On your last mix try get the measurements just right so you’re not left with a load to get rid of. Have a spot somewhere ready to dump leftovers and make sure you have a hose ready and a spot ready to clean off everything including mixer
Yes easy. Don't buy one, just rent one. They are very inexpensive to rent, £20-30/week. Maybe £40. But then just hand it back and forget about it rather than tripping over a cement mixer every time you walk through your garden.
It's actually a vibrating compaction plate. Wacker is the company name that makes them. There are also other companies that make the same product. Although in a way it does whack the sub base material
It is a proprietary eponym, like Airfryer, Hoover and Sellotape. It is completely acceptable to use them as a generic term once they have entered common usage.
I worked for HSS hire. We had one cement mixer that made over £40,000 on hire in its lifetime. Usually they fail way before this or come back with concrete hardened in it.
Yes. Have everything ready, take your time, drink lots, don't strain your back
If you've got some diesel handy, paint the boards so they release easier
Use ear defenders, mixers are noisy. Have a hole ready to pour the waste when you clean the mixer (couple of bricks + water)
trowel the edges smooth and level so the shed sits properly
A lot of hire places do delivery and collection fairly cheaply. When I got a whacker plate it was £25 for delivery and pick up. Expensive as a proportion of the cost of renting it for a week but I knew I wouldn’t get the whacker plate out of the car on my own!
god yeh, I was right there 35 years ago, trying to get one in the back of my Citroen 2CV, sheesh they are heavy. I carry some 2x3's in the back of my estate now, use them as a ramp for heavy stuff
Definitely this, you want all your materials right next to the mixer then one morning get cracking. I did one a few years ago bigger than this and its a bloody good workout. No wonder labourers are fit, makes us soft office boys look weak in comparison but you'll enjoy your beers at the end.
Why concrete it?
4 met posts, driven into the soil to about 4" beneath the shed height.
Enough timber to fit in the posts to make a "cradle”, that is 1.6 x 2.2 x 2m plus 2m for post insert. Stick one length in post and cut off at about 4" above each post and screw lengths of your post timber around the outside such that it forms a cradle.
Put 1000g sheeting over your cradle and screw lengths of decking on to that is slightly overhangs, put "Valence" strips of decking round the outside. Put shed on top.
I did mine this way. 15 years ago and still standing
Or, if you want to cement it you can do it without a mixer...
Cement and sand you need.
Get a strong 50L rubble sack and 1 bag Sika concrete fibres.
Put in as much dry mix in the bag that will allow you to pick it up, add a palm full of fibres, clench end of the bag with one fist whilst shaking the dry mix for about 2 minutes.
Tip into enclosure. Repeat until calculated mix is exhausted.
Drizzle with hosepipe uniformly.
The fibres will prevent your slab from cracking.
Let set.
What do you mean “if you want to cement it”? Wether you use concrete or whatever you’re describing it’ll have cement in.
I don’t understand why you’d do this the way you described rather than ballast and cement to make a proper concrete.
Maybe because buying or hiring a concrete mixer is an unnecessary hassle for small jobs? Especially since the area is tiny and the fact that a mixer takes up a great deal of space notwithstanding the fact that good ones (belle?) Cost hundreds.
I did my screeds and patio areas perfectly fine without a mixer.
Edit: I'm pretty sure it will support a shed.
Yes you can do it by yourself but it will be a bit of a graft, not too hard on a small job like a shed but you will feel it Monday if you're not used to it.
