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Spouse & I, with a buddy, did this (a lot of years ago...it would kill me now).
We bought a cement mixer at Home Depot, & did it with framed-off sections...buying the cement as we needed & hauling it in the back of a 1980's Toyota truck. It took the better part of the summer & fall, on weekends...this was in SoCal, so no weather issues.
We lived in the house for 21 years & our job still looked good.
Hand mixing over 10 CY's of concrete? That's a six man job.
You can't wait around for a week or whatever amount you feel like if you have a concrete truck sitting there. Two people can do a job like this in a week or better....I speak from a lot of experience, I've put in a lot of concrete by hand using a mixer. Here is similar sized job my Father and I did, each block is 6'*6' and there is like 10 of them altogether. Prep work aside it took about 3 or 4 hours per block and we'd quit for the day, 15 minutes a few hours later to finish it. I did most of the grunt work and the only time I really needed him there was for the screed.
One of the reasons for quitting after one block was we'd let the block set up for two days, then you could work on it... I notched out 2*4 with 3/4 notch for the screed and had a 3/4 piece of plywood on the new block.
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Plus the finishers which will matter even more on a pool deck & walkway job.
That's the easy part, after you pour the block go around the edges with pointed trowel between the concrete and the form to make sure there isn't going to be any stones in your way when you go to edge it. Once it sets up a little you need a magnesium trowel to smooth it out nice. From there I like to use a damp sponge and gently dab it, you need to clean the sponge a lot. This raises small dimples. Then you edge it.
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Then there's the form carpentry & layout skills needed.
You are doing sidewalks, it's a box.... If you are doing curves or more complex shapes it can get a bit more difficult.
Last edited by thecoalman; 05-24-2017 at 08:53 AM..
But even there the risk is too great for a screw-up and THAT is why you hire a pro.
It's not rocket science but it is a lot of work. There is two big mistakes someone unfamiliar with this is going to make.
1.They are going to mix the concrete too wet or too dry. If it's too wet it won't be as strong as it should be and you may have difficulties with the finish. Less water is always better but if it's too dry it will very difficult to work with. When you dump it in and you can't get it to float easily add some more water next time. It's not hard to over water when mixing so carefully add water a little at a time and make sure you mix it for a few minutes. If there is too much water in it throw a few shovels of Portland into it. It should be the consistency of a very thick stew.
2.They are not going to spend enough time floating it. You need to get the gravel down, the air out and the cement on top. On the flip side you don't want to overwork it either.
If anyone is going to do this as long as you have average intelligence you can do it, I'd strongly urge you to spend some time on Youtube especially videos on floating.
And this is exactly why I say the OP has a high probablity of a terrible job...
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Originally Posted by thecoalman
It's not rocket science but it is a lot of work. There is two big mistakes someone unfamiliar with this is going to make.
1.They are going to mix the concrete too wet or too dry. If it's too wet it won't be as strong as it should be and you may have difficulties with the finish. Less water is always better but if it's too dry it will very difficult to work with. When you dump it in and you can't get it to float easily add some more water next time. It's not hard to over water when mixing so carefully add water a little at a time and make sure you mix it for a few minutes. If there is too much water in it throw a few shovels of Portland into it. It should be the consistency of a very thick stew.
2.They are not going to spend enough time floating it. You need to get the gravel down, the air out and the cement on top. On the flip side you don't want to overwork it either.
If anyone is going to do this as long as you have average intelligence you can do it, I'd strongly urge you to spend some time on Youtube especially videos on floating.
While I agree that this is not "brain surgery" I would say it is AT LEAST as hard as making a decent pie crust! Just like when you are baking things like the AMOUNT OF MOISTURE in the air affect the final product. A skilled pie maker might have learned how to compensate and if they are unskilled the end result is still pretty tasty. OTOH having PROFESSIONALS handle the concrete ensure that they deliver a mix that has the RATED strength, if DIYer screws up there is going be one "block" of the pour that crumbles for every block that is well cured. Nobody is going to "eat" several tons of concrete. Factor is this is a guy in 60s who assumed the key is getting a concrete mixer from (well know junky dealer in low priced tools...) Harbor Freight and the potential for ending with "pie on your face" is simply too much risk!
We mixed our own concrete a week ago for the base for our grill. Was only a small space, about 60cm by 50cm, and that alone took hours to mix (in the pit using some kind of electric mixing tool while I slowly added the water) and then despite my best efforts I couldn't get it properly smooth (then thought what the hell and wrote our names in it ). I would not try and do a large area without a team of strong young wo/men who know what they are doing.
Section at a time perhaps.
Like mentioned earlier, trucks can be equipped with pumps and pump it out.
I helped friend one weekend do a small section,maybe half of what your doing. Local companies didn't have a pumper (I doubt he checked)
so we(4 guys) wheel barrowed it to his backyard. Luckily we are young(ish) and in decent shape. But still more tiring than hitting the weights for hours.
Using QK,you would have to have it delivered and dropped via forklift.
In short,hire someone to at least pour it. Bring the family over to help smooth it out and what not.
While I agree that this is not "brain surgery" I would say it is AT LEAST as hard as making a decent pie crust!
The secret to a flaky pie crust is to not mess with the dough too much.... really, I cook too. If you want more tips on the science of cooking Alton Brown's has an old series called Good Eats where he'll dedicate an entire show to one thing, like pie crusts.
One of the big things that separates the homeowner from the Pro is knowledge and one of the wonderful things about the internet is that knowledge is at your fingertips. Experience is hard to replace but you do have the advantage of time.
Of course knowing when you are in over your head is important too. There was mason out our house that put in the foundation for the garage above, I picked up a huge amount of knowledge watching him but I already had the basics. Might take me 3 times as long as him but I'm pretty confident I could put a foundation in.... not going to happen though. Small wall perhaps if I ever need to do it. Best thing I picked up from him was he had cut the bottoms off small plastic soda bottles and put holes in them, he used them like giant salt shaker to sprinkle dry mortar on the mortar mixture if it was little wet. It's actually pretty amazing watching someone with skill like that, the efficiency is amazing.
Last edited by thecoalman; 05-24-2017 at 03:56 PM..
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And this is exactly why I say the OP has a high probablity of a terrible job...
). I would not try and do a large area without a team of strong young wo/men who know what they are doing.
