New space from stimulus money.

[Frulk]

I love these from the ground up reloading shop builds and will follow this one as well.

WK...I just finished putting up a fence and part of that process was pouring a concrete mow strip underneath it. I’m a Roy D. Mercer kinda big boy and I’m here to tell you that there’s a huge difference between hoisting 80 pound bags all day vs 50 pounders. That’s why you never see 50 pound bags on sale. I went with the on sale 80 pounders and second guessed that decision at the end of the first day after several hours of hoisting them into the mixer at shoulder height.

Again... post plenty of pics.

 

[WestKentucky]

I’m still gathering stuff. Was planning to do dirtwork this week but work got in the way. Then it rained yesterday. I am hoping to get concrete done next weekend but it’s not looking realistic at this point.

Still at step 1. Trenching for electrical, leveling the spot, and using removed dirt to make a berm to push water away from the foundation.

 

[tallpaul]

It’s going to be a 2 month project give or take. I essentially am limited to only working on it on saturdays, although the time critical bits I may do some evening work to get prepped so that saturdays go as seamlessly as possible. I’m not looking forward to the slab. Cant get a truck or a Georgia buggy to it without lighting off a rocket fueled by hundred dollar bills. It’s purely a proposition of dragging bags. My first purchase was a small concrete mixer and my next purchase is a baby trailer to go behind the mower. It’s going to take 8000 pounds of mix and I can get close to unload, but it’s still a 100 ft haul from unload to pour site so I figure 5 bags at a time in a trailer is easier than 100 rounds with 80 pound bags on foot. The lumber and sheet metal I think I can ease down the hill with the expedition, but I don’t trust the expedition with even 4000 pounds to hold the hillside. My neighbor has a baby John Deere 4x4 tractor so I may try to borrow it just to put the trailer where I want it with lumber.

100 80 pound bags hand tossed to the mixer and leveled will be a hard day. The internet reviews say it’s a 3 minute per mix minimum and assuming I rotate and dump very efficiently then it’s a 1 minute downtime between bags. 400 minutes of very hard labor. I haven’t worked that hard in years. It will do me good if it doesn’t kill me.

I would price redimix delivered to your sight and maybe renting a concrete buggy... heck at that much I would price having it poured....many cement guys do lil side jobs reasonable

 

[Blackrock]

My neighbor wanted to build a 10x12 shed for storage and by the time he figured out the concrete price and a 30 mile delivery fee he decided to go with a wooden floor. He just used pressure treated 2x6's and 5/8 OSB. It might be good enough for here in Arizona.
I do have a 10x12 shed I built over 30 years ago out of full dimension sawmill lumber that I am thinking of overhauling for my gun shack. It has a concrete slab I poured using sand from a sandwash.

 

[WestKentucky]

I would price redimix delivered to your sight and maybe renting a concrete buggy... heck at that much I would price having it poured....many cement guys do lil side jobs reasonable

I have. $1500 for a $500 job. Not happening.

 

[Highland Lofts]

With the corperate greed going on at the present time everything is way over priced right now.

 

[Dudedog]

I bought a tiny concrete mixer and it is assembled.

=Large wet tumbler

 

[BCR#1]

Can small batches be mixed,poured and spread before prior batches already poured set up?

Bill

 

[Highland Lofts]

Can small batches be mixed,poured and spread before prior batches already poured set up?

Bill

Doing small seperate little batches of concrete at different times doesn't work. They will not bind together.
Concrete needs to be one continueous pour.

 

[BreechFace]

Given the location and logistics, I would pour sonotubes (pier and beam) and build it off the ground rather than hassle with all that concrete.

Prep the ground with plastic and thin layer of gravel underneath. Handdig the piers with a post hole shovel (what I would do, because I'm frugal), or rent an handheld auger for the day and then a wheelbarrow and a masonry hoe to mix the concrete (wouldn't need cement mixer) needed for the piers.

 

[WestKentucky]

Can small batches be mixed,poured and spread before prior batches already poured set up?

Bill

It’s not a question of time, but a question of energy. I expect to run out of steam before the mixer does, and I will likely have to do it in 2 pours. That’s fine though, it’s not a whole lot removed from an expansion joint cut into a single pour if it’s done right. The trick there being that when I cut off my first pour session that I leave the top edge nice and square but below that rough as a cob so that the next round of concrete will get a good bind to the original run. I have some teenagers that need a little spending money that I may have come over for a while the day I do concrete, that way nobody does all of it themselves and nobody gets totally spent.

 

[Dudedog]

@WestKentucky
Looking forward to a report on how you new wet tumbler (cement mixer)works