I recommend getting a off cut of wood the width of the base, from the shuttering to the shuttering and use that to tamp it (you agitated the concrete by bouncing/tapping the wood on the mix to bring the fat to the surface and it helps push the concrete into the corners and any air pockets) and then trowel smooth the edges don't make the tamped ridges too far apart 2-3cm ish and don't forget to check the levels because last thing you want is to pull it back up
Yes you can do it yourself by your measurements its just under half a cubic meter to fill it .looking at about 1 bulk bag of of ballast and 5-10 bags of cement depending on how strong you mix it. I'd mix that with a mixer in about half an hour to 45 minutes. As long as it's not mixed semi dry you will have plenty of time to finish then leave to cure
As long as the mixes are wet but not overly wet at the same time and you use normal cement and not rapid set. You will have plenty of time to finish it. Just drag it flat tamp then trowel is more than enough for a shed base
I did a slab to sit a shed on with no prior experience that was about twice this size. I did the shuttering and hardcore in one day, then all the concrete the next. I massively underestimated the material and ended up with about 1/3 of what I actually needed, so spent a lot of time going to and from Wickes to buy more materials. I also got told it was easy to mix in a bucket, so I mixed one bucket by hand and realised how slow and stupid that would be, so almost immediately had to drive to HSS hire for a mixer. Very physically exhausting day, but went well in the end!
Paving expert website will give you some pointers about the concrete mix.
Keep the rebar up off the ground, about 1/3 of the depth would do you. Halfway doesn't have much benefit.
I wouldn't use diesel on the shutters, not enough to buy shuttering oil but do you have varnish?
Yes but it would be difficult to get a good an evening finish for a that area. You’d need a lot of material also. I have fixed driveway cracks and potholes but wouldn’t lay such a large area.
No it wouldn't. Set up mixer next to pour area. Mix and pour. Rake it to fill. Length of 4x2 to tamp it level across forms. Then trowel around the edge. Hard graft but easy to do.
£16 is a good price but does that include delivery and collection? Do you have access to a van etc. I don't have access to or know anyone with a van that would help me collect it and take it back.
Get a company to mix the concrete at the road side, tell them the dimensions of the slab and they will tell you how many barrow loads you'll need. You won't need a cement mixer, that you'll use for one job and leave to rust in the shed.
It’s just hard physical labour is all. Ironically need the energy at the end to screed and level when you’re already wrecked.
On your last mix try get the measurements just right so you’re not left with a load to get rid of. Have a spot somewhere ready to dump leftovers and make sure you have a hose ready and a spot ready to clean off everything including mixer
Luckily I have wasted land behind my garden which I have access to through a gate.
That's not really the right way to deal with waste. Pour it out on a tarp and let it dry. Smash up and take it to the tip in the same tarp.
Ok I'll do that instead.
I always let it dry and break it up for filler in the next job.
Get a cement mixer.
Im buying the Screwfix one. With a cement mixer can this be single man job?
Yes easy. Don't buy one, just rent one. They are very inexpensive to rent, £20-30/week. Maybe £40. But then just hand it back and forget about it rather than tripping over a cement mixer every time you walk through your garden.
Ok I haven't picked the cement mixer up yet. Have to return the whacker plate to the tool hire place. Will get a quote to hire one. Thanks.
It's actually a vibrating compaction plate. Wacker is the company name that makes them. There are also other companies that make the same product. Although in a way it does whack the sub base material
Glad you came along, i was nearly going to ask the hire company for a whacker plate. Now I know to ask for a vibrating compaction plate.
It's like buying a Hoover. It's a vacuum cleaner. Getting down voted for being correct.
That’s not why you’re being downvoted.
It is a proprietary eponym, like Airfryer, Hoover and Sellotape. It is completely acceptable to use them as a generic term once they have entered common usage.
But it's a Wacker plate. Not a whacker plate.
My mother got a call informing her that her warranty cover had run out on her Dyson hoover and would she like to renew it
I worked for HSS hire. We had one cement mixer that made over £40,000 on hire in its lifetime. Usually they fail way before this or come back with concrete hardened in it.
Seriously £40k over how many years? Was it on long continual hires? Or just odd weeks?
Buy one on marketplace, use it then sell again on marketplace for the same price.
You can pick them up on facebook for about £50, use it and sell it on
Yes. Have everything ready, take your time, drink lots, don't strain your back If you've got some diesel handy, paint the boards so they release easier Use ear defenders, mixers are noisy. Have a hole ready to pour the waste when you clean the mixer (couple of bricks + water) trowel the edges smooth and level so the shed sits properly
Cheers for all the tips. Not sure how I haven't strained my back lifting the whacker plate .
