wroughtn_harv
Super Member
Okeedon asked but I'm sure he's not the only one to wonder why I do so much mixing on site with a nine cubic foot mixer.
For me it's about control, quality, quanity, and time versus both of those.
It's also more economical. Buying Portland cement, sand, and gravel and mixing myself versus buying redimix usually works out to about a thirty to forty percent savings. That's if I'm doing four or more yards at one time.
If I'm mixing smaller quanities or taking time dispensing it from the truck the savings go through the roof. The ninety dollars an hour wait time really gets expensive rather quickly.
The biggest downside to mixing it on site in a mixer are usually two fold. One is it's hard work. The second is getting it right.
I use nine cubic foot mixers. They're easy to identify. If they don't say they're nine cubic footers you can fill it with mix. It will fill two six cubic foot contractor's wheelbarrows heaping if you've got your slump up-mix stiff. Three if you've got it wet and not able to heap.
One word of warning here. A heaping six cubic foot wheelbarrow takes just a bit more skill than strength to handle. And it takes a lot of strength, you're handling six hundred pounds or so.
There is some humor watching the unwary grab a hold of one of these beasts. It's a funny ha ha more than funny peculiar unless you're the one that has to clean up the mess.
Another way to check your mixer for capacity is to use a light weight aggregate mix like Maximizer. Their eighty pound bag of mix will make one cubic foot. A eighty pound bag of the cheap stuff like sacrete only makes six tenths of a cubic foot. It takes thirteen of the sacrete to fill a nine cubic foot mixer or just nine of the Maximizers.
On the pond project I'm using good washout versus just washout. The difference is good washout is put through a process removing most of the concrete so you end up with a sand and three quarter rock mix. With regular washout you end up with quite a bit of concrete dust and large clumps.
Washout isn't available everywhere around the country. In some areas it's already purchased for a special purpose. I've heard of one place that uses washout exclusively for septic tank fabrication.
I'm getting a heckuva deal on the washout. It's allowing me to have good concrete for less than forty dollars a yard. Compare that eighty to a hundred dollars a yard quantity users are now paying.
Mixing it myself allows me to mix it stiff when I want it stiff, and wet when I want it wet. Today I needed one mixer load for lamps in the bottom of the pond. Yesterday we mixed about four yards for three different components. We did this in three different times as required. If we'd had a truck come in we'd have faced being ready when the truck arrived and not having the time to control the pour without either paying a waiting fee ($1.50 per minute) or sacrificing the variety in the slumps we wanted.
It isn't for everyone. It's easy to screw up. But if you like having total control of your project and it's a series of steps then it's great.
In my prime (mid forties) I once mixed, poured, and finished nine yards on my birthday by myself. It's only hard, not impossible.
A week ago we mixed ten yards an poured it between eight thirty in the morning and noon. That's one fifty seven year old shuttling the material and helping the fifty eight year old feed the mixer. We had the young guy (forty nine) screeding by himself.
Thursday we'll do between twenty five and thirty yards. We'll have two mixers going with two guys feeding each mixer. There'll be two guys in the pond screeding and I'll be shuttling the material between the mixers and the pour.
It would be easier to use a pump truck and three truck loads. I'm sure we would find a way to set up without the pump truck tearing up the trees. And the cost would be about three thousand or so.
Running day laborers and friends we'll be able to keep the cost down to less than two.
And probably just as important, the friends will have a story to tell. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
A couple of other points to consider while were considering.
Concrete gets a lot of it's strength from the rock used. I prefer granite three quarter like I get in the washout. It's been my experience that the one yard buggies from the rental places use pea gravel. Pea gravel's great if you're putting thick posts in thin holes.
Mixing in a mixer is a lot like real life. One of the ironies of it all is you sometimes need your sharpest cookie doing the dumbest job.
For me it's about control, quality, quanity, and time versus both of those.
It's also more economical. Buying Portland cement, sand, and gravel and mixing myself versus buying redimix usually works out to about a thirty to forty percent savings. That's if I'm doing four or more yards at one time.
If I'm mixing smaller quanities or taking time dispensing it from the truck the savings go through the roof. The ninety dollars an hour wait time really gets expensive rather quickly.
The biggest downside to mixing it on site in a mixer are usually two fold. One is it's hard work. The second is getting it right.
I use nine cubic foot mixers. They're easy to identify. If they don't say they're nine cubic footers you can fill it with mix. It will fill two six cubic foot contractor's wheelbarrows heaping if you've got your slump up-mix stiff. Three if you've got it wet and not able to heap.
One word of warning here. A heaping six cubic foot wheelbarrow takes just a bit more skill than strength to handle. And it takes a lot of strength, you're handling six hundred pounds or so.
There is some humor watching the unwary grab a hold of one of these beasts. It's a funny ha ha more than funny peculiar unless you're the one that has to clean up the mess.
Another way to check your mixer for capacity is to use a light weight aggregate mix like Maximizer. Their eighty pound bag of mix will make one cubic foot. A eighty pound bag of the cheap stuff like sacrete only makes six tenths of a cubic foot. It takes thirteen of the sacrete to fill a nine cubic foot mixer or just nine of the Maximizers.
On the pond project I'm using good washout versus just washout. The difference is good washout is put through a process removing most of the concrete so you end up with a sand and three quarter rock mix. With regular washout you end up with quite a bit of concrete dust and large clumps.
Washout isn't available everywhere around the country. In some areas it's already purchased for a special purpose. I've heard of one place that uses washout exclusively for septic tank fabrication.
I'm getting a heckuva deal on the washout. It's allowing me to have good concrete for less than forty dollars a yard. Compare that eighty to a hundred dollars a yard quantity users are now paying.
Mixing it myself allows me to mix it stiff when I want it stiff, and wet when I want it wet. Today I needed one mixer load for lamps in the bottom of the pond. Yesterday we mixed about four yards for three different components. We did this in three different times as required. If we'd had a truck come in we'd have faced being ready when the truck arrived and not having the time to control the pour without either paying a waiting fee ($1.50 per minute) or sacrificing the variety in the slumps we wanted.
It isn't for everyone. It's easy to screw up. But if you like having total control of your project and it's a series of steps then it's great.
In my prime (mid forties) I once mixed, poured, and finished nine yards on my birthday by myself. It's only hard, not impossible.
A week ago we mixed ten yards an poured it between eight thirty in the morning and noon. That's one fifty seven year old shuttling the material and helping the fifty eight year old feed the mixer. We had the young guy (forty nine) screeding by himself.
Thursday we'll do between twenty five and thirty yards. We'll have two mixers going with two guys feeding each mixer. There'll be two guys in the pond screeding and I'll be shuttling the material between the mixers and the pour.
It would be easier to use a pump truck and three truck loads. I'm sure we would find a way to set up without the pump truck tearing up the trees. And the cost would be about three thousand or so.
Running day laborers and friends we'll be able to keep the cost down to less than two.
And probably just as important, the friends will have a story to tell. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
A couple of other points to consider while were considering.
Concrete gets a lot of it's strength from the rock used. I prefer granite three quarter like I get in the washout. It's been my experience that the one yard buggies from the rental places use pea gravel. Pea gravel's great if you're putting thick posts in thin holes.
Mixing in a mixer is a lot like real life. One of the ironies of it all is you sometimes need your sharpest cookie doing the dumbest job.