Concrete?

[NoviceButWilling]

Hello!

Ambitiously, I'm pricing up a new project (scarily also as I think it might be better to be ignorant!) - worked out that I need 1000 cubic ft of concrete (3 straight runs, approx 'U' shaped) - does anyone know roughly what the concrete may cost? I'm capable of mixing it myself, but since its such a huge quantity it might be better to have it delivered?

Does anyone know what it might cost me to;

1) 'Do-It-Myself' from scratch 2) Get the base prepared myself, get them to pour the concrete & I'll level it etc 3) Be lazy & get them to level as well

Much obliged!

Jenny

[Grunff]

That's a lot of concrete. It would take a very, very long time to mix it yourself, and frankly no sane person would consider it.

1000 cubic feet is just over 28 cubic metres. A normal size readymix load is 6 cubic metres. So you will need 4.6 truck loads of concrete. I think mixing this quantity using a small mixer would take 2 people nearly 1 month.

Not an option, but if you do this, can I please come and watch?

Around £70/cubic metre (depends where you are in the country), so ~£2000.

Dunno - most concrete places don't offer such a service and will tell you to get a builder in.

[Chris Bacon]

What sort of concrete do you need? Sounds to me as if you ought to telephone your friendly local Readymix and ask all about it.

[Guy King]

The message from Grunff contains these words:

Ain't it just! I wonder if there's a better way to do whatever it is.

[ABC]

Have you done the calculation correctly? Because a slab of concrete 1000 sq ft at 4 inches thick is a very large slab

[NoviceButWilling]

The whole project will take approx 6 months - so there'd be plenty of time to break my own back using a cement mixer, UNFORTUNATELY concrete is the only way to go as its to stand a set of 12 stables etc for horses on. There will be plenty of hardcore knocking about the place for the other bits and bobs

- car parks etc.

Thanks for the advice though - I will ring ReadyMix and let them think I'm crazy.....

[Grumps]

Does this mean that you've bought that 50 acre derelict farm in Soffolk?

[Phil]

No-one mentioned 'square feet'

[ABC]

Sorry should have said cubic feet

[NoviceButWilling]

NO! Thank goodness (its actually in Saturday's Telegraph property supplement if any one is interested...)

When I took my surveyor friend to look at the place we finally got permission to go up in the loft (they'd previously refused to let me have access saying H&S issues...) and we discovered a wacking great crack all the way down one side of the house that had obviously been covered up with plaster on the inside and render on the outside - basically the front of the house is falling off!

We've moved on to a house in slightly better condition (survey on Fri!), but this means building the yard from scratch.

A builder recommended a 4 inch deep slab - do you think he's going a bit over the top? The ground will be level and there'll be some fairly well crushed hard core as a base.

[Grunff]

No, 4" is really the minimum slab thickness you'd want. If you can go to

5-6", all the better.

As long as you compact the hardcore sufficiently (hire a Whacker), 4" should be fine.

[Bob Mannix]

I don't think they'll mind - you're talking 30-odd ready-mix lorries though (AFAICR)!

[unopened]

If you mix it in small batches over several days/weeks, you are unlikely to get the same consistency of mix than buying in bulk. The readimix stuff will have been quality controlled to within an inch of it's life. It's also easier to deal with a slab in a single 'pour' than to worry about joins between smaller slabs.

I'll stress that I've picked up the above from reading this group, never having poured concrete myself.

The only problem with readimix is what to do with the excess if you order too much.

This does assume you have easy access for the readimix lorries.

Cheers,

Sid

[Anna Kettle]

What farm in Suffolk? I like to keep up to date with these things, it being my local patch and all btw I'm assuming that Telegraph online doesnt do pictures

Anna ~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repair and conservation / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[Guy King]

The message from "ABC" contains these words:

3000 square feet, innit. Not terribly large, really. 55' on a side if it were a square, or more likely 10m x 30m block.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , NoviceButWilling writes

Ah. 12'x12'? In a U shape? Facing on to the yard? How are you going to get a horse in the corner stables?

I suppose these could be larger and used for tack/feed. You don't really want horses heads in kissing distance:-)

Browns of Wem put some up here around 20 years back but I have forgotten how they did it:-)

You need a couple of courses of engineering brick to keep any timber walls well away from piddled on concrete floors.

regards

[<me9]

I think a roller would be more appropriate for that size of job.

[Grunff]

I used a vibrating roller for doing the whole yard, and a whacker for doing various slabs. I found that a large-ish slab (say 6x8m) only took around 2 hours with the whacker.