Pouring a ~900 sq ft Concrete Pad (basketball court)

[deezler]

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....

 

[EddieWalker]

Looks nice. Doing concrete in Summer is brutal work. When are you doing the other half?

 

[deezler]

Looks nice. Doing concrete in Summer is brutal work. When are you doing the other half?

Two saturdays ago! She's all done. Will keep updating

 

[EddieWalker]

The longer I'm at my place, the more I want concrete everywhere!!!!

 

[deezler]

So then it was time for the second half of the pad. When laying this half out, I realized it would be a little closer to a driveway island than I was comfortable with. When we get any deliveries, guests or even lost folks who don't stop to check in, they come down and blast around this island circle that I have near the garage. Well I didn't want delivery trucks clipping the corner of my new concrete pad every time they circled around. So the island had to get smaller and a couple trees had to come out. But since I didn't want any stumps to contend with, I felled the trees by my preferred method - excavation. Somehow the backhoe slipped right into its mounts on the tractor in record time, must have been under 15 minutes to get it mounted.

Always nice to tell the tree exactly which direction to fall using the backhoe.

Then got the leveling done on 2nd side. Again, a lot more removed fill than originally expected!

The Blue Angels stopped by town, so had to take a quick break to hit the lake and partake in the show.

Ok back to forming and rebar:

15 days after the first half pour, we are pouring side two. It was shaping up to be a hot, full-sun day. So I got a little nervous when the concrete truck ran 40 minutes late to arrive.

But we got it all laid, screeded, floated, and brushed before the sunshine was too brutal.

I let the fam carve some memories into the corner of the pad

And two days later, cut the remaining control joints.

Pretty satisfying to get this sucker laid! More finishing work and follow-up in next post.

 

[EddieWalker]

Time to get the basketball out!!!

Is a walkway next?

 

[deezler]

The longer I'm at my place, the more I want concrete everywhere!!!!

I hear you there. Concrete is aesthetically pleasing, so easy to clean, super sturdy for storage and any activities, etc. I can envision a future where I add additional outbuildings and have them all linked by concrete drives so I could shuttle stuff around with a little forklift, etc.

 

[RjCorazza]

I hear you there. Concrete is aesthetically pleasing, so easy to clean, super sturdy for storage and any activities, etc. I can envision a future where I add additional outbuildings and have them all linked by concrete drives so I could shuttle stuff around with a little forklift, etc.

Most importantly, it's "one and done!"

 

[deezler]

Most importantly, it's "one and done!"

Yeah, as long as you do it right! Having old busted up concrete can be pretty awful, and it sure isn't easy or fun to remove. So I make sure not to skip on compaction and rebar.

Plus getting a slower cure is important. We set up a wifi-enabled sprinkler controller for this second half of the pad; it watered itself every 45 minutes.

 

[workinonit]

How much is finished concrete a yard up that way?

 

[deezler]

How much is finished concrete a yard up that way?

About $155/yard for outdoor 4000psi/6-sack, plus environmental fees and tax comes to just over $170/yard in total, delivered.

Edit: no idea on "finished" concrete as done by a crew, I didn't get any quotes for this project. My rough guess was it about doubles the cost.

So am only into this concrete pad for $2300 of delivered concrete. Plus a couple of 2x4s and the rebar I already had laying around.

 

[deezler]

Next it was time for some finishing details. All of the cut control joints got vacuumed out and then we filled with foam backer rod, topped with sika-flex self-leveling concrete caulk.

The old apron in front of my garage doors really should have been removed and replaced. It's not very flat and holds some puddles in the middle, but its also super solid and has a lot of rebar in it. So I chose to keep it, and set the new slab portions a little lower to ensure good drainage. But this meant I would have to do a little grinding.

I came pretty close to buying a new 7" angle grinder, but a coworker was more than happy to just lend me his. He brought a 13-amp and a bigger 15-amp to work so I chose the smaller one and got started that evening.

Holy dust cloud. Very unfortunately, right after I took this photo, the motor speed declined noticeably and the motor started shooting sparks out of the case. UGH! This is why I don't borrow or lend tools. Co-worker was very chill about it though, figured it probably just needed some new brushes after 15 years of hard use, and promptly exchanged it for his bigger grinder the next day, haha.

Took almost an hour to get this whole lip ground down. Worth it to avoid the trip hazard.

 

[deezler]

Then the project scope started to creep a bit. Ok so the concrete was all done, but I wanted a smooth transition to compacted gravel all around it.

And we didn't want to park the trash and recycling bins on the basketball court, so I decided to carve them out a new home.

Backfilled with my sand/rock mix from excavating the pad and compacted. Probably not the best base material but I was feeling rushed to keep things moving while I still had momentum.

Got 6 yards of washed limestone from my local landscape supply. Should have got 9.

Then spread it all out. Basketball has commenced!

