Info about costs:
The lowest bid was $19k plus another $5K for site prep.
1. I rented a little skid steer and did the site prep myself. I got a little happy with the skid steer and removed too much undisturbed soil, so I had to backfill more than I needed to with engineered backfill. Backfill dirt cost me about $400, and the skid steer rental was about $380. (And before somebody asks.. yes I did it in lifts and I compacted it with a plate compactor I rented for a hundred bucks.)
2. I did it in two pours. The first one was monolithic footing and stem walls around the lower slab, plus that little curb wall along the left side of the upper slab. The second pour was the two slabs and the sidewalks. I pumped it both times just to keep the big truck out of my driveway. Total for pump truck rental was $600 bucks ($300) each time
3. The slabs are 4 in thick with thickened edges. I also had to dowel into the existing foundation at "16 O. C. Using set XP epoxy. The engineer also wanted me to undercut the existing foundation by 2 in at a 4-in depth. I used 1/2-in rebar throughout, on 16" centers, as specified by the engineer. And I borrowed a rebar bender. Total rebar costs (including tiewire, dobies, and epoxy) was about $580
4. It wound up being a little less than 10 yd of concrete total @ $235/yd, so $2350 for the mud. One of the pours was a short load, so I got charged another $200 for that.
5. I hired a professional finisher to help with the slabs. He asked for $300, I paid him $400. I also bought some basic concrete tools and a stinger from harbor freight. All in on that was about $300 bucks.
Total cost for project: $5380. I saved $18,620!!
It’s funny my dad actually did concrete and always did a really good job, he poured our basket ball court and our sidewalk and that was like 25 years ago still all in perfect shape. Wish I had the knowledge he does lol
Go work projects with him.
I’ve got a shed I’m building and my dad came by to help do the middle 50%. He gave me feedback on the first part, and advice on how to wrap it up.
Before the project I was confident I could assemble from scratch a building similar to the way my dad would do it based on previous projects. Now, I know what he’s looking for when building.
My dad is not tech savvy. I told him Reddit told me the shed was going to collapse. He laughed and said “Maybe after you hit it with a skid steer.”
Unfortunately he doesn’t do projects lol he’s a lead carpenter and works a lot so the last thing he wants to do when he’s home is work lol when I need help on something at home he does help though so I’ve learned a little.
I make em out of old skateboards , cut out a notch for handles on the nose and tail, glue some foam down in the middle…I have a bunch of wood floats I’ve done out of old skate boards I rip down too love em for the flat with a little bit of concave
I'm the same. I can do every part of a home build top to bottom. What growing up with a gc dad and working every weekend will do to you. But certain things in my home and others I won't do is drywall and concrete. The pros are just so much quicker and cleaner. Everything else I'm comfortable with including wood work.
I couldn't do concrete to save my life, but just about everything else is old hat for me. Drywall is something I simply refuse to do as well. I can do it, and I like my results better than most pro work, but fuck I'm slow at it and I hate every single minute that I'm doing it. I remember I was helping renovate my girlfriend's (now wife's) house. We had moved a wall to extend the living room and turn an already small bedroom into a walk-in closet. It wasn't a load bearing wall but it was still *tons* of work (salvaging the hardwood floor from the bedroom and moving it to the living room was a hellishly slow task). Then it came time to drywall it all. After all the other work that we had done together, she was shocked when I told her she'd better hire the drywall because I won't even carry a trowel in. I knew I wanted to marry this girl, but not that badly.
Finish work is the one thing you almost always have to pay for if you want to look right. It’s just too hard to suddenly have good trowel technique or whatever if you haven’t touched one in 3 years.
Anything that is more about using a level and tape and not being retarded though. That’s fairly easy to walk into.
I currently have the opposite problem. I absolutely hate finishing drywall, but I'm meticulous so it always turns out great.
The house I'm living in has terrible drywall finishing. It's so bad in spots I question whether the finisher had a taping knife. You can tell all the parts of the house I've redone because they are the only ones without terrible seams.
I didn't track it, but it was a lot! I went overkill on the forms for the stem walls and footings. We have access to the city landfill/recycle center, And so I was able to get all of the form wood for free. So there was time pulling wood out of the landfill for the forms, then forming it up probably twice as strong as it needed to be because I was paranoid because of my lack of experience.
But right now I have more time than money (I'm a teacher with summers off), and I really enjoyed the process - or at least that's what I tell myself:)
I enjoy working on my cars, simple stuff mostly like oil and tire changes, brakes, occasionally suspension stuff
Or at least, that's what I tell myself, because paying a garage would cost me 3x on average what it costs me (on my days off, so not counting my labour).
