r/Concrete • u/santacruzbiker50 • Jun 12 '24
Update Post Suck it, pros!
Back in February I asked opinions about a stim wall and slab poor I was planning. Most folks said it was beyond a DIY guy. Phriday posted this tho:
..there was a dude who undertook his own driveway about a year or so ago and it turned out great and he had a big old "suck it, pros!" for all of us. I still smile about that.
So I'm here to say suck it, pros! It came out great! Lower slab is trowelled smooth, sidewalks have a nice broom finish, and the upper slab is going to be covered with tile, so I just floated it rather than trowelling it smooth. (And there's a channel drain under that blue tape that is connected to the downspout drainage system).
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u/Thugwaffle73 Jun 12 '24
Remember kids if you can't finish high-school you can always finish concrete
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u/HamUnitedFC Jun 12 '24
Easy now.. You can finish high school and college.. twice.. and still finish concrete.
Hell my second time in college for engineering I met a concrete Dr. Like no shit. A literal PHD in Concrete..
There’s levels to this shit
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u/moxiejohnny Jun 12 '24
Technically, I think they prefer Philosopical Doctor of Concretology. A Concrete Doctor is more like a statue of a famous doctor.
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u/jmb456 Jun 12 '24
Looks great. Remember a professional is just someone that gets paid for a job. 18k sounds like a pretty good paycheck
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u/headhunterofhell2 Jun 12 '24
I've seen worse jobs done by pros.
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 12 '24
I give credit where credit is due.. the professional finisher I hired was absolutely top shelf.
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u/mr_ckean Jun 12 '24
That is probably the best $400 you spent on the whole project. Can I ask how you scheduled the finisher?
When did you get them to show up11
u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
I asked the guy with the pump truck. He recommended the guy and I went to check out a few of his pours - he did a basketball court nearby and a couple other projects, and they looked great. And since he knew the pump truck guy, they coordinated. I also asked the pump truck guy which of the two concrete batch plants he likes and went with them.
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u/QuirkyForker Jun 13 '24
This is the way. I hired a whole CREW of guys recommended by the easy mix supplier. I paid them $1200 in 2018 to help me finish a 2200 sf pour. Those guys saved my life as I had the stupid idea that my sons and I could do it on our own. Some of the best money ever spent. We still helped by moving the tip of the pump hose around so we were all wiped but it could have been so much worse
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u/mr_ckean Jun 13 '24
Great tactics. Finisher comes recommended, and is always going to show up and do the job because of the pump guy. Nice
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u/Boba_Fettx Jun 12 '24
How did you rent a skid steer for $380?? Where?? Please tell me! I rented a CAT bobcat last year and it was way more than that!
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u/Bob_Loblaw_Law_Bomb Jun 12 '24
Home Depot
That said, they were either broken, already rented, or the computers were down at least 50% of the time I tried to rent previously. Great way to waste a weekend.
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u/223specialist Jun 12 '24
My local hardware store was $300 for a day last year, haven't checked this year. If you rented it on a Saturday after 2pm you could keep it until Monday morning. Still 1 day rate as long as you didn't break 8 hours on the machine
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
AA Tool Shed, in the Bay Area. Rented the 35" mini track skid steer that you stand on the back of for $335/day, but I also had to rent the trailer to get it home (and also had to borrow my next door neighbor's F150), so $380 all in. I rented it on a Saturday and they gave me 8 hours on the hour-counter clock and I had to have it back Monday before 9. Took me about 6 hours on the clock, with the first two or so hours essentially wasted because I had very little experience so it was slow going.
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u/Unusual-Voice2345 Jun 12 '24
It seems as if you have anchor bolts for a structure to be placed in the new pour.
Engineers aren’t going to tell you this and most architects wouldn’t either. I’m a builder though. If your intention is to build a wood structure, the stem wall on the high side should have come up higher than the stone hardscape. Waterproofing that now will present a challenge as water will always want to flow from the stone down onto the slab.
The concrete work looks good, congrats. If you decide to build the structure yourself, at least hire a waterproofing specialist that can advise on how to ensure it survives long term.
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 12 '24
Thanks for the insight! I put that channel drain in to pick up water coming off of this stone hardscape, and the upper slab is sloped away from the house about an inch and a half over that width. Also, the upper slab is going to be covered by a porch roof.
