OT My day ,dog tired

Go to menards, get 100 bags of cement , unload 100 bags down chute into basement . mix and pour 40 ft of footings . sit down and drink few beers, I'm beat !

Did you have some help??? I see two mixers, I have trouble keeping up with one at a time!
Looks like you did a nice job too, that should take some of the pain away! Bet 'ya sleep great tonight!
Were those 80 pound sacks?

Bryan, I did nearly the very thing you are doing.(not as many lineal ft of wall) It will definitely get you toughend up might even lose a few pounds. I did. gobble

60 lb sacks ,,yea ,i had recuits helping ,they are beat also . two mixers , three guys ,kept us busy for sure . Now maybe a weekend off while waiting for block layer . Under there every weekend most nights since memorial day . The end is in sight ,,well maybe ,,1/2 way around house now .

Oh yea ,talk about toughened up . Back muscle ,pulled disc out of whack ,chiro could not get it back in place , 4 weeks of phs therapy has got things limbered up to where he could make it move ! . he said "Stretch ,and switch sides when you shovel "! lol

Oh, well the 60's aren't so bad. But 100 of them, UHG!
I recall seeing some of your pics of your project before, it sure is looking good and all your hard work definitely shows.
Hey, don't forget to leave a hole big enough to get that skid steer back out!!!

When I ran 50' of sidewalk in May, I always loaded enough bags for two mixer loads in the bucket of my loader.

Then parked the loader so all I had to do was slit the end of a bag and drop the contents into the mixer. Saved a lot of back work.

At 59.3 bags per cubic yard, and around four dollars a bag??????? That makes $240.00 per cubic yard. We are buying redi mix for a hundred with tax.

We often run into this same line of thinking, but I just do not understand the reasoning.

I'm thinking I would be happy to pour it for you for the diferance in price, especialy if you had the forms ready to pour, and you strip the forms.

The guys mixing can now wheel the concrete, then drink their beer a hr after the truck gets there.

We do pretty much avoid pouring on Sat, or Sun. because the drivers are in a better mood during week days.



PLUS NO BEER NEEDED for me.

I do however point out I refuse to pay for small load charges.

I certianly hope this does not come across as me being a smart rear end, but I juxt don't get it.

I worked for a guy that saved lots of money because he mixed his own with a 8N Ford. At the time redi mix was $42.oo a yard, and a bag of pouder was $7.00 plus change. So now at a 6 bag mix, and then purchasing the rock and sand plus labor???? His mindset was always...if everyone was drop dead tired in the evening, it had to save money.

Again, this is not intended as a personl attack.

nothing wrong with that route ,and not taken as trashing . I looked into it ,,bags were $1.98 . The location of house and such it was easier to mix it down there rather than wheel borrow or rent buggy and build chute ,or hand buckets down . Min truck charge also .

I would bet that was tiring, but on the good side you made a lot of progress since, what last year when you posted a bunch of photos. I forget now, but remember the job.

How in heck did you deal with the dust from the mixers that is nasty stuff in a confined space, did you use a fan or something ?

Footing looks nice, are you using vertical reinforcing, (rebar) spaced accordingly for the C.M.U. cells which should be filled with mortar to tie in the wall to footing or some other detail ? Just curious.


I too prefer the ready mix truck, but to get that material placed, would have at least needed a trailer size pump,(wheel barrows, chutes can be a pain sometimes) a short load with associated price increase, pump design mix, or possibly use one of those trucks that will mix the quantity you want, vs. 100 bags, extra help, I dunno, the latter takes longer and is more labor intense, the previous would just cost more or would seem to, but much less labor intense, lot of opinions on doing bags or ready mix trucks. The only thing I don't like with bags is keeping the material flowing so you don't have any cold joints or have it set up while you are still placing, structurally, that can be an issue in some situations, vs having it all placed promptly at once.

Hi BIlly
Yea we had fans going and i had the sides all opened up,,covered with osb in pics , pretty good air flow . Got rebar in footing,also verticle in block ,every 4 foot ,drilled into footing and grouted. Inspector was happy ,said I was crazy ,,but happy ,lol Girls were down there picking out their rooms already ,lol .

I think the dust would have been my biggest concern, portland is nasty stuff. I'll bet you won't want to be doing this kind of job again, tell the girls you'll be leaving one wall out for ventilation, natural light, etc. but they can still have their rooms LOL !

You can see the hand labor on excavated areas, looks scalloped from shovels, that work does require a fridge full of quality suds. I'll drink cold water all day, but after sweating it out in the heat, when done, after getting that shower, nothing is better than a frosted glass and cold beer.