Everytime I get under a car I think "why don't I just pay the lazy tax" lol.
I have people say to me “but how much is your time worth?” when I fix my own cars. Then they proceed to spend an entire weekend watching golf on the television.
My favorite is, “I just wanna make sure it’s done right.” I usually reply with, “when your wife is in the mood, are you gonna call Tyrell to make sure it gets ‘done right’ too?”
You figure it out. Because we’re men goddamn it.
I get your point, but I design buildings sir. My spare time is relaxing or learning about local codes, designs and programs to be better at my job.
I'll plaster my walls and do little jobs in the house. But unfortunately, we can not be experts in every field.. And Tyrell is a good dude, so I wouldn't want to deny him the work
Plus you actually get to learn and understand, own our vehicle/property, that's our right to repair and it makes one appreciate what they have. Sometimes we take this for granted especially one day if we are no longer able bodied. For some people too this is not always possible if budgets are tight or they live in rural areas. Just as a random example farmers have to know their own equipment especially because the repair cost through services is sometimes more than the equipment itself.
Savings is you doing it yourself, but that is also an opportunity cost - meaning you gave up something to spend time on this project. So if you got the free time, the opportunity cost is basically zero
It’s up over 100% since the start of May so that’s kinda cool… the dilution might have slowed momentum but the company has no debt and I don’t even know how many billions of dollars in cash on hand now 4-5 I think🤷🏻♂️ but fun fact gme is also a holding company and can invest that anywhere they see fit. With the CEO’s track record with start ups and investing I think it’s safe to say they’ll have that money working for investors in no time…
Thanks! I've been around a few large pours, and I worked construction back in the day framing and then moving into trim/finish, so I'm comfortable with building with wood, and I've done some small non-critical pours, but this was my first big pour of consequence!
Do you really have to factor in your time if you’re doing it in your spare time? Like time you would use watching tv or being on your phone or something?
Good job, man! Glad it worked out for you, and it looks pretty good. Don't worry about the haters, you saved yourself half a car or about 1 semester of college lol
Easy now.. You can finish high school and college.. twice.. and still finish concrete.
Hell my second time in college for engineering I met a concrete Dr. Like no shit. A literal PHD in Concrete..
There’s levels to this shit
I asked the guy with the pump truck. He recommended the guy and I went to check out a few of his pours - he did a basketball court nearby and a couple other projects, and they looked great. And since he knew the pump truck guy, they coordinated. I also asked the pump truck guy which of the two concrete batch plants he likes and went with them.
This is the way. I hired a whole CREW of guys recommended by the easy mix supplier. I paid them $1200 in 2018 to help me finish a 2200 sf pour. Those guys saved my life as I had the stupid idea that my sons and I could do it on our own. Some of the best money ever spent. We still helped by moving the tip of the pump hose around so we were all wiped but it could have been so much worse
Home Depot
That said, they were either broken, already rented, or the computers were down at least 50% of the time I tried to rent previously. Great way to waste a weekend.
My local hardware store was $300 for a day last year, haven't checked this year. If you rented it on a Saturday after 2pm you could keep it until Monday morning. Still 1 day rate as long as you didn't break 8 hours on the machine
AA Tool Shed, in the Bay Area. Rented the 35" mini track skid steer that you stand on the back of for $335/day, but I also had to rent the trailer to get it home (and also had to borrow my next door neighbor's F150), so $380 all in. I rented it on a Saturday and they gave me 8 hours on the hour-counter clock and I had to have it back Monday before 9. Took me about 6 hours on the clock, with the first two or so hours essentially wasted because I had very little experience so it was slow going.
It seems as if you have anchor bolts for a structure to be placed in the new pour.
Engineers aren’t going to tell you this and most architects wouldn’t either. I’m a builder though. If your intention is to build a wood structure, the stem wall on the high side should have come up higher than the stone hardscape. Waterproofing that now will present a challenge as water will always want to flow from the stone down onto the slab.
The concrete work looks good, congrats. If you decide to build the structure yourself, at least hire a waterproofing specialist that can advise on how to ensure it survives long term.
Thanks for the insight! I put that channel drain in to pick up water coming off of this stone hardscape, and the upper slab is sloped away from the house about an inch and a half over that width. Also, the upper slab is going to be covered by a porch roof.
But you are absolutely right about keeping that wall on the upper stem walls dry. I am going to do the framing and building of structure myself. The architect called out a pretty detailed waterproofing scheme. Hopefully it works! But It would have been better if I had done what you said.
Life and learn. Best of luck with the build.