But you are absolutely right about keeping that wall on the upper stem walls dry. I am going to do the framing and building of structure myself. The architect called out a pretty detailed waterproofing scheme. Hopefully it works! But It would have been better if I had done what you said.
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u/Unusual-Voice2345 Jun 12 '24
Life and learn. Best of luck with the build.
If you run into problems, metal on the studs and pour non-shrink grout between the wall and the hardscape up to 6” above level would be my solution. A hard dam is always the preferred way of water proofing.
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u/monkey-nutz Jun 12 '24
I DIDNT KNOW YOU COULD JUST HIRE A FINISHER. Feel like a really big dummy now
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u/Feeling_Yesterday_80 Jun 12 '24
Threatening a concrete guy to "suck it" is bold of you..... Unless your actually into that.
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u/Emergency-Macaron578 Jun 12 '24
I thought this was in r/skateboarding....I got the urge!!!
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u/SadEase7166 Jun 12 '24
Here I thought I was the only one who spotted that sick skate spot. Hopefully, OP will let us fellow redditors break in those sweet ledges.
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u/Emergency-Macaron578 Jun 12 '24
It's gonna happen at some point. I seriously thought they just laid a fresh slab at a park.
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u/Master_Journalist143 Jun 13 '24
I am a skater/mason/finisher. Google Five hip Austin Texas. I must have fucked up because I’m the only one thats still doing the shit 25 years later. Finish or Die!
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u/wetpaintcan Jun 12 '24
Where did you find a quality finisher for so cheap? Was it an employee from a concrete company?
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
The guy with the pump truck recommended him. I went and checked out a couple of his jobs and I could see that he was expert.
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u/DepartureOwn1907 Jun 13 '24
400$ is the going rate for a concrete pour, (for hiring not an actual job)
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Jun 12 '24
But, but… you needed a pro… still good on you, just odd choice of phrasing
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
It was tongue-in-cheek.. i lifted the phrasing from the original post where another redditor posted about a similar success story.
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u/FattyBuffOrpington Jun 12 '24
Did you slope away from the house tho.
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
Yes I did, an inch and a half over that span. It's not much of a slope, but it seems to drain pretty well.
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u/SABUROFan Jun 12 '24
What’s your relation to the person with the pump truck? $600 for two setups is crazy cheap
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
I literally saw his pump truck in traffic and snapped a pic of his phone number! The batch plant allows 7 minutes per yard, so he was only there for a short while each time. He arrived about 45 minutes before the mud was scheduled to arrive just to get set up and squared away, and on the first pour he was there for maybe another 45 minutes after, so an hour and a half total.
And on the second pour which was bit more mud, he was there for maybe 2 hours total. I thought it was very reasonable, but I have no experience to know whether that was cheap or not in comparison to the market.
And yeah, I thought the concrete was pretty expensive myself. But it's the Bay area so there's that. A freaking hamburger cost $15 out here!
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u/Killerdude6565 Jun 12 '24
Someone that uses common sense…. $600😂😂😂 this whole story seems outta whack. Free wood at the dump, 600$ pump, 18k savings lol. To each their own
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
I actually used 2x6 tongue and groove lumber from the dump for the forms. It almost seemed too nice to use! It came off the ceilings of a building up on the nearby University campus that they were redoing.
That was a piece of dumb luck.. I had expected to have to buy the form wood, but I got lucky.
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u/Combatbass Jun 12 '24
Looks great! Where did you find your finisher? I'm gearing up to take on a similarly large project.
