Anyone here in the concrete biz?

[I_FLY_LOW]

I'm tired of tromping around in the mud around my place, going from the house to my vehicles.
I need a 35' x 35' x 4" pad poured.
Can I get some estimates from you folks that are in this line of work?
I'm in the Gonzales area.

Also, if possible, I'm looking to trade a 2002 Suzuki DL1000, for the concrete pad.

 

[CrkdLtr]

I'm tired of tromping around in the mud around my place, going from the house to my vehicles.
I need a 35' x 35' x 4" pad poured.
Can I get some estimates from you folks that are in this line of work?
I'm in the Gonzales area.

Also, if possible, I'm looking to trade a 2002 Suzuki DL1000, for the concrete pad.

If my EBR math is right, that's going to be a little over 15 cubic yards of cement.

 

[Bookum]

You will need around 19 yards of concrete (that's with footings) at 95 dollars a yard. Most contractors will frame for $2.00 a square foot and finish for $1.00 a square foot. Plus wire mash. Looking around 4500 to 5 grand.

 

[I_FLY_LOW]

I shouldn't need footings. I may at a later date put up a light weight aluminum cover over the parking area, but for the time being, nothing structural will be built on it.
It'll be just a pad, large enough to easily accomodate 3 vehicles wide, with plenty of room to spare.

 

[mcinfantry]

I'm tired of tromping around in the mud around my place, going from the house to my vehicles.
I need a 35' x 35' x 4" pad poured.
Can I get some estimates from you folks that are in this line of work?
I'm in the Gonzales area.

Also, if possible, I'm looking to trade a 2002 Suzuki DL1000, for the concrete pad.

You will need around 19 yards of concrete (that's with footings) at 95 dollars a yard. Most contractors will frame for $2.00 a square foot and finish for $1.00 a square foot. Plus wire mash. Looking around 4500 to 5 grand.

I shouldn't need footings. I may at a later date put up a light weight aluminum cover over the parking area, but for the time being, nothing structural will be built on it.
It'll be just a pad, large enough to easily accomodate 3 vehicles wide, with plenty of room to spare.

thats a large pad and w/o footings i wouldnt want to drive on it a lot.

 

[I_FLY_LOW]

In my mind, footings are the deeper poured areas around the peremiter of the slab, am I right?
If I park in the middle, what do footings do for the rest of the slab?
BTW, I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, just trying to understand thier purpose on a flat slab.
Are they poured generally in double wide driveways?
I've seen several wide driveways, and parking areas poured around me lately, and have never seen anything but forms, and flattened down areas, with mesh or rebar layed, before the pour. No noticeably deeper areas dug for footings.

 

[Leonidas]

Will you be driving over the edge to get to the parking area, or are you going to teleport the vehicles?




At least, reinforce the corners and the edge you will be crossing. I've seen too many drives with cracked off corners.

 

[Paintball]

Will you be driving over the edge to get to the parking area, or are you going to teleport the vehicles?

Spend the extra change for the footings every slab in Louisiana needs footings. They will help keep the slab from cracking up. Use reinforcement wire too fiber mesh is not a good substitute and lay some re-bar in the footings.

With that size of a slab build so if you wanted to make a shop later you could. Also look at putting a drain in the center (cheap to add). Wish I had done that with my 30'x40' shop. Would have made cleaning so much easier.

 

[I_FLY_LOW]

Will you be driving over the edge to get to the parking area, or are you going to teleport the vehicles?




At least, reinforce the corners and the edge you will be crossing. I've seen too many drives with cracked off corners.

Spend the extra change for the footings every slab in Louisiana needs footings. They will help keep the slab from cracking up. Use reinforcement wire too fiber mesh is not a good substitute and lay some re-bar in the footings.

With that size of a slab build so if you wanted to make a shop later you could. Also look at putting a drain in the center (cheap to add). Wish I had done that with my 30'x40' shop. Would have made cleaning so much easier.

Points taken, that's why I asked.
Thanks.

 

[Paintball]

Points taken, that's why I asked.
Thanks.

Also, If you ever decided to sell. The fact that the slab is made ready to build on would be a plus to most men.

Best of luck with the pour/slab.

Oh, make sure the concrete trucks are close before letting the first one pour. You could end up with what is called a cold joint in your slab (two pours that don't join/mix together).

 

[I_FLY_LOW]

School me on expansion joints.
How many, how deep?
Do they break up a slab into individual sections, or are they just cuts to a certain depth in the slab?

 

[flamatrix99]

I need two flower beds filled in.

 

[Paintball]

I have seen hardly any shops and buildings around here with cuts in their floor. The concrete guys here tell me that if the floor is constructed properly (using rebar, mesh only is just asking for cracks, proper gravel and compactment) then you should not have to worry about cracks. Have your finisher round off the edges and slope the front where the vehicles enter and exit. Use 6 mil plastic sheeting under the slab to help keep it from sweating and tell finisher you want a brushed finish so it's not slick.

 

[Ske1etor]

You want a slab with a thickened edge, not a footing. A footing is poured separately, thickened edge is poured when the slab is poured.

