I always have and I always will I am the reason they created self leveling epoxy concrete surfacing! I have seen worse.... I thought I had one more concrete job in me with the bull float, push screed and puller..... I just didn't half way through working it I was dying and sent Mrs Krap to the rental place to get a power trowel. By the time she got back with it the concrete was setting up good and the rental trowel was old than I am and in just as bad of physical condition LOL. But It did get the ridge knocked off. The mud puddles I will have to fill with my little mixer and epoxy over in a year. I did smooth out my foot prints after taking the picture! Not perfect by a long shot but better than spending $8,000 for a pro finishing crew. The Pad for the Mill went a lot better than the patio. 8'x24' 6"thick It is actually dead level with a dip on the right side to drain the water from the band lube off to the side and out. In 48 hours I will drill the holes for the inserts to bolt the ground track down with and put the track on and the head. In 28 days after it is well on its way to being cured and hard I will start milling the mountain of logs. I am good at a lot of things, I will never be good at concrete finishing. It does not help that I absolutely hate concrete work. If I died and was given the choice of eternity in hell or 30 years of working concrete..... I would choose HELL!!!
Concrete is the one thing that if you're getting tired of messing with it ,, you can't take a break and get back to it tomorrow. I've tried pouring concrete with a few guys that never poued before ,, and that was a real chore . Almost better to pour by myself. I can form , pour , screed , and float it out , and do a broom finish ,, but I don't have the patience to get a good slick finish . Looking forward to hearing how the new Mill works for you.
I was dying half way through the patio! The Old Gray Man just ain't what he used to be LOL. Took from noon to 6:30pm and it getting to hard to do anything else with. LOL you can see the sun getting low in the mill pad pic. The power trowel knocked the ridges down and made it nice and level in that regard. I have wanted a mill pad forever. It gets old constantly having to level and relevel the ground track. The most stable platform I have used for the mill was a level bed of 3" rock and then RR ties across and then the track on the ties. Even that got out of level over a few logs and had to be shimmed up. While not anywhere near perfect the patio and pad are serviceable. I may regret leaving the 2 post oak stumps and encasing them in concrete in the patio or I may not, it will be long after I am dead before they rot out, so not my problem and I most likely won't regret them. I am just glad to have the last hard project of 2023 in the rear view mirror now. I have been dreading concrete week all summer. If I were smart I would have poured the patio in two 16x20 sections over 2 days instead of one big 40x16 pad. It would have saved me a lot of problems with the North end getting to firm as I worked on the South half. Really too big of a job for one person.
I am just too big of a cheap ass LOL. Not paying someone saved me $7800 on flip side paying my concrete guy would have been easier on the body and the job would have been perfect and slicked out. I have seen enough of the work the bargain bin concrete contractors do that is as bad as my work or worse that I would pay Scott's higher price per sqft before even considering the $4 per sqft guys. We did learn on the patio that just driving the BX25 into it and using the bucket as a screed and float worked kind of well. Shane..... A regular rock delivery driver here and friend also drives the spinners and brought the 3rd load in. After seeing the little tractor in action in the middle of the patio, he said "Just when I think I have seen everything, I come out here and find a whole new level of crazy!" LOL he brought a couple of loads of rock while I was driving back and forth through the pond pulling mud with the box blade LOL.
Don't feel too badly. I suck at everything having to do with construction. Can't get anything level, even, straight or square. Figured that out when I was 19 and went into aircraft and later, heavy equipment electrical and electronics instead.
Take a water-hose pipe? At any rate you get on one end and the help on the other end. Start in a corner or on a high side and pull this hose back and foth with each other or zig-zag in small movements. Concrete will level itself off this way and you get a slick finish
I am a good carpenter, best at dirt work, and passable electrician and plumber. Mechanical things are just not how my mind works, mechanics all tell me just BRING IT IN it will save you a lot of money NOT trying to fix it yourself Concrete is right up there with engines and motors! The good news is there is self leveling epoxy concrete surfacing that not only seals it after curing, it makes my Krappy job look a lot better!