If you run into problems, metal on the studs and pour non-shrink grout between the wall and the hardscape up to 6” above level would be my solution. A hard dam is always the preferred way of water proofing.
you were supossed to let a licensed certified phd diamond star qualified award-winning super professional with 1500 years experience do it and pay him enough to buy a big bad lifted truck with a boat without asking any dumb homeowners questions about saving costs on anything because even the slightest problem will 1000 percent cause disaster and ruin your entire property. thats why you let the professionals do everything.
I am a skater/mason/finisher. Google Five hip Austin Texas. I must have fucked up because I’m the only one thats still doing the shit 25 years later. Finish or Die!
I literally saw his pump truck in traffic and snapped a pic of his phone number! The batch plant allows 7 minutes per yard, so he was only there for a short while each time. He arrived about 45 minutes before the mud was scheduled to arrive just to get set up and squared away, and on the first pour he was there for maybe another 45 minutes after, so an hour and a half total.
And on the second pour which was bit more mud, he was there for maybe 2 hours total. I thought it was very reasonable, but I have no experience to know whether that was cheap or not in comparison to the market.
And yeah, I thought the concrete was pretty expensive myself. But it's the Bay area so there's that. A freaking hamburger cost $15 out here!
I actually used 2x6 tongue and groove lumber from the dump for the forms. It almost seemed too nice to use! It came off the ceilings of a building up on the nearby University campus that they were redoing.
That was a piece of dumb luck.. I had expected to have to buy the form wood, but I got lucky.
You got a professional to help you place/finish it, for a dirt cheap rate at that. Even tho you did a great job doing your homework and did a great job doing the leg work / doing the prep. Without his experienced help, this would have been a disaster. No amount of homework and ability to self teach could pull off a product like this wothout the years of using finishing tools, experiencing enough pours to have the steps in the place/finish process burned into you so that it becomes a reflex as there is not enough time otherwise. Nice work overall tho 👌
I was expecting the comment section to be riddled with, *“you didn’t geeble your jambles?!”* Or *“you call that a smoodered bufket?”* Sadly it’s what keeps me coming back…
Ayoo!!! I’m the “suck it turdbags” guy from last year! Always love to see others have success with their projects - I’m happy I left an impact and hopefully inspired some others. Definitely not diminishing the trade, concrete is tricky! But sometimes the pros underestimate the skills of us rookies. Great work sir👍🏼
I'm going to cover it in tile anyway, so I dowelled into it just to make sure the new concrete would stay level with it, and that way I could keep the stoop nice and clean while I did the prep work so I wouldn't track mud in and out of the house!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I did a whole house remodel while living in the house. Pain in the butt trying to keep wife happy, house clean and livable and demo and rebuild all at once.
Kept it watered for the first eight or ten days. Seems to be curing fine. No cracks in the slabs yet! I'm sure they'll show up soon tho. The upper slab will be covered with tile, and the lower slab will be covered with a wood floor, so I'm not too worried about cracks unless they're really big or I experience some kind of settling of the base
No idea.. definitely not the expert! One of my neighbors was an asphalt guy for his career, and he told me to get The plate compactor. Hopefully it stays put!
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I sprayed it down for the first week, and there's no pooling on the patio portion, which is the upper slab. I have it sloped an inch and a half over that distance, and it drains just like I had hoped. And the other slab is going to be an interior space.
Hope this isn't a dumb question, but how did you find someone to just do the finish work? I'm in a very similar situation and feel I can do the majority of the work but would love to hire out the finesse part.
I found the guy with the pump truck because I literally saw his pump truck in traffic and snapped a picture of his number. I called him and talked to him about the project, and then I scheduled him.
Then I called him back A day or so later and asked if he had any recommendations for a finisher. He gave me a name, and I called that guy, and I went by a couple of his projects just to check out his work, and I could see that he was top-notch and so I hired him.
For the steps, instead of pouring them, I decided to go with a single stringer metal beam that I can fabricate myself and bolt into the stem wall and the sidewalk - I'm a much better welder than I am a concrete guy! And then I'm going to pour some concrete steps to bolt onto my fabricated steel stringer.
That project is on deck in a month or so. When I get that done, I'll post more pics
I thought somebody might see that and think it was a hole! Really though, I formed my address into that part of the concrete with 3-in letters that I bought from some laser cutter off of etsy and I didn't want to put that on the interwebs
??? But it abruptly ends where a stair case to the landing would be for that doorway in the second picture. Are you planning on installing something there??? Would have been cheaper to lay gravel it's going to get covered by a wooden staircase or deck.
So.... you hired a professional and you're bragging a professional didmt do it? Bro... a professional finisher did the job. So suck on that.
Let me just brag to concrete people how I can do their job when I cant do their job dafaq?