 

[Streetcar]

So then it was time for the second half of the pad. When laying this half out, I realized it would be a little closer to a driveway island than I was comfortable with. When we get any deliveries, guests or even lost folks who don't stop to check in, they come down and blast around this island circle that I have near the garage. Well I didn't want delivery trucks clipping the corner of my new concrete pad every time they circled around. So the island had to get smaller and a couple trees had to come out. But since I didn't want any stumps to contend with, I felled the trees by my preferred method - excavation. Somehow the backhoe slipped right into its mounts on the tractor in record time, must have been under 15 minutes to get it mounted.

Always nice to tell the tree exactly which direction to fall using the backhoe.

Then got the leveling done on 2nd side. Again, a lot more removed fill than originally expected!

The Blue Angels stopped by town, so had to take a quick break to hit the lake and partake in the show.

Ok back to forming and rebar:

15 days after the first half pour, we are pouring side two. It was shaping up to be a hot, full-sun day. So I got a little nervous when the concrete truck ran 40 minutes late to arrive.

But we got it all laid, screeded, floated, and brushed before the sunshine was too brutal.

I let the fam carve some memories into the corner of the pad

And two days later, cut the remaining control joints.

Pretty satisfying to get this sucker laid! More finishing work and follow-up in next post.

Did you tie the two slabs together

 

[deezler]

Did you tie the two slabs together

Yes, probably hard to see but i left 5 pieces of rebar sticking out of the first half around a foot long, that i tied into the rebar grid on the second half.
Hopefully that is enough to resist the two slabs from frost heaving or settling differently over time. I think with my pure sand soils underneath, pretty low concern, but it was free to tie the two slabs together so why not.

 

[Hay Dude]

Yes, probably hard to see but i left 5 pieces of rebar sticking out of the first half around a foot long, that i tied into the rebar grid on the second half.
Hopefully that is enough to resist the two slabs from frost heaving or settling differently over time. I think with my pure sand soils underneath, pretty low concern, but it was free to tie the two slabs together so why not.

Best thing you can do to prevent that is to get all the water running off the garage roof as far away from that slab as possible.
Hope all those folks were ok with you posting their faces on the world wide web.

 

[deezler]

Best thing you can do to prevent that is to get all the water running off the garage roof as far away from that slab as possible.
Hope all those folks were ok with you posting their faces on the world wide web.

Indeed. I sited this garage to essentially straddle a ridge of high ground, so the ground slopes away on each ridge side of the building. I don't have gutters on it but that hasn't really proven to be an issue.

Regarding pics that have people in them. If you or any AI tool can make a positive identification from these grainy, compressed pics with no close ups, lunch is on me. But even if you could, I don't think my best friends and family members would be horrified to be associated with helping me pour some concrete.

 

[Hay Dude]

Thats not the issue.
Would like to agree with your trust in fellow man, but
I'd be real leery of posting pictures of loved ones, especially children.
Turn on the news, lots of sickos out there.
I was a website mod 10+ years ago and we had trouble when someone posted a picture of one of their kids and they regret it. Someone stole the image of the kids face and it ended up in places they didn't want.
Good luck. I'd doubt anything would happen, but I would never take that risk.

 

[deezler]

I do appreciate the reminder to be cautious. I don't plan to post anyones faces in my threads going forward. But nearly every person I know is voluntarily putting their own families close ups all over instagram and facebook every day (my wife and I do not engage). Online privacy is kind of a lost cause, sadly.

 

[deezler]

Anyway back to more pleasant matters, haha.

After excavating this area down to level for my concrete pad, I had way more removed spoils than originally expected. What would you swag this pile at, 7 or 8 yards maybe?

I didn't really have an easy answer of what to do with it. This removed material has too many rocks (lot of crushed concrete from my original driveway construction) to be used as nice dirt anywhere in the yard or forest. But it simultaneously has way too much sand/dirt to be used anywhere that I need sturdy rock/gravel without it being muddy or squishy.

Well it was the perfect excuse to try a project I've long dreamt about - building a soil screener!

I had most of the materials on hand, only bought two new 8' 4x4s. Swiped the wire mesh tailgate from my dad's old landscape trailer that is rarely used, and whipped this thing together in a couple hours.

In order to move it around using my tractor bucket, had to add a little more wood to hold the trailer gate down.

It works! Took a little practice to get the right methodology going. Unfortunately its at least 70-80% sand/dirt, not as many rocks as I hoped.

It pretty much only works with dry soil, dumped from maximum loader height. Anything more gentle, or wet soil, and it clumps up right away on the screen. Even with dry material, I do have to manually scrape it off every 4 or 5 loader trips. I can bang around on it with the loader bucket to buy some time, but I don't want to smash this thing apart right away.

Got two thirds of my pile taken care of last night. You can see the re-collected stones to the right of the original pile. Not perfect, but much more useable. Perhaps more importantly, the clean sand that comes out the bottom of the screen can be taken away and mixed into my general dirt piles for various uses.

Rainy day today so wont finish until the pile dries out again.