OT- Concrete work DIY Project Questions

[Steve Helmick]

1) What do you put on the wooden forms to keep the concrete from sticking too much? I've been told diesel/furnace oil, thinned molassas, thinned maple syrup. I'd rather use a cheap recycled motor oil than have to buy kerosene, and don't want to attract ants (or aunts).

2) My project is only 4' x 8'. I don't want to rent a power tamping machine. What else can I do, preferably rent? I have size 12-13 feets (sic).

3) How can I get my son to tote the 25+  60 lb bags of concrete mix, so I don't have to? I already got 11 each x 60 lb bags of gravel. It sucked! I'm too old for that chit...  Steve

 

[Howard Rush]

When you get some practice, come down and put in a center circle at Stonehedge.

[Jim Mynes]

I bought a manual dirt packing device.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-10-in-x-10-in-Tampers/1000377405
Basically a square steel plate with a pipe handle. Lift and pound, lift and pound... eventually your arms will fall of, that’s when you know the job is finished.
Give the kid a choice. You can either carry the concrete first, or do the tamping first.

[David Hoover]

Use thinned maple syrup as form release?!!!  That's sacrilege!!!!

[Dan McEntee]

   If you are using a simple 2 by 4 wood frame, don't worry too much about coating the forms. As the crete cures and gets to the point of being ready for edging and broom finishing, (if you are going to do that) just walk around the forms and tap on them with a hammer before edging them, or even after for that matter. This will set the still pliable mixture in just a hair, and when you pop the forms loose, they should just pop off. A heavy putty knife or a thin wrecking bar will help with stubborn pieces. Just make sure you do edge it and wait until the concrete is fully cured.
   Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee

[bob whitney]

oil or diesel fuel will work fine. they make a hand held tamper if u can talk your son into doing it

[Steve Helmick]

Hokay…..I've decided to use up some old spray cans of WD-40 on the 2x6 forms, to keep the concrete from sticking too firmly. The forms are 2x6 to keep the gravel substrate contained, because the "dirt" is currently "dust" during the dry season. Yes, I wetted it down pretty well, but that'll only last for a few hours in this horrible 80F deg. heat. 

Had already been told to do the old hammertime on the forms, but to make the edges neater and less gravel showing.

I'll get a Manuel (sic) compactor, even if I have to operate it myself. I could do that. I don't wish to lift/tote 1,500 lbs of concrete sacks, even at 60 lbs per. My spine is junk in multiple places, as are my opposable thumbs.

The maple syrup the neighbor used, I'm pretty sure, was from Costco, hence cheap and almost certainly totally synthetic. Did you know that artificial vanilla extract is or was made near the Boeing plant on E. Marginal Way, circa 1981? Made from cedar bark, or so I was told. On a calm summer evening, you could smell it as you left Boeing Plant 2. Nowadays, it's probably made in China from some sort of excrement, and only a wee tiny bit of artificial Maple sap would be used to boost the legality of the labelling and "truth" in advertising.


Thank y'all for the answers.  Steve

[Mike Haverly]

What Dan said.  I've done quite a few home made driveways and sidewalks.  Never even worried about it sticking to the 2 X 4's.

[Gerald Arana]

Hokay…..I've decided to use up some old spray cans of WD-40 on the 2x6 forms, to keep the concrete from sticking too firmly. The forms are 2x6 to keep the gravel substrate contained, because the "dirt" is currently "dust" during the dry season. Yes, I wetted it down pretty well, but that'll only last for a few hours in this horrible 80F deg. heat. 

Had already been told to do the old hammertime on the forms, but to make the edges neater and less gravel showing.

I'll get a Manuel (sic) compactor, even if I have to operate it myself. I could do that. I don't wish to lift/tote 1,500 lbs of concrete sacks, even at 60 lbs per. My spine is junk in multiple places, as are my opposable thumbs.

The maple syrup the neighbor used, I'm pretty sure, was from Costco, hence cheap and almost certainly totally synthetic. Did you know that artificial vanilla extract is or was made near the Boeing plant on E. Marginal Way, circa 1981? Made from cedar bark, or so I was told. On a calm summer evening, you could smell it as you left Boeing Plant 2. Nowadays, it's probably made in China from some sort of excrement, and only a wee tiny bit of artificial Maple sap would be used to boost the legality of the labelling and "truth" in advertising.


Thank y'all for the answers.  Steve

Steve,
You ever hear of a wheel barrow? Makes toting bags of cement way easier..............

Jerry

[Howard Rush]

You ever hear off a wheel barrow?

I puzzled over this.  Did he what off a wheel barrow?  Then I saw that it was just a stuck f key.

[Ken Culbertson]

but that'll only last for a few hours in this horrible 80F deg. heat. 

Why not wait till summer when it is not so cool?

Ken

[Steve Helmick]

Why not wait till summer when it is not so cool?

Ken

For the honest truth, it's actually supposed to hit 92F. today, and that's on the downward slide towards civilized. I'm not going to do the concrete mixing until it cools off, probably September, but before the monsoon season starts.

