Rough cost of re-doing a concrete drive

Our (shared) driveway is looking quite tatty, with holes in the concrete exposing hollows below etc. Its been patched as well (possibly for a new gas/electricity supply in the past) and just looks poor.

I'm loathed to pay anyone to do work which I think I can do myself - (famous last words!). So - does anyone have any idea (very rough would be useful) the sort of cost I would expect to rip up the old concrete, dispose of it, and relay (bearing in mind its a driveway which is about 2 cars (Pug 306!) width wide, and possibly 3 to 3.5 cars long).

Things I can think of (but no idea of cost) would be:

Small digger hire (I'm not going to break my back as well as the concrete!) Skip (or however many skips I'd need) Concrete to lay (is it realistic mixing it myself for this sort of size - getting it pre-mixed would be easiest).

Looking at that, it sounds a nice and easy job! Is it actually straight forward - or is there more to it than that. Obviously it'll be hard work - but as long as its not complex - I think it should be okay.

Also - any ideas what sort of cost I may expect to get someone in to do it? Bearing in mind its a shared driveway, it may not be that expensive to do it between the two of us. We're in Guildford, Surrey - a costly county!

Thanks

D
Reply to
David Hearn
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Skip hire is £138 for 6yards, £160 for 8 yards - Sutton, South London, probably similar to Guildford.

Have you thaught about tidying up the existing concrete by covering it with something - see my other posting "Driveway" ?

Reply to
Squid

Yes - that's what made me think about it. The trouble is that the surface isn't terribly great (lots of patchy bits, uneven etc) and whilst coating it with that stuff may well make the surface look nice - my concern is that it'll still be uneven, and I'm sure it'll show through - whereas redoing it may get a better result.

To be honest, its unlikely we'd get it done - but having an idea of the price may surprise us into doing something about it. ;)

Incidentally, how many skips do you think we'd need for that amount of concrete (assuming we'd need to dig it all up).

D
Reply to
David Hearn

I dug out a triangle about 300 deep, roughly equivalent to the area covered by a family car (Frontera) and it pretty well filled the 6 yard skip - but the hole you make seems to be smaller than the amount of mud you put in the skip, I guess that is because it is quite compact before digging and comparatively "spaced out" when it gets into the skip.

For the difference in price, you are probably better off getting a skip thats a bit bigger than you need just in case - if you are like me there will be bits of rubbish hidden around the place that can go in if you have any space left over - or do the neighbours a favour and let them top it off.

Reply to
Squid

Frist of all, have a look at

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for estimates of quantities required, construction techniques etc.

When I remade my drive in March I hired a 1.5T mini digger for a week for £200 + VAT + insurance + fuel. The week ran from Friday afternoon to the Monday morning 10 days later. It was fine for ripping out the old conrete edging and any bits of concrete where you could get a good bit of leverage but there are a couple of areas I had to leave becasue the machine wasn't beefy enough to smach them or pull them up with restricted access. If you have access all round the drive you should be OK.

I used mixamate who charged £95+VAT per cubic metre for the first 2 metres, and then the guy came back and did the rest privately for cash. It's amazing how small and area 1 metre of concrete will cover, and yet how much it weighs.

Do you need to put a sub base under a concrete slab? I can't remember offhand but the website referred to above will tell you.

I reckon I saved about £2k doing mine - but it was a fair bit bigger

I'm near Tonbridge, Kent. not Surrey, but not cheap either.

HTH

Neil

Reply to
Neil Jones

Yeah, get the bigger skip... if your neighbours are anything like mine you'll be doing them this favour whether you like it or not!

I remember a few years ago when we had builders' skips on the drive for some time; it was a real education. One night the skip would be filled up with crap dumped by somebody; the next night somebody else would have been sniffing round, nicked the crap, and then by morning it would have been replaced with something different. Etc etc. My personal, free, bring-and-buy sale...

David

Reply to
David

Hmm, just thought of a new web resource - eskip.

Do you think ebay would have anything to worry about? ;)

PoP

Reply to
PoP

"PoP" wrote | "David" wrote: | >I remember a few years ago when we had builders' skips on the drive | >for some time; it was a real education. One night the skip would be | >filled up with crap dumped by somebody; the next night somebody else | >would have been sniffing round, nicked the crap, and then by morning | >it would have been replaced with something different. Etc etc. My | >personal, free, bring-and-buy sale... | Hmm, just thought of a new web resource - eskip. | Do you think ebay would have anything to worry about? ;)

They might claim copyright infringement if you had a "Nick it now!" icon

Owain

Reply to
Owain

When I worked in a Uni Physics dept, they were doing some long term refurbs involving a couple of skips being (theoretically) emptied every few days. We received a memo from the HoD that ran something like,

"Please stop taking stuff out of the skips. The contractors will only remove them when they're full, and they keep turning up having been told they're full only to find someone's emptied them again."

It did seem a shame, though, to send off all this gorgeous brass/wood/glass lab equipment to be crushed. I managed to acquire a beautiful and only slightly cracked (and therefore useless, but decorative) 19thC discharge tube.

R.

Reply to
Richard

I've stopped using skips. I find adverting at zero price in the free ads for any old cr*p will bring plenty of responses. A few tonnes of rubble? You'll soon get someone along in a flat bed Transit wanting to lay a new shed base. I wish I hadn't put a 20 year old leaky and manky fridge freezer in there, though. The phone didn't stop ringing for weeks. The first to get to the house was practically salivating over the brown drips of indeterminate substances oozing out of the door seals. It saved me a trip to the tip with the thing leaking over my van.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

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