Advice On 28x12 Porch

CTDiesel

I have a customer who called and asked to "extend a walkway to his garage" but when he showed it to me it's actually an extension of his small patio on the back of his house from one side to the other. It's about 28' x 12' in size, minus a small bump out on the back of the house. I've done a lot of various concrete jobs here and there but they have all been sidewalks and walkways, not large porches, slabs or anything like that. I'm confident that I can do the job but I'm not exactly sure of a few things.

First, I've always had form boards to use when screeding. With this job, there won't be a form board against the house, just on the back of the porch and one end. I know I can float the board I use to screed and it won't sink, but I'm concerned on how to keep it straight and level across the back of the house along with making sure it's level front to back, or at least not sloping towards the back the house.

Can I butt the new crete up against the old porch slab, or do I need to use expansion joint material between?

I'm not exactly sure how much I should price a concrete job of this size. In the past I've just priced it by estimating how much time it will take me plus materials and I've always been pretty much spot on. I'm not quite sure if I should change that to square footage for this type of job or not, I'm not really sure how long this would take. Advice?

Also, if 4" fine for depth or should I go any deeper? How deep should the pea gravel underneath be as well?

I can do most everything myself, but I'm looking for someone who has the tools (and experience) to finish it for me as I don't have anything aside from small stuff to finish small patches or walkways.

Thanks in advance. Also I have drawn a diagram of the job that I'll attach for visual aid.

Attached Images

 

rbsremodeling

Have you ever seen a concrete pour gone bad

__________________

CTDiesel

I'm looking for answers, not BS. I'm trying to figure out if I want to take the time to do this job or not. I figured this would be a good way to get answers not worthless replies that don't get me any closer to a paycheck.

BillD

Do yourself and the HO a favor and pass on it if you do not know any local concrete guys you can give it to. I've poured large patios before (I'm no concrete man by a long shot) and they are always more complicated and time consuming than they look. The ones I did were for family, if I needed one done for a customer I would get my concrete guy to do it. Maybe I'd work out a deal to be a laborer if I needed the work, then I could learn something as well.

Bill

CTDiesel

That's kind of what I'm aiming to do is get to the stage where the area is excavated, pea gravel is in and the form boards are up and it's pretty much ready to go then I will let the more experienced crete guy take the lead.

genecarp

I think you made him mad

__________________

CTDiesel

That's why I'm posting here, if I do this I want to make sure my ducks are in a row. I don't want it to be one of those jobs where they broomed the surface too early and it looks like a mountain range........

WarnerConstInc.

No more brooming, ONLY Stamping from now on.

CTDiesel

His current porch on the back is already broomed so it probably wouldn't look right. I do like the stamped crete though, man that's stuff is great looking.

TimelessQuality

Hire the best flatwork guy around...watch, help, learn...

I have seen concrete placements go bad..

__________________
-Steve

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." ~ Albert Einstein

DJ9222

The hardest part of this job will be getting the concrete around the back of the house.Can you get the truck around the house

or are you going to wheel it?.
Strike a chalk line on the house at the hight you want.
Get youself a nice straight 2x4 -12'long and level from house to outside form, pitch 1/8 to foot.Put expansion aganist house and existing slab. Install 4"to 6" of gravel, pour concrete, job should take about 2hrs from start to finish...( $ 4,500.00 COD)
And GOOD LUCK.......

Crock

One of my favorite things in life. The occasional times in life you have the oppurtunity to view such a mess brings on feeling of euphoria. You can't look away it's hypnotic. Anytime I get a call about a bad pour I drop everything and go look at it. I know that I won't do the fix but I will gladly go and look at it.

In fact I routinely ask my concrete supplier if he has any new stories when he is on site. He always does and let me tell you will never be more alert and hang on every word that that comes out of someone's mouth.

Now, I don't know if there is not enough megabytes or time to retell all the horror that I have been priviledged to see and/or hear about over the years, but I will share a bad experience that happened to me last year.

I've got a footing dug for a garage. It's about a 10 yard pour. When I dug the footing I scraped an underground concrete septic tank. HO warned me that there was one back there and it had been abandened years ago after the city sewer dept came through and upgraded the home.

I have never been so lucky. The new footprint came out perfect. It just missed the tank-by about 2". So concrete comes and we begin to fill the trench. We get about 7 or 8 yards out and all of a sudden the concrete spits and burps then disapears! The side of the old septic tank caved in from the pressure and all that new liquid gold sucked down into it in about 10 seconds.

I look back at the driver (also the owner of the concrete comp.) He has the biggest **** eating grin I've ever seen. He realized what happened and he also realized that his 1000 ticket just got doubled to 2000 for my idiocracy.

Moral of the story: Always have someone else do the concrete.

EDIT: Since I hijacked the thread I will help the poster. You will set grade stakes in the center as you screed to the top of the stakes pound them down and continue screeding. Put in as many as you want. This will keep you flat as you go.

You won't need expansion against the othe buildings but you need to drill in #4 bar every 2'. It will sink. I repeat. It will sink within a year or two if you skip the bars. I like to drill at an angle then epoxy, push in the bar, and bend it till it's level. 4" is fine for a patio. You will need 2 laborers and yourself. Mop it with your bull float and edge it. Cut some control joints to divide it into 10 or 12' sections.

I like to get on it and hand finish it near perfect before the broom but I sometimes will just throw a fresno over it then broom. You may feelmore comfortable doing it with the fresno. You can rent all that stuff.

CTDiesel

I spoke to the HO today and told him I can do it but I can't get to it until at the earliest mid August, which was no lie as I really am quite busy. I told him if he would like to get back with me in a month or so I may still be interested depending on my work load.

Thanks for the advice, it is appreciated!!