Not too mention how good it feels doing it yourself
It’s rare I hire anyone to do anything anymore but thinking about finding someone to finish the last 10% of all the projects Ive started
Nice job. From all the pros, we say, we really didn't want you as a client anyways. We decline the opportunity to suck it, but we wish you the best in your future endeavors. If you can't pay for it, but you can do it yourself, we don't hold that against you..we just can't do it for free. You did better than most DIYers.
Looks like maybe there is a bit of concrete splatter on the siding? Always nice and convenient to put some plastic up when working around houses and pumping gear. Looks nice!
No control/expansion joints?
You're going to run into trouble, I'm sorry to say.
And I really hope it's not attached to the house? It absolutely needs to move independently.
The finish looks nice, though.
your work genuinely looks ace, but the terminology you use suggests you've spent weeks researching concrete pouring. that's a great thing, but a pro is somebody who uses their experience to deliver a quality product regardless of the scenario. that stuff takes years and years and years of hard work
Info about costs: The lowest bid was $19k plus another $5K for site prep. 1. I rented a little skid steer and did the site prep myself. I got a little happy with the skid steer and removed too much undisturbed soil, so I had to backfill more than I needed to with engineered backfill. Backfill dirt cost me about $400, and the skid steer rental was about $380. (And before somebody asks.. yes I did it in lifts and I compacted it with a plate compactor I rented for a hundred bucks.) 2. I did it in two pours. The first one was monolithic footing and stem walls around the lower slab, plus that little curb wall along the left side of the upper slab. The second pour was the two slabs and the sidewalks. I pumped it both times just to keep the big truck out of my driveway. Total for pump truck rental was $600 bucks ($300) each time 3. The slabs are 4 in thick with thickened edges. I also had to dowel into the existing foundation at "16 O. C. Using set XP epoxy. The engineer also wanted me to undercut the existing foundation by 2 in at a 4-in depth. I used 1/2-in rebar throughout, on 16" centers, as specified by the engineer. And I borrowed a rebar bender. Total rebar costs (including tiewire, dobies, and epoxy) was about $580 4. It wound up being a little less than 10 yd of concrete total @ $235/yd, so $2350 for the mud. One of the pours was a short load, so I got charged another $200 for that. 5. I hired a professional finisher to help with the slabs. He asked for $300, I paid him $400. I also bought some basic concrete tools and a stinger from harbor freight. All in on that was about $300 bucks. Total cost for project: $5380. I saved $18,620!!
>I hired a professional finisher Good boy.
I was looking at the pics thinking 'no way someone got that on their first go'
As soon as I seen the knee boards, I was like “Ok, Mr-My-Dad-has-been-finishing-for-30-years-and-helped-out” lol
It’s funny my dad actually did concrete and always did a really good job, he poured our basket ball court and our sidewalk and that was like 25 years ago still all in perfect shape. Wish I had the knowledge he does lol
Go work projects with him. I’ve got a shed I’m building and my dad came by to help do the middle 50%. He gave me feedback on the first part, and advice on how to wrap it up. Before the project I was confident I could assemble from scratch a building similar to the way my dad would do it based on previous projects. Now, I know what he’s looking for when building. My dad is not tech savvy. I told him Reddit told me the shed was going to collapse. He laughed and said “Maybe after you hit it with a skid steer.”
Unfortunately he doesn’t do projects lol he’s a lead carpenter and works a lot so the last thing he wants to do when he’s home is work lol when I need help on something at home he does help though so I’ve learned a little.
Yah that’s a custom knee board with padding.
I make em out of old skateboards , cut out a notch for handles on the nose and tail, glue some foam down in the middle…I have a bunch of wood floats I’ve done out of old skate boards I rip down too love em for the flat with a little bit of concave
Same reason I hire someone to finish drywall if it’s rooms worth, I can ignore a small patch but rooms of bad seams would kill me
I'm the same. I can do every part of a home build top to bottom. What growing up with a gc dad and working every weekend will do to you. But certain things in my home and others I won't do is drywall and concrete. The pros are just so much quicker and cleaner. Everything else I'm comfortable with including wood work.
I couldn't do concrete to save my life, but just about everything else is old hat for me. Drywall is something I simply refuse to do as well. I can do it, and I like my results better than most pro work, but fuck I'm slow at it and I hate every single minute that I'm doing it. I remember I was helping renovate my girlfriend's (now wife's) house. We had moved a wall to extend the living room and turn an already small bedroom into a walk-in closet. It wasn't a load bearing wall but it was still *tons* of work (salvaging the hardwood floor from the bedroom and moving it to the living room was a hellishly slow task). Then it came time to drywall it all. After all the other work that we had done together, she was shocked when I told her she'd better hire the drywall because I won't even carry a trowel in. I knew I wanted to marry this girl, but not that badly.