That works if you use a wetter mix, I like to pour it pretty thick and stiff so it cures less porous and stronger when finished and I go pretty heavy on the fiber in it making it even stiffer. Then water it 2-3 times per day after 48 hours to get maximum crystal growth in it. The last pad for the Cabin mover is going to be another good size one 30x48 being the dumb ass I am I will pour it all at once. Learning where I am at physically on this one, I will have the Power Screed, Float and trowel rented and ready to go when the spinners start arriving! The difference between 45 years old and 55 years old really came to light yesterday
How big is it and they quoted you 8 grand? You should have messaged me, I would have recommended you add something called super plasticizer to your mix, it allows you to make soupy concrete with the recommended amount of water. (If you use too much water it makes the concrete weak and crumbly) You could have made all the concert self leveling for a few hundred bucks worth of super P. To make the concert set faster make a water box or rig up something that will keep the concrete damp or wet, it will be fully cured in a week and it will hit typical 1 year hardness in about a month. Wetted Burlap with tarp over it works pretty well. Remove the water if there's a freeze danger.
Well, personally, I am glad to hear there is something you can't do well Sorry, just had to rub it in a bit... LOL! I got a bit of concrete work to do myself next year...not looking forward to it - mainly because I suck at it. LOL!
Add some super plasticizer it will self level and be strong as normal. Super plasticizer is normally used to make concrete pumpable. But it can be used by one man crews to make a level pour.
Low end rates run $4 per Square foot and it goes as high $30. $7800 +Concrete at $159 per yard with 1% plasticizer and fiber for 832 square feet is in the average zone for contractors in the region. Should see me changing the spark plugs on Red... 2001 to present as hard as I search I still can't find them! And the time I tried rebuilding a engine and had four 5 gallon bucket of spare parts! Or when I get the 4 pound mini sledge out to *fix* the Coputer
The only concrete work I have ever tried, and am now to old and out of shape to do, is fence-post holes. I dug 32, by hand, about thirty years ago. Last time we went by the old place it was still standing. The big gate post was buried three feet deep in 550 pounds of concrete. Hopefully, never again.
I grew up doing concrete with my dad, and we did it all ,slabs, block walls, footings, steps, side walks, fire places, and chimneys, @ 8 years old I was finishing a small side walk on my own. I did my last concrete when I got out of school in 1969. I will not volunteer my knowledge or labor for concrete, it doesn't pay enough. `
It doesn't have to be purdy and purfect to be functional and level. I am going to have to put a couple of 1/4" plate steel shims under the left end. My Drainage dip got to far to the center LOL. with that back track not attached I can still do 16' logs with the 21' track but everything is out willy whack without it on. 4" above ground and 2" under ground. this should work out very nicely. I got lazy and just slid the old track off the trailer and onto the pad. And I need to take that dog closest to the head off and move it the center. I had another section of track behind the head and everything set on the old track for milling 8'-16' long logs.
I have exactly one more big pad I am going to do myself next Spring and that is the Lake Cabin pad and patio in the Rec area. All of the power equipment WILL be here and ready and I am going to do it in four sections and NOT all on the same day! We talked about it last night and are going to do a 48x48 square in 4 equal sections with 1x6 dividers between each section. That will be my last big concrete job in my lifetime! Anything else that we want I will bite the bullet and just pay Scott to do. In the epic words of Grandpa and every other old timer I have know...... I AM GETTING TOO OLD FOR THIS CRAP!!!
About a 1/2 day into every project I seem to start these days ,, I say that same thing ,,,, " I'm getting to old for this crap " ,,,, I just try to stay busy . But staying busy is starting to hurt more and more .
I keep saying the same thing about getting too old to do manual labor, then I take on another project and another and another. Thankfully I have been able to add some equipment to my arsenal to help out with most of them. I also like doing my car repair and maintenance myself, but at the same time I think about what I can be doing with my time instead so for some things I will take it to a small, locally owned shop and have them do the work. I can generally go in and specify what needs to be done. Sometimes it's because a specialized tool is needed other times I just don't want to spend hours under a vehicle cussing and screaming when the job does not go as planned LOL.
