5000 for the whole job by two different contractors. My cost was $ 2500.00 with a lot of PREP work.
The good news: after 2 years of 4 seasons: HIGH 104 o to Low -10o.. No cracks at all. About half of the control joints have done their job.
You can get it at a reasonable cost if YOU do the prep work. If not, be prepared to pay double for "Them" to do it.
Good luck
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