Mixing concrete by hand.

I am thinking of getting a concrete mixer at Lowes and mixing sand, cement, and gravel a section at a time for a driveway apron. I know a typically ra tio is one bucket cement, 2 buckets sand, 3 buckets aggregate for example. Can anyone direct me to a calculator to show how much of each product I wou ld need for a 4 foot by 10 foot by 4 inch section?

I would like to see how much cheaper it would be doing this than buying the pre mixed bags.

Thanks!

Reply to
stryped1
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That's almost a ton of finished cement. 4'x10'x 4".

Dave M.

Reply to
David L. Martel

Not sure how much of the mix, but it is 1/2 of a yard or about 23 bags at 80 pounds per bag of the premix.

If it takes you around 3 minuits per bag to mix you are going to be at it over an hour. It will probably take much more time than that just to do the mixing so allow your self plenty of time.

Here is the ammount of mix it yourself web page. It is for a yard, so just take half the ammount and plan on adding more for an uneven form.

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Reply to
Ralph Mowery

I would just go with bag mix. If you are buying bagged aggregate and sand, it will cost at least as much if not more than the premixed concrete and this is not enough to fool with getting a bulk delivery. You are not really up to the redimix category either. The break even point for getting a redimix truck is usually up over yard so that is not even a question here. If this is a one time deal, renting a commercial size mixer is probably the way to go so you can make fewer batches. Either way this is going to be a 2 person job, one mixing and one placing. I have one of those little homeowner mixers and we have done that much at a time so it is possible. If you are not getting a big guy to help, it is worth spending a little extra money for 60 pound bags instead of the 80s. My wife was my "mix master" and she was OK with the 60s.

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The best way to go is to make one test batch, carefully measuring the amount of water to get a given amount of premix close to right, then adding a little to get it perfect. You can't take water out. ;-) Mark a drywall bucket at the spot for this initial water amount and measure that out first. Dump the water in the mixer and add the dry mix to that while the machine is running. Then you won't get that clump of dry powder in the bottom of the mixer. You really want the final mix to be pretty stiff, like peanut butter, not like cake batter. The less water that needs to come out in the curing process, the stronger the concrete will be. They give you a starting point on the side of the bag but I usually start with a little less and adjust it up. Once you get it right, the process goes pretty fast.

Reply to
gfretwell

May want to see if there is a small batch concrete mix company in your area which will save you the trouble and expense of doing it yourself.

I only needed one yard for a small project and it certainly cost less than buying a mixer and the cement...and a hell of a lot easier.

Reply to
philo

I agree IF you can find one. Several years ago I needed about a yard just to put in a hole for the base of an antenna tower. They did not do small batches and would deliver a yard,but charge for about 3 or 4 yards even if I did not want that much.

I had 50 bags delivered to the house and that was about what 2 yards would have cost if they did not add in the extra hauling charge for the small batch. I used 43 bags in the hole and 9 other for some guy wire holes. Left me with one bag left over. That was either 80 or 90 pound bags. Lotof work putting those bags in a small mixer I rented for about $ 30 for the day.

Depending on how much the person can haul at one time , you might want to figuer in the cost of the gas if you have very far to go and need to make vrey many trips. I would have about a 15 mile round trip and only had a small size pickup. Hard telling how many trips the 50 bag load would have take in that truck. Probably aleast 4 trips.

That stuff gets heavy after handling it several times.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

I had 15, 80 pound bags and a half dozen 2x4s in my old 85 LeBaron once, I dialed up "Low Rider on the MP3 player as I was pulling away and the Mexicans outside had Fanta coming out of their noses.

If you have a F150 I would not hesitate to bring home 25, 80pound bags at a time (short trip to Lowes) and 60s would not be anything at all. I brought home a pallet of sod in that old brown one in the picture.

Reply to
gfretwell

Before I found the small mix company I was going to just have Home Depot deliver the bags, I think the delivery fee would have been $60

Reply to
philo

Not really. The stuff at HD/Lowes is 4000 PSI (and up to 5000psi) concrete, far more than you need for most things. In a lot of places you can use 2500 psi for driveways and such..

Reply to
gfretwell

My son bought the Harbor Freight mixer and has been happy with how it performs. Not mixing a huge amount of concrete, but definitely more than just a few bags of premix.

Reply to
hrhofmann

and gravel a section at a time for a driveway apron. I know a typically ratio is one bucket cement, 2 buckets sand, 3 buckets aggregate for example. Can anyone direct me to a calculator to show how much of each product I would need for a 4 foot by 10 foot by 4 inch section?

You're taking about about one half yard of concrete. At 4 inches think, a yard of concrete will do a 9 X 9 foot pad, (81 sq ft). You have 40 sq ft. to do.

What you want to do is doable by hand, but it's a lot of work. Years ago, I mixed a whole small garage floor by hand. Something like 14 X 18. It took me several days, and I did it in four sections by making frames out of 2x4s dividing the floor into 4 parts.

Yes, it is considerably cheaper than buying the pre-mixed bags, and if you have an electric mixer, you have to pour in the water and either lift the pre-mix bags, or lift pails of cement - sand- agg. Also, pre-mix cement tends to be a weak mixture. When I have used it, I still add a little more raw cement. If you mix your own, I suggest about 10% more cement (1/10th of a pail more). It's a stronger mix, like they use for highways.

But is it worth buying a mixer for this? Unless you plan to use it again, Rent one! Or just have it delivered, and save your back on the process.

Some large cities have a haul your own MIXED cement. They furnish a cart that has small amounts of ready to use cement. 1/2 yard would fit this cart well. Just be sure to use it as soon as you get home.

Reply to
Jerry.Tan

Well, .3 X 4X10 feet -s about 12 cu feet - just under half a cubic yard of cement.

Materials required are 137 Kg of cement (3 nos. of 50 kg bag of cement), Sand: 4.8 ft3, Stone: 9.6 ft3, for a standard 1:1.5:3 mix.

See calculator at :

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Reply to
clare

If your time isn't worth anything, it will be cheaper not buying premixed.

Reply to
Tyler B.

There are a few factors, IMO

Cost Time and the physical labor involved Ability to mix it fast enough to get the job done as a single pour.

It could come out like crap if you don't plan ahead and run out of energy before the job is done. It is heavy work.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Since it's 10 ft long, I'd probably allow for two sections, control joint in between. That way if it becomes too much, he can stop at one section. But before I did anything, I'd find out if he can get a small drop-off load and how much it costs.

Reply to
trader_4

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