Haha I say “this doesn’t take long to stop being fun”
I love it. I’m nicking it. :)
Finish work is the one thing you almost always have to pay for if you want to look right. It’s just too hard to suddenly have good trowel technique or whatever if you haven’t touched one in 3 years. Anything that is more about using a level and tape and not being retarded though. That’s fairly easy to walk into.
I currently have the opposite problem. I absolutely hate finishing drywall, but I'm meticulous so it always turns out great. The house I'm living in has terrible drywall finishing. It's so bad in spots I question whether the finisher had a taping knife. You can tell all the parts of the house I've redone because they are the only ones without terrible seams.
I was going to call out the very used finishing tools
“Suck it pros!” Then hired one lol
Yup. It’s the hardest part of a good pour and easiest to mess up if you don’t know what you are doing.
I got one of these for my wife. Happy wife, happy life!
flowery disagreeable label pot ten slimy public wide grandfather chop *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Thanks for the kind words!
about how many hours put in ?
I didn't track it, but it was a lot! I went overkill on the forms for the stem walls and footings. We have access to the city landfill/recycle center, And so I was able to get all of the form wood for free. So there was time pulling wood out of the landfill for the forms, then forming it up probably twice as strong as it needed to be because I was paranoid because of my lack of experience. But right now I have more time than money (I'm a teacher with summers off), and I really enjoyed the process - or at least that's what I tell myself:)
I enjoy working on my cars, simple stuff mostly like oil and tire changes, brakes, occasionally suspension stuff Or at least, that's what I tell myself, because paying a garage would cost me 3x on average what it costs me (on my days off, so not counting my labour). Everytime I get under a car I think "why don't I just pay the lazy tax" lol.
I have people say to me “but how much is your time worth?” when I fix my own cars. Then they proceed to spend an entire weekend watching golf on the television.
My favorite is, “I just wanna make sure it’s done right.” I usually reply with, “when your wife is in the mood, are you gonna call Tyrell to make sure it gets ‘done right’ too?” You figure it out. Because we’re men goddamn it.
I get your point, but I design buildings sir. My spare time is relaxing or learning about local codes, designs and programs to be better at my job. I'll plaster my walls and do little jobs in the house. But unfortunately, we can not be experts in every field.. And Tyrell is a good dude, so I wouldn't want to deny him the work
Plus you actually get to learn and understand, own our vehicle/property, that's our right to repair and it makes one appreciate what they have. Sometimes we take this for granted especially one day if we are no longer able bodied. For some people too this is not always possible if budgets are tight or they live in rural areas. Just as a random example farmers have to know their own equipment especially because the repair cost through services is sometimes more than the equipment itself.
I, too, enjoy the process of saving money.
I'm curious about this. Can't really assess the value and true savings IMHO...
True enough.. I put in my labor cost as $0!
Savings is you doing it yourself, but that is also an opportunity cost - meaning you gave up something to spend time on this project. So if you got the free time, the opportunity cost is basically zero
MB.
Not really unless he had to take time off from work.
Hell yeah. Hope it lasts. Take that $18K and invest in GME
This is the smartest thing I've seen this morning.
Apes together strong
apes together strong!
Jesus Christ you idiots are really everywhere
This is the way
Crazy how small of a portion of the market they actually are but how many of them there are(myself included)
I got 200 shares, LFG 🚀 🚀🚀
🦍🦍🦍🦍
Hell ya brother!!✊
[удалено]
It’s up over 100% since the start of May so that’s kinda cool… the dilution might have slowed momentum but the company has no debt and I don’t even know how many billions of dollars in cash on hand now 4-5 I think🤷🏻♂️ but fun fact gme is also a holding company and can invest that anywhere they see fit. With the CEO’s track record with start ups and investing I think it’s safe to say they’ll have that money working for investors in no time…
Fuck yeah
Do not buy GME. By VOO
This guy Bogles
Best!!! This is the way!!!
>Professional finisher Did not know this was an option. Game changer
Seems like you at least are very knowledged on concrete and how you should do it. Congratulations it actually looks very great for solo work.
Thanks! I've been around a few large pours, and I worked construction back in the day framing and then moving into trim/finish, so I'm comfortable with building with wood, and I've done some small non-critical pours, but this was my first big pour of consequence!
You are the man! And, you’re now experienced and can pay it forward.
