To bring back a 5 year old thread..I recently poured about a yard of concrete. Sprinkled might be a better word, since my concrete mixer broke right as I started the job,
and doing it wheelbarrow at a time not appealing. So what I did was a) wet up the dirt good. b) pour/spinkle/spread out the dry concrete in the form, sprinkled water on it until all wet. Repeat again. One thing this does is keep the rebar/mesh from just pushing to the bottom which happens when you dump a big load in. Since I had no real support for the mesh, the concrete goes under it and lifts it. Once I got 3/4 of it filled this way, the mesh is then sitting on top of the concrete. Now I mixed the rest in the wheelbarrow and poured it on top, and fininshed it as usual. Came out great. This was a **** of lot faster than mixing it all in a mixer even, let alone a wheelbarrow.
I am thinking of doing this on a bigger scale for my barn floor, so went searching if others did it. Of course most say 'no way, won't work', but then other examples are given showing it works. HA. And it worked for me. And btw, at 1 yard size, homedepot discounts a pallet so it is say $120/yard. The onsite-mix people wanted $200 for a yard. The uhaul-it-mixed guys wanted $160, and you need 3/4 ton truck I don't have.
I usually make my own with cement/sand/gravel, but not at just 1 yard. If you make your own you have to mix it anyway, so this approach only works with premixed bags,
but at 5 yards the cost figures don't change too much. And let me also add I work alone, no way I can deal with 5 yards dumped at once, and the onsite guys start charging big money after 20 minutes of being there.