The question I fforgot (double ff's for Howard and Gerald), is what do you do to slow down the setting of the concrete? I know about ice, but don't know if it needs to be crushed or iff cubes are ok. I read something about "the mix" on a ffishing fforum, but I don't know what that reffers to. Less lime or something? Is there an additive that results in a slower set?

I'm not all that concerned with the concrete sticking to the forms, but I'll be sawing them up at some point, to put them in either the emergency firewood stash or in the yard waste recycling bin. Less concrete presidue (sic) will be easier on the saw blade. The next DIY project is a shed, but I'm not going to make a slab foundation for that...pier blocks and PT lumber. This will NOT be a "tiny home" for an "urban sportsman" to occupy. 

In one of my first posts on this topic, I believe I mentioned using the wheelbarrow to transport sacks (60 lbs each) around the house and up the ramp to the upper backyard. Started with 3 bags and couldn't get them up the ramp, so backed 'er down to two bags at a time. A couple of times in the distant past, I have been a wheelbarrow driver for a friend, transporting wet concrete from the concrete truck to the back corner of his yard, pouring the foundation for his new garage, IIRC. It sucked!!! I can't recall why we couldn't back the truck in there. Probably one of those deals where the mind blocks out bad memories, like near-fatal accidents, shark attacks, etc.    Steve 

[Steve Helmick]

When you get some practice, come down and put in a center circle at Stonehedge.

What size pilot's circle do you wish ffor, Sir Howard of Stonehedge? I would suggest a pre-ffabricated disc, but the only ones I've seen were exposed aggregate, which has some drawbacks. Probably not big enough, anyway....4' diameter? A brushed surfface gives better traction and is less homey to our NW curse, moss and mildew. I power-washed my walks, driveway and patio this Spring. Took days...and no fun at all. Cursed the exposed aggregate the whole time!  Steve 

[Fredvon4]

Maybe I am just lucky...During the 24 years we have had this Micro Ranch, wife and I have formed and poured a LOT of concrete
The bigger 14' x 25' projects had local contractor help but a lot was self done.  Sidewalk out 125+ foot to hobby shop/sheds, Various pads 3'X 4' for cast iron Texas benches under trees

I do not ever remember using any release agent on the wood forms....pour, initial (screet) level, let sit, trowel or float wet level, let sit, when fairly firm roll the edge and bang exposed form with hammer......next day lift form off...never had one stick or be troublesome

[john e. holliday]

When my son pour the slab for his hot tub behind his house I helped with putting the base gravel down.  He had a cement truck that makes cement on site come to the house.   He rented a powered bucket cart to transport the cement from the truck to where we needed it poured.  Then he only paid for what cement we used.  No empty bags or sore backs.

myself when I poured the slab for a small storage shed years ago, 8 X 10.  I used the ready mix cement that is put into a trailer that pulled with my pick up and drove into the back yard to dump where I needed it.   Took two trips as they didn't want to over load the pulling/stopping of my pick up.   Did not use gravel base but did use rebar in the pouring.   Then a couple of years later I added 4 foot to the front of the storage slab.   Never put any thing on the wood forms for any of this and the 2 by wood came off clean.

[Fredvon4]

When first here There was already a HAM antenna 40 foot up

The Radios and Frequencies I wanted to use needed a 60 foot Rohn tower that I bought to put in a better location for grounding and radials

Base needed to (based on my soil) a 4 foot deep by 3 foot square with a re bar cage around the perimiter full depth

Wife and I dug the hole over two months....limestone and coliche rock
Lowe's sack create 80 lb bags....1 point 3+/- cubic yards...any guess on how many bags I had to load onto cart, pay, load to trailer, unload to site, lift onto deep wheel barrow, add water and mix, pour and repeat

Never again-at current cost of $89 per yard of high strength cement....I will have readdy mix deliver

[Steve Thompson]

Had pre-mix delivered for a generator pad.  The concrete truck driver said he could add a little more water to the mix still in the truck and it would give more time to work it, although it would not be as strong.  We wanted strong, so didn't add water.  Had to work like mad and barely got it done before setting up.  I am not an expert, just what I heard.

[Mike Haverly]

Steve, you're making something pretty easy, complicated!  There are plenty of "guys" standing around Lowes and Home Depot that would work for less than minimum wage.  Just don't ask for "papers".  A wheelbarrow and a shovel isn't that bad, just takes time, well, and some muscle and...  Maybe it ain't so easy.

[Fredvon4]

Ha as much of a anti illegal nut case conservative as I am...the day help at Home depot or Lowe's is a good deal and they usually have better skills than I do.....very guilty indulgence  so much so that I tip them way too much

[Mike Haverly]

I'm not an "illegal nut case conservative" or conservative at all, but agree that the people that came here illegally need to leave.  If we, and the rich business owners, farmers etc. would quit hiring them there wouldn't be a "here", here for them.  Yikes, then we would have to do our own dirty work!  Such is the conundrum in which we live.  No more on this.

[Gerald Arana]

I puzzled over this.  Did he what off a wheel barrow?  Then I saw that it was just a stuck f key.

Thanks Howard! I got it corrected now.....

Jerry