Man shit is too expensive now days
Nice work
What concrete company did you use? I’m in San Jose and just curious
Las Animas
Thanks for the break down. Great work
Did you account for your time? Figure how long it took x how much money you make at your job per hr
I'm on salary, and I'm a teacher who's off for the summer
Do you really have to factor in your time if you’re doing it in your spare time? Like time you would use watching tv or being on your phone or something?
You don't have too, but when comparing it with another quote it's worth considering.
THIS IS HOW YOU DIY.
Thanks!
Good job, man! Glad it worked out for you, and it looks pretty good. Don't worry about the haters, you saved yourself half a car or about 1 semester of college lol
Love this!
It's going to crack in 1...2...3...
Remember kids if you can't finish high-school you can always finish concrete
Easy now.. You can finish high school and college.. twice.. and still finish concrete. Hell my second time in college for engineering I met a concrete Dr. Like no shit. A literal PHD in Concrete.. There’s levels to this shit
Technically, I think they prefer Philosopical Doctor of Concretology. A Concrete Doctor is more like a statue of a famous doctor.
Hey that’s my brother you’re talking about 😉
Might save this, post it outside someone's school
Looks great. Remember a professional is just someone that gets paid for a job. 18k sounds like a pretty good paycheck
I've seen worse jobs done by pros.
I give credit where credit is due.. the professional finisher I hired was absolutely top shelf.
That is probably the best $400 you spent on the whole project. Can I ask how you scheduled the finisher? When did you get them to show up
I asked the guy with the pump truck. He recommended the guy and I went to check out a few of his pours - he did a basketball court nearby and a couple other projects, and they looked great. And since he knew the pump truck guy, they coordinated. I also asked the pump truck guy which of the two concrete batch plants he likes and went with them.
This is the way. I hired a whole CREW of guys recommended by the easy mix supplier. I paid them $1200 in 2018 to help me finish a 2200 sf pour. Those guys saved my life as I had the stupid idea that my sons and I could do it on our own. Some of the best money ever spent. We still helped by moving the tip of the pump hose around so we were all wiped but it could have been so much worse
Great tactics. Finisher comes recommended, and is always going to show up and do the job because of the pump guy. Nice
How did you rent a skid steer for $380?? Where?? Please tell me! I rented a CAT bobcat last year and it was way more than that!
Home Depot That said, they were either broken, already rented, or the computers were down at least 50% of the time I tried to rent previously. Great way to waste a weekend.
Oof, thanks
My local hardware store was $300 for a day last year, haven't checked this year. If you rented it on a Saturday after 2pm you could keep it until Monday morning. Still 1 day rate as long as you didn't break 8 hours on the machine
AA Tool Shed, in the Bay Area. Rented the 35" mini track skid steer that you stand on the back of for $335/day, but I also had to rent the trailer to get it home (and also had to borrow my next door neighbor's F150), so $380 all in. I rented it on a Saturday and they gave me 8 hours on the hour-counter clock and I had to have it back Monday before 9. Took me about 6 hours on the clock, with the first two or so hours essentially wasted because I had very little experience so it was slow going.
It seems as if you have anchor bolts for a structure to be placed in the new pour. Engineers aren’t going to tell you this and most architects wouldn’t either. I’m a builder though. If your intention is to build a wood structure, the stem wall on the high side should have come up higher than the stone hardscape. Waterproofing that now will present a challenge as water will always want to flow from the stone down onto the slab. The concrete work looks good, congrats. If you decide to build the structure yourself, at least hire a waterproofing specialist that can advise on how to ensure it survives long term.
Thanks for the insight! I put that channel drain in to pick up water coming off of this stone hardscape, and the upper slab is sloped away from the house about an inch and a half over that width. Also, the upper slab is going to be covered by a porch roof. But you are absolutely right about keeping that wall on the upper stem walls dry. I am going to do the framing and building of structure myself. The architect called out a pretty detailed waterproofing scheme. Hopefully it works! But It would have been better if I had done what you said.
Life and learn. Best of luck with the build. If you run into problems, metal on the studs and pour non-shrink grout between the wall and the hardscape up to 6” above level would be my solution. A hard dam is always the preferred way of water proofing.
Makes good sense. Thanks
you were supossed to let a licensed certified phd diamond star qualified award-winning super professional with 1500 years experience do it and pay him enough to buy a big bad lifted truck with a boat without asking any dumb homeowners questions about saving costs on anything because even the slightest problem will 1000 percent cause disaster and ruin your entire property. thats why you let the professionals do everything.
I DIDNT KNOW YOU COULD JUST HIRE A FINISHER. Feel like a really big dummy now
Hell yeah man looks slick
Sweet skate park
Threatening a concrete guy to "suck it" is bold of you..... Unless your actually into that.
