Rather a dull topic but has anybody else layed concrete recently?? I have a 750m2 shed and surround to do. I have had a reasonable quote for conrete at £79.50/m3 for the conrete. And have been quoted around £6/ m2 for laying it (tapped), £10 for a polished finish. Does this sound reasonable?? (I think this works out at around £4500 to lay the shed with normal conrete, £7500 for a polished finish (+ I have worked out around £8800 for the concrete at 6 inch deep).

Best Regards.. apologies for all those not interested.. there must be somebody out there interested in comparing notes though??

T8

tut, i clicked on this, but didnt relise you were talking about concrete......

Yea concrete's quite expensive now.... We had a 60x40ft shed concreted a year ago, bout 5 or 6 grand, if that helps at all.

Lucky concrete. We are concreting a grainstore so should be getting some quotes soon.

The price is influenced on where you are in relation to the company so it may vary so good luck.

120 x 30 ft leveled, terran, concreted with some fibre and reinforcing, powerfloated finnish was quoted at £11k. That would be 8" of 'crete.

Thanks.. still trying to work out if the laying costs are extravagant or if it's worth me looking into doing it myself. To clarify the laying dost quoted for a 50ft by 160 ft shed was approx £4500 for a normal surface (for cattle etc), £7350 for a polished surface . Total for a 6inch depth including concrete therefore £13300 for a normal surface, £16,150 for a polished surface.

Does anybody have any links/ info on the actual process of laying conrete/ best practice/ procedure etc (as obviously I've never done it myself before!!)

Cheers!!

T8 

Depending on what its use is going to be and wether the weather will blow a load of rain or water in to it you may find that chalk is an alternative as in bothe the dutch barn and the 60x50ft shed we had out up about 6 to 8 years ago we used chalk and most of our livestock buildings are chalk too (you just have to make sure you remember to keep the dung grab up enough not to dig it up). Then in the front of the Dutch barn thats prone to getting soggy we put a some road planings in as well. Plus it is easier to lay as you just have to spread it out and the drive over it bit bit to complact it down every so often. as for the driveway to the shed and around the shed where we put the haylage bales admittedly after covering it with some old silage sheeting we used road planings again.

You need to lay it in 16ft strips,   with a n 18ft screeder.

Use 8x6 inch rsj s for shutters, they never move.

make sure yor levels are spot on , andyour shutters ready long before the trucks arrive.

only lay concrete before 10 in the morning, otherwise you will be polishing it at midnight.

you need 3 people to screed it.

go for the fibre in the mix

forgot to say, i laid over an acre of concrete in the nineties, about 500 cubic metres. still as good as the day it went down.

t80.

If you are half handy you can lay this yourself,but you need a few tit bits.Go to your local Tool Hire and see if they have Laser concrete levels.The Laser Level works by first of all levelling by rake to say 4.25" if you want a 4" finish, this is done by one man with a Rake and one with the Level, very fast.Then no matter what the width and with no internal Shuttering whatsoever one brings the motorised Tamp over this levelled area,that's it, finis, if a smooth finish is required a long handled rubber float is dragged only once over the Tamped area and that is it.

My fee is a huge amount of Beer.

dont you need expansion joints ?

JB,

    Yes you do and what most people do is to get a straight piece of Wood and run a Disc cutter alongside it and then fill it with a mastic type compound.

Re Glasshouses' comments on shuttering, is there any rule of thumb for how thick the shuttering needs to be?  I have 20m3 of concrete to lay, can I get away with gravel boards? 

Oops, this should have read 20m2!

Paddington,

                   gravel boards may be a bit small: suggest you talk nicely to a local builder, who may let you borrow some scaffold boards if the deal is properly lubricated.  It is well worth getting a bit of 6 x 2 sawn timber and putting 3-4' upright handles on both ends, so that after the initial spreading (wellies and shovels!) you can tamp and level from outside of the pad, and without killing your back(s).  In this sort of weather it's important not to let it dry too quickly: wet hessian on top is ideal, but polythene is OK as long as you take it off occasionally and spray the surface with water.  If it dries too quickly, the surface will go powdery, but even if it does, you can get wonder-fluids to harden powdery concrete.

                 Don't fiddle about with concrete for too long after laying, because the cement will eventually start to separate out, and you'll get a "lean" surface, which will be fragile. 

                 As a rule of thumb, concrete takes around 30 days to cure and reach half its eventual strength, so don't put anything too heavy on it for at least a week or two, and preferably longer.

Thanks for that 2658336, I'll get a tamper built tomorrow!