Concrete garage base

Hi Keith

I've found a local company with the same kind of lorry and am waiting for them to get back to me with a quote.

I've also found a local ready mix supplier that can tip the 3 cubic metres at the roadside, 25m from site, for £275 which is cheaper than I can buy the materials from my builder's merchants for!

They say there is a plasticiser in the concrete allowing for 4 hours workability, but I'm still not sure me and a couple of mates could shift so much in 4 hours! My slab is 150% the size of yours at 16' x 18' x 6"

How far did you have to move your concrete in the barrows? My site is 25m from the roadside. Do you think it could be done in the time?

Reply to
James
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Sounds as if you are getting nearer to a solution.

Unless the ground between is steep/uneven/difficult the wheeling is not that much of a problem, with good, not overfilled, wheelbarrows. Keep the weight forward so that it is taken by the wheel and not on the handles and even a girly can manage. A good barrow, properly filled, will balance when full, so your arms are only used for steering and pushing, not lifting.

Preparing the route, right to the tipping points, is the vital thing. If you can set up a raised walkway down the middle of the slab, so that you are always tipping the barrow downwards, most of the effort disappears. Establish a circular route, so you can tip, straighten and go on rather than have to turn around.

Do that and, provided that you (and your mates) are fit enough to keep /walking/ for 4+hours without a break - no problem. If any of you could actually manage a marathon without dying, then you will have time to spare..

But, if your back starts hurting, you are doing it wrong - too much weight on your arms and your back not straight. Keep going and you could do yourself a lot of harm.. Do it right and your legs, OTOH, will be screaming by the end..YMMV..

Reply to
Palindr☻me

Technique is the key then? gotcha

I'm now in two minds as to what the best approach is:

1) Get ready mix delivered for £275 but have to barrow all of it, against the clock.

2) Mix my own, at my leasure, for £320 max. Can be done over any number of days if I split the work into smaller slabs. I still have to barrow all the materials, but not against the clock, and not with the water mixed in with it!

3) Get two lots of ready mix, on different days, ensuring the two slab halves are down long before the concrete starts to go off. This puts less pressure on the barrow boys but increases to cost to £165 x 2 = £330

Any thoughts?

Reply to
James

Mix your own. It won't kill you. You obviously want to give it a go. If you do it in strips, you can choose whether to keep going and do it in a day - or take a couple of weeks doing it, strip by strip - the concrete won't care. You can, as suggested, drill some over-size holes in the formers and use some rebar to bond the strips together. I have never bothered other than where I wasn't too happy about the sub-base.

I'd lay a few poly tubes down under the slab. Two days after you finish, you will find that you want to put a water pipe/cable/phone line across where you hadn't thought that you would need one.

Reply to
Palindr☻me

Probably about the same distance - up the drive, down the side of the house and down the back garden. I thought it went very easily. The trick was to have two people with barrows (three for the first few loads to get started) and two more spreading and levelling. The lorry was gone after

30 minutes and all that remained was final smoothing and levelling. I would have thought yours would not take that much longer. The other thing to watch is that your shuttering is strong enough to take the cement rolling up against it and you have boards to enable you to push the barrows over the shuttering to where you want to tip. After my experience I wouldn't dream of doing it any other way. Bear in mind also that if you have the muck tipped at the roadside you have the additional task of shovelling heavy wet cement into the barrows whereas the mixer lorry pours it straight in.
Reply to
Keith Willcocks

I think this really comes down to a decision of wether I want a race against the clock to move the wet premixed concrete from where it is dumped at the roadside, against moving materials at my leasure then doing the mixing myself in smaller portions, laying a number of slabs.

The premix lorry says they can hang around while it is tipped into barrows, rather than quickly into one pile, but then they'll charge me extra for waiting time.

Thanks for your advice, especially about the strength of shuttering. Cheers

Reply to
James

lol obviously want to give it a go. Perhaps that's true, I'd just not realised it!

Yes, I think it would be best rather than a race against the clock to move all the premix from the roadside.

Great minds must think alike. I've got drainage, hot and cold water, TV, cat5 and phone wires already down!

Thanks for all your advice, Sue. This just leads me now into the murky world of what's the best mix to use? The builder's merchant supplies aggregate which is fine sand mixed with fine gravel. I want something really strong and don't mind paying for extra cement to achieve it so do you think a 4:1 mix is suitable? Bearing in mind I'm going to build a big heavy log cabin on top, quite possibly with a hot tub inside it, not to mention some motor bikes and machinery.

Reply to
James

Your log cabin manufacturer will have given you the spec for the base. Stick to that.

Cement+sand with no gravel has zero strength - it is the gravel that provides the strength. The cement merely bonds the gravel together - too much can leave you with a weaker concrete in the same way as too little can. The sand makes the cement go further.

I use 1:2:4. If I want it stronger, I make it thicker and stick in reinforcement. Easy to do - lay the mesh on the sub-base/dpm with a few loops of string with knots 2" above the mesh - pour and level the concrete, then gently pull the loops until the knots show. Cut the loops, pull out the string and do a final tamp down and level. Easier than playing with stand-offs and trying to pour the concrete through the holes..

My workshop has 150mm with two crossed mesh reinforcement, one at 50 and another at 100mm. It has to take a 2+ ton milling machine, plus a few other toys like that. I worked on the premise that it was easier to go for overkill when I built the thing, rather than wish I had, later. My local building inspector was dead impressed - I think he thought I was really building a nuclear bunker..

Reply to
Palindr☻me

I've heard all I need to hear now. Will you marry me?

Steve

Reply to
shazzbat

LOL, there must be less drastic ways for you to get your hands on an auto-feed bed and a suds pump...

Reply to
Palindr☻me

I'm building the cabin myself so have no spec to work to.

Well you live and learn. I thought the strength all came from the cement!

I take it that is 1 cement, 2 sand, 4 gravel?

I'll have to ask the builders merchant which ratio of sand to gravel the aggregate comes in, but one would think it is a standard mix if that's all they supply to the trade.

Thanks for the string loop technique, I was wondering how it was done without the mesh just sitting on the bottom or it standing on blocks.

lmao. I'm kind of wanting the same strength, for overkill as you nicely put it, but was hoping 125mm with one cross mesh would do the trick?

Reply to
James

OK, so find a log cabin manufacturer that makes one similar to what you have in mind and get the spec for the base for that..

It's one of those things where a mix is stronger than any of the components, individually.

Yep

There's all sorts of stuff called various things from 40 to dust, to all-in-one ballast, to heaven knows what. I like to mix my own..that's the way my dad taught me..

lol..it's the way my dad taught me..

How long is a piece of string? I used the same spec that the workshop where I worked had been built to. The extra cost was not a lot and it isn't going to break, no matter what I do to it.

Reply to
Palindr☻me

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