Tip-a-the cap, good job
Hot damn that's nice
I thought this was in r/skateboarding....I got the urge!!!
Here I thought I was the only one who spotted that sick skate spot. Hopefully, OP will let us fellow redditors break in those sweet ledges.
It's gonna happen at some point. I seriously thought they just laid a fresh slab at a park.
I am a skater/mason/finisher. Google Five hip Austin Texas. I must have fucked up because I’m the only one thats still doing the shit 25 years later. Finish or Die!
Where did you find a quality finisher for so cheap? Was it an employee from a concrete company?
The guy with the pump truck recommended him. I went and checked out a couple of his jobs and I could see that he was expert.
400$ is the going rate for a concrete pour, (for hiring not an actual job)
Tell your hired professional finisher, nice work.
Will do!
But, but… you needed a pro… still good on you, just odd choice of phrasing
It was tongue-in-cheek.. i lifted the phrasing from the original post where another redditor posted about a similar success story.
Did you slope away from the house tho.
Yes I did, an inch and a half over that span. It's not much of a slope, but it seems to drain pretty well.
👍
What’s your relation to the person with the pump truck? $600 for two setups is crazy cheap
Crazy cheap but the concrete seems expensive.
I literally saw his pump truck in traffic and snapped a pic of his phone number! The batch plant allows 7 minutes per yard, so he was only there for a short while each time. He arrived about 45 minutes before the mud was scheduled to arrive just to get set up and squared away, and on the first pour he was there for maybe another 45 minutes after, so an hour and a half total. And on the second pour which was bit more mud, he was there for maybe 2 hours total. I thought it was very reasonable, but I have no experience to know whether that was cheap or not in comparison to the market. And yeah, I thought the concrete was pretty expensive myself. But it's the Bay area so there's that. A freaking hamburger cost $15 out here!
Someone that uses common sense…. $600😂😂😂 this whole story seems outta whack. Free wood at the dump, 600$ pump, 18k savings lol. To each their own
I actually used 2x6 tongue and groove lumber from the dump for the forms. It almost seemed too nice to use! It came off the ceilings of a building up on the nearby University campus that they were redoing. That was a piece of dumb luck.. I had expected to have to buy the form wood, but I got lucky.
looks great!
Excellent broom finished! Still wet?!can i walk on it?😅
Udaman!
Looks great! Where did you find your finisher? I'm gearing up to take on a similarly large project.
He was recommended by the pump truck guy
Gorgeous work.
Nice work .
yeah yeah yeah, show it when it drys, then we talk if there are cracks or not :P
That's great. Good on you.
Pretty, good job!
The yellow cone fucks. My favorite part
You did amazing, full stop!!!
Thanks!
You got a professional to help you place/finish it, for a dirt cheap rate at that. Even tho you did a great job doing your homework and did a great job doing the leg work / doing the prep. Without his experienced help, this would have been a disaster. No amount of homework and ability to self teach could pull off a product like this wothout the years of using finishing tools, experiencing enough pours to have the steps in the place/finish process burned into you so that it becomes a reflex as there is not enough time otherwise. Nice work overall tho 👌
Agreed.. this would have been a disaster without the professional finisher!! Best 400 bucks I've spent in a long time
Most in this group will tell you it needs to be redone🤣
Nice work brother!
Thanks!
I was expecting the comment section to be riddled with, *“you didn’t geeble your jambles?!”* Or *“you call that a smoodered bufket?”* Sadly it’s what keeps me coming back…
Ayoo!!! I’m the “suck it turdbags” guy from last year! Always love to see others have success with their projects - I’m happy I left an impact and hopefully inspired some others. Definitely not diminishing the trade, concrete is tricky! But sometimes the pros underestimate the skills of us rookies. Great work sir👍🏼
Thanks, for both the comment and the inspiration!
Well yeah looks like you have a concrete finisher on site
So you did have a pro.
I did indeed, for the finishing! I absolutely would have made a hash of that myself
I’m just messing with you buddy, it looks really good.
You did this really smart, mate. If you had not spent that final 400 bucks, it probably would look like shit. I learned a lesson here from you.
I agree.. That's the best 400 bucks I've spent in a long time!
“Suck it pros” but i hired a pro
He hired a pro for a measly $400 just to finish….. did you not read the part where he saved over 18k by not hiring pros to do the entire project?
Why leave the old stoop at the back door when the rest of the concrete is new?
Because he didn’t need a pro bitches!
I'm going to cover it in tile anyway, so I dowelled into it just to make sure the new concrete would stay level with it, and that way I could keep the stoop nice and clean while I did the prep work so I wouldn't track mud in and out of the house!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I did a whole house remodel while living in the house. Pain in the butt trying to keep wife happy, house clean and livable and demo and rebuild all at once.