As far as joints, you can do a tooled joint if it eases your mind (basically, a small line carved into the green concrete) to promote cracking at that location instead of randomly.

 

[Leonidas]

You want a slab with a thickened edge, not a footing. A footing is poured separately, thickened edge is poured when the slab is poured.

I'm no expert, but that sounds much more righter. Thanks for teaching me something that common sense should have.

 

[Ske1etor]

I'm no expert, but that sounds much more righter. Thanks for teaching me something that common sense should have.

I'm no expert either but I know a thing or two from my years of being a bridge and highway construction inspector. Basically, the thickened edge (footing will do the same thing, but cost more as having two pours) simply keeps the subgrade material from hydraulically pumping from underneath the concrete.

 

[I_FLY_LOW]

You want a slab with a thickened edge, not a footing. A footing is poured separately, thickened edge is poured when the slab is poured.

As far as joints, you can do a tooled joint if it eases your mind (basically, a small line carved into the green concrete) to promote cracking at that location instead of randomly.

I'm no expert, but that sounds much more righter. Thanks for teaching me something that common sense should have.

I'm no expert either, that's why I'm asking, so it makes sense in my mind, as to what's needed.
Thank you all for all of your input, so far.

The location of this slab, will probably never be used to be built upon.
The house is pier and beam, to the left of the slab, as viewed from the road, and there is a barn built adjacent to the rear edge of where the slab will be.
I use this area as one way of an ingress or egress to the back yard.
Eventually I will extend this pad to go around to the back side of the barn, but not right now.
I can go around to the other side of the yard, as an alternative way back there.
My point being, for now, I'm not going to erect something on the slab, to hinder my access, back there.

 

[Dgraham225]

I've been in the business for quite some time, there have been some good suggestions here.

15-20 yards is a pretty fair estimate depending on grade and compaction. Please remember concrete is VERY heavy at 140-150lbs/cu.ft. So it can and will sink an additional inch or more without good compaction.

Footings are never a bad thing, here in Louisiana we don't generally have the need to pour them separately as we don't face the freeze/thaw cycles like up north. A monolithically poured slab is much more common and less hassle. Do you NEED footings? Naa not unless there's a need for load bearing capacity for building a structure like a shop, etc.. I've seen many shop floors poured a straight 4" with as little as thickened edges.

Plastic and wire mesh would be the basic requirements in my opinion, should be plenty for your intended purpose. As stated previously, fiber mesh in the concrete does very little for strength but works great for tensile strength to help fight off shrinkage cracking.

And now to expansion joints.. That's preference as well on a slab that size. If you don't mind the possibility of a few surface cracks here and there, you could skip the joints.. They wouldn't be a detriment to the integrity of the slab, mostly appearance. Concrete cracks, simple as that. There are methods to minimize cracking but stopping it entirely is not an easy task. Placing the concrete at a decent slump (3-5") helps keep the water/cement ratio low. Proper curing is also very important, something not very common here since we have the blessing of high humidity. But still very important. Microfiber in the concrete is an effective solution as well. Personally I'd prefer control joints such as metal keyway commonly used here, or even tooled or sawed joints work just as well. It's generally suggested that control joints be placed every 10' but up to 15' is acceptable IMO..

 

[Paintball]

You want a slab with a thickened edge, not a footing. A footing is poured separately, thickened edge is poured when the slab is poured. As far as joints, you can do a tooled joint if it eases your mind (basically, a small line carved into the green concrete) to promote cracking at that location instead of randomly.

Well then my shop has a very thick edge...

 

[I_FLY_LOW]

I've been in the business for quite some time, there have been some good suggestions here.

15-20 yards is a pretty fair estimate depending on grade and compaction. Please remember concrete is VERY heavy at 140-150lbs/cu.ft. So it can and will sink an additional inch or more without good compaction.

Footings are never a bad thing, here in Louisiana we don't generally have the need to pour them separately as we don't face the freeze/thaw cycles like up north. A monolithically poured slab is much more common and less hassle. Do you NEED footings? Naa not unless there's a need for load bearing capacity for building a structure like a shop, etc.. I've seen many shop floors poured a straight 4" with as little as thickened edges.

Plastic and wire mesh would be the basic requirements in my opinion, should be plenty for your intended purpose. As stated previously, fiber mesh in the concrete does very little for strength but works great for tensile strength to help fight off shrinkage cracking.

And now to expansion joints.. That's preference as well on a slab that size. If you don't mind the possibility of a few surface cracks here and there, you could skip the joints.. They wouldn't be a detriment to the integrity of the slab, mostly appearance. Concrete cracks, simple as that. There are methods to minimize cracking but stopping it entirely is not an easy task. Placing the concrete at a decent slump (3-5") helps keep the water/cement ratio low. Proper curing is also very important, something not very common here since we have the blessing of high humidity. But still very important. Microfiber in the concrete is an effective solution as well. Personally I'd prefer control joints such as metal keyway commonly used here, or even tooled or sawed joints work just as well. It's generally suggested that control joints be placed every 10' but up to 15' is acceptable IMO..

This is exactly what I was looking for.
Now, how many of you want to do this, and how much will it cost me?