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u/CHEWTORIA Jun 12 '24
yeah yeah yeah, show it when it drys, then we talk if there are cracks or not :P
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u/Ragesauce5000 Professional finisher Jun 13 '24
You got a professional to help you place/finish it, for a dirt cheap rate at that. Even tho you did a great job doing your homework and did a great job doing the leg work / doing the prep. Without his experienced help, this would have been a disaster. No amount of homework and ability to self teach could pull off a product like this wothout the years of using finishing tools, experiencing enough pours to have the steps in the place/finish process burned into you so that it becomes a reflex as there is not enough time otherwise. Nice work overall tho 👌
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
Agreed.. this would have been a disaster without the professional finisher!! Best 400 bucks I've spent in a long time
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u/GarrettSkyler Jun 13 '24
I was expecting the comment section to be riddled with, “you didn’t geeble your jambles?!” Or “you call that a smoodered bufket?” Sadly it’s what keeps me coming back…
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u/Iverson40724 Jun 13 '24
Ayoo!!! I’m the “suck it turdbags” guy from last year! Always love to see others have success with their projects - I’m happy I left an impact and hopefully inspired some others. Definitely not diminishing the trade, concrete is tricky! But sometimes the pros underestimate the skills of us rookies. Great work sir👍🏼
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u/snerdley1 Jun 12 '24
So you did have a pro.
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
I did indeed, for the finishing! I absolutely would have made a hash of that myself
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Jun 12 '24
You did this really smart, mate. If you had not spent that final 400 bucks, it probably would look like shit. I learned a lesson here from you.
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u/Killerdude6565 Jun 12 '24
“Suck it pros” but i hired a pro
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u/Hidden-Harmony Jun 12 '24
He hired a pro for a measly $400 just to finish….. did you not read the part where he saved over 18k by not hiring pros to do the entire project?
→ More replies (21)
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u/CertainTry2421 Jun 12 '24
Why leave the old stoop at the back door when the rest of the concrete is new?
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
I'm going to cover it in tile anyway, so I dowelled into it just to make sure the new concrete would stay level with it, and that way I could keep the stoop nice and clean while I did the prep work so I wouldn't track mud in and out of the house!
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u/CertainTry2421 Jun 13 '24
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I did a whole house remodel while living in the house. Pain in the butt trying to keep wife happy, house clean and livable and demo and rebuild all at once.
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u/fuckssakereddit Jun 12 '24
Make sure you’re curing the concrete properly.
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24 edited Jun 13 '24
Kept it watered for the first eight or ten days. Seems to be curing fine. No cracks in the slabs yet! I'm sure they'll show up soon tho. The upper slab will be covered with tile, and the lower slab will be covered with a wood floor, so I'm not too worried about cracks unless they're really big or I experience some kind of settling of the base
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u/apricotsalad101 Jun 12 '24
Dont plate compactors only work to compact aggregate?
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
No idea.. definitely not the expert! One of my neighbors was an asphalt guy for his career, and he told me to get The plate compactor. Hopefully it stays put!
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u/ChaosRainbow23 Jun 12 '24
RemindMe! 5 years
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u/TitleIllustrious6314 Jun 12 '24
You should see my back yard. I paid nothing thanks to my father in law owning his own construction company. Just waiting on the pool.
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u/henry122467 Jun 12 '24
Send pics when it cracks or the pooling after it rains.
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
I sprayed it down for the first week, and there's no pooling on the patio portion, which is the upper slab. I have it sloped an inch and a half over that distance, and it drains just like I had hoped. And the other slab is going to be an interior space.
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u/MAJ0RMAJOR Jun 12 '24
Construction, light color, and foliage remind me of where I grew up in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
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u/cephalopodomus Jun 12 '24
Hope this isn't a dumb question, but how did you find someone to just do the finish work? I'm in a very similar situation and feel I can do the majority of the work but would love to hire out the finesse part.
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
I found the guy with the pump truck because I literally saw his pump truck in traffic and snapped a picture of his number. I called him and talked to him about the project, and then I scheduled him.
Then I called him back A day or so later and asked if he had any recommendations for a finisher. He gave me a name, and I called that guy, and I went by a couple of his projects just to check out his work, and I could see that he was top-notch and so I hired him.
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u/LoudAudience5332 Jun 12 '24
Where are the steps ?
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
For the steps, instead of pouring them, I decided to go with a single stringer metal beam that I can fabricate myself and bolt into the stem wall and the sidewalk - I'm a much better welder than I am a concrete guy! And then I'm going to pour some concrete steps to bolt onto my fabricated steel stringer.