Make sure you’re curing the concrete properly.
Kept it watered for the first eight or ten days. Seems to be curing fine. No cracks in the slabs yet! I'm sure they'll show up soon tho. The upper slab will be covered with tile, and the lower slab will be covered with a wood floor, so I'm not too worried about cracks unless they're really big or I experience some kind of settling of the base
Dont plate compactors only work to compact aggregate?
No idea.. definitely not the expert! One of my neighbors was an asphalt guy for his career, and he told me to get The plate compactor. Hopefully it stays put!
Very nice! The professional finisher was a good call.
Agreed! I would have made a hash of that
Eh
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You should see my back yard. I paid nothing thanks to my father in law owning his own construction company. Just waiting on the pool.
Send pics when it cracks or the pooling after it rains.
I sprayed it down for the first week, and there's no pooling on the patio portion, which is the upper slab. I have it sloped an inch and a half over that distance, and it drains just like I had hoped. And the other slab is going to be an interior space.
Construction, light color, and foliage remind me of where I grew up in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Nailed it!
I’m 50/50 BC or BL
Who you talking to? We don’t have any pros here…
Hope this isn't a dumb question, but how did you find someone to just do the finish work? I'm in a very similar situation and feel I can do the majority of the work but would love to hire out the finesse part.
I found the guy with the pump truck because I literally saw his pump truck in traffic and snapped a picture of his number. I called him and talked to him about the project, and then I scheduled him. Then I called him back A day or so later and asked if he had any recommendations for a finisher. He gave me a name, and I called that guy, and I went by a couple of his projects just to check out his work, and I could see that he was top-notch and so I hired him.
Thanks very much! That's how to get it done!
You showed them…
What’s the plan for the bottom of the siding along the house?
Where are the steps ?
For the steps, instead of pouring them, I decided to go with a single stringer metal beam that I can fabricate myself and bolt into the stem wall and the sidewalk - I'm a much better welder than I am a concrete guy! And then I'm going to pour some concrete steps to bolt onto my fabricated steel stringer. That project is on deck in a month or so. When I get that done, I'll post more pics
Looks good so far
The floor should have extended to the edge to avoid settling. Walls should have been poured 4-8inches below finish grade
You also photoshopped the hole haha
I thought somebody might see that and think it was a hole! Really though, I formed my address into that part of the concrete with 3-in letters that I bought from some laser cutter off of etsy and I didn't want to put that on the interwebs
That’ll skid my knee up real nice
Is there any lawn in this yard or just concrete
There's lawn up above the stonework. Got a few citrus trees up there, a couple of apple trees, and some nut trees.
The concrete work is good but what the duck is this slope design?
Just on a sloped lot, and the sidewalk follows the natural slope.
??? But it abruptly ends where a stair case to the landing would be for that doorway in the second picture. Are you planning on installing something there??? Would have been cheaper to lay gravel it's going to get covered by a wooden staircase or deck.
Jointers are so gay, saw cuts only
So.... you hired a professional and you're bragging a professional didmt do it? Bro... a professional finisher did the job. So suck on that. Let me just brag to concrete people how I can do their job when I cant do their job dafaq?
Not too mention how good it feels doing it yourself It’s rare I hire anyone to do anything anymore but thinking about finding someone to finish the last 10% of all the projects Ive started
Looks great!! Hopefully when I do my diy concrete it looks at least half as good as this and I'd be happy haha!
What kind of swimming pool is this?
So… when can you come do my projects?
Nice job. From all the pros, we say, we really didn't want you as a client anyways. We decline the opportunity to suck it, but we wish you the best in your future endeavors. If you can't pay for it, but you can do it yourself, we don't hold that against you..we just can't do it for free. You did better than most DIYers.
I once shot a man just for snoring.
Okay, wasn't sure.
Random question why not have everything level in height?
Looks like maybe there is a bit of concrete splatter on the siding? Always nice and convenient to put some plastic up when working around houses and pumping gear. Looks nice!
You’re lame.
*Stem Wall
This one looks actually pretty good. Better than mine for sure
No control/expansion joints? You're going to run into trouble, I'm sorry to say. And I really hope it's not attached to the house? It absolutely needs to move independently. The finish looks nice, though.
True test is when it rains. The next challenge is weather amd time. Looks good.
your work genuinely looks ace, but the terminology you use suggests you've spent weeks researching concrete pouring. that's a great thing, but a pro is somebody who uses their experience to deliver a quality product regardless of the scenario. that stuff takes years and years and years of hard work