Never fails... PICTURES

Sgt_Mike

Sgt_Mike

Well-known member
The daughter came to me this past weekend. About what she wanted to do in the back yard. In her plan she was using pavers to make a path to the area she had laid mulch etc to create a garden area.
Normally I take a negative approach. except this time so we discussed it. I asked why pavers, and not concrete. As I could just see where it was going to just shift eventually requiring constant maintenance. Which she sort of fails at. The runoff of the roof of the house would in my opinion just work against her projected pathway.

Long story short, we come up with a plan to use concrete and the pavers. This week I wound up laying out the path etc setting the paver bricks and forms. I thought to do this one different as a dry pour vs a wet pour. Which I not ever done in the past except for like fence post. So Last night we go get the pallets of ready mix in my little truck (lol 3500 Dodge Ram Dually). While I wanted to hold off getting the concrete until it was ready, she kept going on about work time vs getting the concrete. She was animate about loading now (because of paying for it I guess).

Now weather forecast looks like rain so today will involve me as usual with the help of three (me, myself and I) offloading a bit over 2 tons of concrete mix (80lbs bags) to a covered area as rain looks to be soon.... Nothing left to do but call the other two fellas and off load it, hopefully me, and myself will answer the phone when I call.

(hopefully by this upcoming next week I'll have some positive new on the path being completed ).
 
Good times eh? :) I have those 80-pound bags stacked up for a project that I didn't get to last weekend. Sunday night comes a quick thunderstorm, which is quite unusual for the desert in April, so I had to head out in the dark on a mad scramble to put a tarp over them. Of course, just as I secured the last corner, the rain stopped. :)

Post up a photo of the work you three get done. ;)
 
Holy Frack the Daughter did come out and help .. we off loaded 2 pallets, (1.8Tons ea.) less than 5 min ago.

Bastion my little Australian immigrant helper, was losing his mind while we was offloading (gate to the backyard was open and he will run the whole neighborhood to include the street). Hence the gate needs to be closed when I let him out. So once the gate was closed he went out and sniffed everything did a inventory. I watched him, then picked up the daughters knee pad and moved it without him noticing. He went back to check every thing again and the knee pad was missing... the wife was like what is he hunting for? I laughed and told her what I did and she was like no that isn't it surely. I called him and pointed at where I moved the knee pad to he got up on his back legs sniffed then laid down at my feet. She was like what? he actually checks things? I relied ever since he was a pup.

Now that we offloaded it won't rain ... but had we went with the actual plan and left it on the truck, it would have.

On the dry pour I've never done it that way but figured I would try it. I mean if done correctly I could see where it would work fine for a walk way or a BBQ patio. concrete is porous and hydroscopic so I have no doubt the pour would get water into the mix, provided it's watered enough (soak the top every hour or so for say 7 hours to start the cure process).

I told the daughter If we had had a Pole barn I would have just parked the truck under it... but we don't so...
 
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Lol, I had a pallet of like 8–9 eighty-pound bags of concrete get soaked even though I had them under a tarp—apparently that tarp was more of a “light suggestion” than actual protection.

Ended up hauling them down to this spot on the hill by my house where the rain keeps washing out the gravel. Figured I’d improvise a repair job… so I went full caveman with a sledgehammer, busted them open, and weirdly the centers were still powder while the edges had started turning into early-stage limestone fossils.

Of course, somewhere in the middle of my “DIY concrete surgery,” I absolutely wrecked my back lifting them and now my sciatic nerve is lighting up my ass cheek like a Christmas ornament I didn’t ask for.
 
Infidel 762 said:
Lol, I had a pallet of like 8–9 eighty-pound bags of concrete get soaked even though I had them under a tarp—apparently that tarp was more of a “light suggestion” than actual protection.

Ended up hauling them down to this spot on the hill by my house where the rain keeps washing out the gravel. Figured I’d improvise a repair job… so I went full caveman with a sledgehammer, busted them open, and weirdly the centers were still powder while the edges had started turning into early-stage limestone fossils.

Of course, somewhere in the middle of my “DIY concrete surgery,” I absolutely wrecked my back lifting them and now my sciatic nerve is lighting up my ass cheek like a Christmas ornament I didn’t ask for.
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Why is it not hard to picture you going all caveman :ROFLMAO:
 
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@DesertRam Sir you requested pictures...

Ok guys this is after the first "misting" there are about 7 more before I can release the Australian Immigrant loose (spaced 45 min apart - 1 hour).
I didn't do a complete layout with the form rather eye balled the lines with scrap wood doing a "loose /floating" form it so Not exactly level. But close enough so not to trip etc... for a path to her garden area. Not making excuses The daughter was extremely proud of it. Yes I made her make the decisions while suggesting the red pavers as the border she is ecstatic so far.