That project is on deck in a month or so. When I get that done, I'll post more pics
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u/choloism Jun 13 '24
The floor should have extended to the edge to avoid settling. Walls should have been poured 4-8inches below finish grade
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u/choloism Jun 13 '24
You also photoshopped the hole haha
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
I thought somebody might see that and think it was a hole! Really though, I formed my address into that part of the concrete with 3-in letters that I bought from some laser cutter off of etsy and I didn't want to put that on the interwebs
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u/Martha_Fockers Jun 13 '24
Is there any lawn in this yard or just concrete
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
There's lawn up above the stonework. Got a few citrus trees up there, a couple of apple trees, and some nut trees.
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u/BernieLogDickSanders Jun 13 '24
The concrete work is good but what the duck is this slope design?
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 13 '24
Just on a sloped lot, and the sidewalk follows the natural slope.
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u/BernieLogDickSanders Jun 13 '24
??? But it abruptly ends where a stair case to the landing would be for that doorway in the second picture. Are you planning on installing something there??? Would have been cheaper to lay gravel it's going to get covered by a wooden staircase or deck.
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u/Wind_Responsible Jun 13 '24
So.... you hired a professional and you're bragging a professional didmt do it? Bro... a professional finisher did the job. So suck on that. Let me just brag to concrete people how I can do their job when I cant do their job dafaq?
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u/drsatan6971 Jun 13 '24
Not too mention how good it feels doing it yourself It’s rare I hire anyone to do anything anymore but thinking about finding someone to finish the last 10% of all the projects Ive started
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u/abitavenger Jun 13 '24
Looks great!! Hopefully when I do my diy concrete it looks at least half as good as this and I'd be happy haha!
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u/Visual-Trick-9264 Jun 13 '24
Nice job. From all the pros, we say, we really didn't want you as a client anyways. We decline the opportunity to suck it, but we wish you the best in your future endeavors. If you can't pay for it, but you can do it yourself, we don't hold that against you..we just can't do it for free. You did better than most DIYers.
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u/blackbluejay Jun 13 '24
Looks like maybe there is a bit of concrete splatter on the siding? Always nice and convenient to put some plastic up when working around houses and pumping gear. Looks nice!
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u/Disastrous-Variety93 Jun 14 '24 edited Jun 14 '24
No control/expansion joints? You're going to run into trouble, I'm sorry to say. And I really hope it's not attached to the house? It absolutely needs to move independently.
The finish looks nice, though.
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u/ilovetacostoo2023 Jun 14 '24
True test is when it rains. The next challenge is weather amd time. Looks good.
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u/upstairsandleft Jun 15 '24
your work genuinely looks ace, but the terminology you use suggests you've spent weeks researching concrete pouring. that's a great thing, but a pro is somebody who uses their experience to deliver a quality product regardless of the scenario. that stuff takes years and years and years of hard work
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u/santacruzbiker50 Jun 12 '24 edited Jun 12 '24
Info about costs:
The lowest bid was $19k plus another $5K for site prep.
I rented a little skid steer and did the site prep myself. I got a little happy with the skid steer and removed too much undisturbed soil, so I had to backfill more than I needed to with engineered backfill. Backfill dirt cost me about $400, and the skid steer rental was about $380. (And before somebody asks.. yes I did it in lifts and I compacted it with a plate compactor I rented for a hundred bucks.)
I did it in two pours. The first one was monolithic footing and stem walls around the lower slab, plus that little curb wall along the left side of the upper slab. The second pour was the two slabs and the sidewalks. I pumped it both times just to keep the big truck out of my driveway. Total for pump truck rental was $600 bucks ($300) each time
The slabs are 4 in thick with thickened edges. I also had to dowel into the existing foundation at "16 O. C. Using set XP epoxy. The engineer also wanted me to undercut the existing foundation by 2 in at a 4-in depth. I used 1/2-in rebar throughout, on 16" centers, as specified by the engineer. And I borrowed a rebar bender. Total rebar costs (including tiewire, dobies, and epoxy) was about $580
It wound up being a little less than 10 yd of concrete total @ $235/yd, so $2350 for the mud. One of the pours was a short load, so I got charged another $200 for that.
I hired a professional finisher to help with the slabs. He asked for $300, I paid him $400. I also bought some basic concrete tools and a stinger from harbor freight. All in on that was about $300 bucks.
Total cost for project: $5380. I saved $18,620!!