deezler
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2012
- Messages
- 3,669
- Location
- Southeast MI
- Tractor
- Cub Cadet 7305, Kioti CK3510seh TLB
Well I figure I took enough pictures along the way that I might as well share this project I am just finishing up. Feel free to correct my techniques and methods however you want, keeping in mind that it's too late now, I think I did a fine job (first time doing flatwork!), and it's done now anyway. 
Background: I had my 30x36' pole barn garage put up back in 2017. Back then materials were crazy affordable, didn't know how awesome I had it. Should have gone bigger on everything and pushed my credit to the absolute limit, but funds felt tight.
Inside the garage, I poured a 24" deep ratwall around the perimeter myself, did all the slab prep (level, compact, floor drain, 2" insulation, vapor barier, rebar, pex tubing for future radiant heating) and then was able to get the full 1,080 ft poured by a crew at ~5" thickness for just $3,500! What a bargain.
Shortly afterwards, I poured by own concrete sidewalk connecting the garage to my house, and a 42" wide apron out in front of the garage roll-up doors to avoid a harsh transition from gravel to the building interior slab. Concrete was just above $100/yard back then.
We always knew we would want a proper, large concrete pad out front of the garage as well. In the meantime it was good sandy soil that compacted well and drained quickly, though I did have to add gravel every now and then to avoid it being too muddy in the fall and spring freeze/thaw cycles. Other projects around the property consumed my brainpower and free time, and we got used to just living with a dirt basketball court. But then my son started playing on a team in competitive league play, and we knew it was time to get a proper half-court in place. So without overthinking anything, we dove right into it.
First step was leveling the area with my tractor, ended up removing a lot more material than expected to get things level. Used simple 2x4s for forms, right on grade. My trusty old plate compactor is occasionally my favorite machine, to be honest.
I knew I would do this pour in two pieces, to keep things manageable and keep half of the garage accessible as much as possible.
Thankfully I had a good stash of 20', 1/2" rebar sticks on hand still. I recently inherited a nice abrasive chop-saw from work, surplus that no one else wanted. Muuuuch better than using a hand-held angle grinder, I tell you what. I put my son and his neighbor buddy to work laying it out and tying all the intersections.
Tried a new concrete company in my area this time and was quite pleased with the service, quick availability and pricing. The drive let my daughter sounds the horn before we started pouring (scared the crap out of us all, way too loud haha)
Didn't get any pics of the screeding process but it was pretty rough going. We used a 20' 2x4 across an 18' pad; had to make a few passes. But thankfully the bullfloat did it's job nicely afterwards. My brother-in-law was kind enough to come put in some muscle with me, here he is applying the broom finish after floating.
My daughter enjoyed being in charge of keeping the pad wet for a few days until I could get the control joints cut.
Then I looked into concrete saw rentals (no way I was going to make 5 passes with a circular saw again, that SUCKS) and realized I might was well just buy my own saw to keep and have around for future work.
This Vevor machine works really well, it eagerly wants to rip itself ahead and down into the concrete. But it does tend to make your extension cords HOT and blow 20A breakers after every few minutes of cutting. Have to take some cool-down breaks and switch cords/outlets periodically.
With that, the first half of the pad is done. I wanted to take a break from doing this kind of work on hot summer days, but I knew I couldn't afford to lose momentum. Second half coming next....
Background: I had my 30x36' pole barn garage put up back in 2017. Back then materials were crazy affordable, didn't know how awesome I had it. Should have gone bigger on everything and pushed my credit to the absolute limit, but funds felt tight.
Inside the garage, I poured a 24" deep ratwall around the perimeter myself, did all the slab prep (level, compact, floor drain, 2" insulation, vapor barier, rebar, pex tubing for future radiant heating) and then was able to get the full 1,080 ft poured by a crew at ~5" thickness for just $3,500! What a bargain.
Shortly afterwards, I poured by own concrete sidewalk connecting the garage to my house, and a 42" wide apron out in front of the garage roll-up doors to avoid a harsh transition from gravel to the building interior slab. Concrete was just above $100/yard back then.
We always knew we would want a proper, large concrete pad out front of the garage as well. In the meantime it was good sandy soil that compacted well and drained quickly, though I did have to add gravel every now and then to avoid it being too muddy in the fall and spring freeze/thaw cycles. Other projects around the property consumed my brainpower and free time, and we got used to just living with a dirt basketball court. But then my son started playing on a team in competitive league play, and we knew it was time to get a proper half-court in place. So without overthinking anything, we dove right into it.
First step was leveling the area with my tractor, ended up removing a lot more material than expected to get things level. Used simple 2x4s for forms, right on grade. My trusty old plate compactor is occasionally my favorite machine, to be honest.
I knew I would do this pour in two pieces, to keep things manageable and keep half of the garage accessible as much as possible.
Thankfully I had a good stash of 20', 1/2" rebar sticks on hand still. I recently inherited a nice abrasive chop-saw from work, surplus that no one else wanted. Muuuuch better than using a hand-held angle grinder, I tell you what. I put my son and his neighbor buddy to work laying it out and tying all the intersections.
Tried a new concrete company in my area this time and was quite pleased with the service, quick availability and pricing. The drive let my daughter sounds the horn before we started pouring (scared the crap out of us all, way too loud haha)
Didn't get any pics of the screeding process but it was pretty rough going. We used a 20' 2x4 across an 18' pad; had to make a few passes. But thankfully the bullfloat did it's job nicely afterwards. My brother-in-law was kind enough to come put in some muscle with me, here he is applying the broom finish after floating.
My daughter enjoyed being in charge of keeping the pad wet for a few days until I could get the control joints cut.
Then I looked into concrete saw rentals (no way I was going to make 5 passes with a circular saw again, that SUCKS) and realized I might was well just buy my own saw to keep and have around for future work.
This Vevor machine works really well, it eagerly wants to rip itself ahead and down into the concrete. But it does tend to make your extension cords HOT and blow 20A breakers after every few minutes of cutting. Have to take some cool-down breaks and switch cords/outlets periodically.
With that, the first half of the pad is done. I wanted to take a break from doing this kind of work on hot summer days, but I knew I couldn't afford to lose momentum. Second half coming next....