Forecast is rain starting in the morning about 7 am which will help a lot.
Dayum I'm whopped the getting up and down is killing me.
 
I still have some tilling to smooth out around so she can mulch where the green string is. That should set her in a area she can do her youtube frigging gardening concepts. without littering the whole yard in various pots etc that I have to clean up on a annual basis.

@hm1996 ..
yeah I'm pooped for sure leveling the dry ready mixed concrete. What hurts the most is getting up and down without a plan to do so.. LOL.
And we was discussing a outshoot from the path to sit a BBQ / fire ring etc area ..... of course that is later after everything sets up. giving me time to recover from this hard on a old man deal.
 
I'm gonna use your idea of the walk to lead to our firepit. I've been trying to come up with some kind of good idea with no luck until now:giggle:
 
@Sprinkman
do a google search on quickrete dry pour I pretty much took a few of the videos for a guide. I used the yellow bag of quickrete (The red bag quickrete sets faster in half the time, although full cure takes 28 days for both) the finish has gravel on the top. In one of the video the couple doing it had way smoother texture than I did could really figure out why until after I did mine.. Turns out they most likely used portland cement as a topper allow for a really smooth finish. Once I watched this video it became clear. I didn't use Portland for the top as I didn't notice it until I / we had already misted the path.


Hope that helps... Also seen a video that deals with a strength test of a dry pour vs a wet pour.

another here..


( seen the last video after the dry pour, which has me wondering if mine will delaminate as well?? time will tell I guess, the secret very well maybe the portland on top for longevity.)
In no way do I think the dry method is better than a wet pour, it is however way more forgiving in the time frame vs the wet pour. I don't foresee a real down side as a walk. After watching the one video I do wish I had grabbed some portland to smooth the top of the walk. But I could add a product known as quickrete re-cap which I think would stave off delamination.
 
Good on you for getting the job done Sgt_Mike! As an owner of two family concrete plant business's I shudder thinking about the integrity of that "dry pour" method though. Since your project is non-load bearing flat work and small it might last for a while. I assume you are going to cut it right? If not it's going to crack all over the place.
 
RSG223 said:
I shudder thinking about the integrity of that "dry pour" method though. Since your project is non-load bearing flat work and small it might last for a while. I assume you are going to cut it right?
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@RSG223 Very true on the strength, I'm in no way advocating for a actual load bearing surface. Cutting absolutely , IIRC 8 to 12 foot is the norm for 4" depth. However the timing of the cutting is what I'm failing to remember. Guess I'll have to look it up. Some reason 14 days is coming to mind (which I'm thinking is the latest time frame to do the cut provided no stress fracturing). Which means tomorrow once the rain stops.
Now that I've done both methods wet and dry. The ONLY advantage I can see it the dry allows one to not rush as you do with the wet pour.
There is another pour I was going to do later basically a 5' x 6' slab so one can either firepit or BBQ . That one will be a wet pour.
The daughter was going to use just sand and pavers for the path. Looking at where it was going is why I guided her to concrete (run off from the house). We had discussed to actually setting pavers in the surface of the dry pour then start the misting/watering.

ETA:
had to run to the box store to get a diamond blade for my right angle grinder. Made the cuts a few min ago I went with 8' length x 1inch depth, a bit later than the 8 hour perfect timing but not more than 24 hours. (approx. 18 hours)
 
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Haha!!! Sarge your “garden” looks like mine!

When we first got married my wife could kill any plant I got her. I even got a cactus thinking surely this woman can’t kill a cactus…she did.

Well now 29yrs later she’s a planting fool. Not sure where these “bucket” and “tub” ideas came from, but I have that many or more! Maters, taters, squash, peppers, and a couple more veggies are all in buckets or tubs along the East side of the house. I get a “progress report” daily on what’s growing and what’s making produce.

I knew it was gonna be trouble when she came home with a vehicle full of buckets and totes and told me to drill holes in the bottom of all of them. I thought that sorta defeated the original purpose, it she had other ideas.
 
Ok gents... status update

Later this afternoon I noticed surface spalling starting. Well, so much for trying a Youtube method. Pretty sure I can recover the surface once it cures in the next 28 days or so.
So for anyone reading this yeah don't waste your time .

Wet pour, never ever had a issue doing a wet pour, just always been rushed by the pour to get done and floated off.
This was a experiment after all on this to see if the method worked. In my experience uhh no.

Hopefully this staves off any members from having the same results as I'm having. Honestly I'm not upset, or even bummed out, just now know the youtubers are full of donkey waste in their promotion of the process.
 
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