Dan Can't remember the cost, but it was much less expensive than having a
cement truck to come in. And people tell me the sidewalk doesn't take away
from the country look. Plus, all I did was use a wheelbarrel to mix the pre mix
in. Really didn't take that long About 8 hours of puttering around. I believe
my wife and I poured about 70 feet of the walk. Plus the neighbor liked it so
well, loan her the forms.
----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Rossi
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 11:12
Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Ideas about constructing sidewalk welcome.
Sheryl,
Bags of pre-mixed concrete come in 40, 60 or 80 pound bags. You just add
water, mix, and pour. However, saying it is approximately 10000 times
easier than doing it.
Firstly, an 80 pound bag of mix feels as if it weighs more like 160 pounds
as you try and move it around.
Secondly, mixing the water into the mix is back breaking labor unless you
rent a small cement mixer which can easily be rolled around by a person,
and can handle two 80 pound bags.
Lastly, you will be horrified to find out just how little cement is in an
80 pound bag, and you will weep to find out that a 40 pound bag is that
much less.
A 40 pound bag of mix is approximately one quarter of a cubic foot of
cement. meaning that if you have a single stepping stone of two feet by
two feet by 3 inches thick, that is one cubic foot, or 4 40 pound bags of
cement. yes, each of your 2X2 stepping stones will weigh 160 pounds or
more, and require a full mixer to do each one.
A 40 pound bag of mix was something like $1.50, maybe a bit more. So each
2X2 stone would cost about 6 bucks. Although, being in Hawaii, your costs
might be a lot higher. 80 pound bags are proportionally cheaper.
You can get these at any big box store like Lowes or Home Depot.
I would highly recommend pre-cast stepping stones for the number of stones
you are talking about. and, even though I am a big proponent of do it
yourself at nearly any cost, I would at least talk to a contractor to get
a couple of price quotes. They can bring in a large truck cement mixer
and pour the entire walk-way in probably half a day.
--
Blue skies.
Dan Rossi
Carnegie Mellon University.
E-Mail: [email protected]
Tel: (412) 268-9081
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
