Concrete Pad

[dj10]

I met someone that does pads, bridges, and buildings. His company is recycling chain link fences as the "wire" with great success. He seemed very knowledgeable and had great success, I found it very interesting.

Stephen

PS: on a side note... I would never attempt it!

Stephen, please tell me the guy you met is not working in Pennsylvania, or is he?

;~)

[StephenB]

No it's actually a quite large company in new hampshire. It is a company that promotes recycling and I think it's more for patio, not anything to do with road construction. I don't know anything about concrete work so I was just passing along something I found interesting Since it does involve recycling.

Stephen

[CRallo]

Is everyone ignoring Jeff's choice of words in the title?

[Lael Cleland]

Me and an STU buddy poured a 8x18 foot slab, inside some footings that we bagged,My arms still hurt, 80# bags get heavy after 70 of them.... For the slab we got a 1 yard trailer from our local U-pour concrete mom & pop store....They dump the wet mix in the trailer, take it home and dump it..... It worked, it doesn't look professional, it was A LOT OF WORK! We used 2 yards @ $125 per yard....$260 with tax, when I took the trailer back the gave ma a 6-pack of bud!!!! It might not be perfect, but my floor has character/history/and love in it!
Rebar & wire cost more than the concrete.....

[JLawton]

So what would be some alternatives?

I was also thinking putting down plastic and putting concrete patio blocks (24x24?) on top. As long as it had a slope all the water would run off. But I'm sure over time you'd get dirt, leaves, etc and end up defeating the purpose.

I'm certainly not worried about looks.

[lateapex911]

Jeff, do NOT put down plastic. You'll have an instant disaster. If using patio blocks, (or concrete or stone pavers) you'll need to put down proper base work of materials, and again, they need to be deep and you'll need to tamp them, then lay the stones. It's a bunch of work.

What about paving? I think it's under $14 a sq foot or so. 8 x 18 would be less than $2K. Or, call around and put yourself on an "overage" list. If a contractor in your area is doing a job and has too much asphalt, he needs to get rid of it, and I think the 'buy back" at the plant is expensive. So he's kinda stuck if he has a bunch. Prep your site and be ready to jump if you get the call. I had a section of my drive done that way and it cost me $500 for 9 x30, (270 sq feet). (you need to watch guys like that like hawks and be on top of what they are doing, as typically it's the end of the day, and the beer has started flowing, etc etc) You'll still need to have a decent base for it.

[preparedcivic]

The kind of hybrid surface I park my enclosed trailer on is functional, well drained and works. It was a good bit of manual labor though. I did have the disadvantage of needed to dig out about 3cy of soil to create the relatively flat spot for the trailer spot near my shed in the backyard. That was one very sore Sunday digging all that out by hand. If I ever do something like that again, "rent-a-hoe" here I come. I did the passing though on pouring concrete, but ready-mix ain't cheap, and trying to float something 12' wide with limited help was too ambititous even for me.

So what I did was a mix of stone and pavers. The subbase of the parking spot is 6" of quarry process/DGA, and from a patio/basketball hoop project going on at the same time, I used the leftover 12"x12" concrete pavers to create a pair of 2' wide "runners" for the trailer tires to sit on. Another couple pavers are placed near where the tongue jack comes down for a solid surface there. Since road base stone is ugly gray and will grow weeds better than potting soil, for surfacing I got a delivery of landscaping stone, with what I picked out a lava rock that is a dark red, tan and brown that goes well with the house and shed siding, the red patio pavers, backyard fence and landscaping. The space has about a 2.5% grade back to front. It never ever has water standing, as the landscape stone has a lot of voids and the DGA is well drained. I have this same surfacing section on the entire path I drive the trailer on to get it from the driveway to the parkign spot, and it has held up really well since I got it all finished in 2005. The trailer is going on 6 years old and the steel frame underneath looks great.

Materials all-in to do this for one spot would be under $500 delvered.

(on edit - added a picture of the finished job)