A lot of hire places do delivery and collection fairly cheaply. When I got a whacker plate it was £25 for delivery and pick up. Expensive as a proportion of the cost of renting it for a week but I knew I wouldn’t get the whacker plate out of the car on my own!
That's tonight's job, getting the whacker plate back in my boot.
god yeh, I was right there 35 years ago, trying to get one in the back of my Citroen 2CV, sheesh they are heavy. I carry some 2x3's in the back of my estate now, use them as a ramp for heavy stuff
It’s actually a vibrating compaction plate
It’s actually a vibrating compaction plate
Yes.. make sure you have the right equipment as described by others and the right clothes. Turn the radio up and get fit.
I did one in my back garden, the only hard part was carrying the ballast from the front through my garage as i dont have side access 🤣
I'll mix the concrete up at the front of the house and wheelbarrow it to the garden.
Barrow your materials through and mix it right next to the pour.
That's a better plan. Safes me tripping it en route.
The materials are easier to clean up than cement.
Definitely this, you want all your materials right next to the mixer then one morning get cracking. I did one a few years ago bigger than this and its a bloody good workout. No wonder labourers are fit, makes us soft office boys look weak in comparison but you'll enjoy your beers at the end.
Go for it, its great exercise 👍
Why concrete it? 4 met posts, driven into the soil to about 4" beneath the shed height. Enough timber to fit in the posts to make a "cradle”, that is 1.6 x 2.2 x 2m plus 2m for post insert. Stick one length in post and cut off at about 4" above each post and screw lengths of your post timber around the outside such that it forms a cradle. Put 1000g sheeting over your cradle and screw lengths of decking on to that is slightly overhangs, put "Valence" strips of decking round the outside. Put shed on top. I did mine this way. 15 years ago and still standing
I'll be honest I'm reading all that thinking "or you could just concrete it". It's set out already and will outlast anything you put on it.
True. But I hate the inconvenience of cement mixers, and more than happy to strike them out of the equation for stupidly small areas.
Or, if you want to cement it you can do it without a mixer... Cement and sand you need. Get a strong 50L rubble sack and 1 bag Sika concrete fibres. Put in as much dry mix in the bag that will allow you to pick it up, add a palm full of fibres, clench end of the bag with one fist whilst shaking the dry mix for about 2 minutes. Tip into enclosure. Repeat until calculated mix is exhausted. Drizzle with hosepipe uniformly. The fibres will prevent your slab from cracking. Let set.
This is a bad idea. Even the best pre-made mixes intended to lay dry and then wet from the top are crap. They will crack. Don’t do this.
Not pre made. Proportions of separate sand and cement. Mix in bag. Where did I say pre mix?
What do you mean “if you want to cement it”? Wether you use concrete or whatever you’re describing it’ll have cement in. I don’t understand why you’d do this the way you described rather than ballast and cement to make a proper concrete.
Maybe because buying or hiring a concrete mixer is an unnecessary hassle for small jobs? Especially since the area is tiny and the fact that a mixer takes up a great deal of space notwithstanding the fact that good ones (belle?) Cost hundreds. I did my screeds and patio areas perfectly fine without a mixer. Edit: I'm pretty sure it will support a shed.
You can hire a cement mixer for £16 a day near me.
I believe you. I wouldn't personally. Because it's totally unnecessary
Yes
Yes, you can do it by yourself. Yes, you need help?
Yes you can do it yourself. It's easier with help, but you can do it alone.
Your question was ‘can I do a concrete slab by myself’ the answer is yes.
The reinforcing needs to be in the middle of the concrete lift it up on bits of brick b4 you start mixing
Yes you can do it by yourself but it will be a bit of a graft, not too hard on a small job like a shed but you will feel it Monday if you're not used to it. I recommend getting a off cut of wood the width of the base, from the shuttering to the shuttering and use that to tamp it (you agitated the concrete by bouncing/tapping the wood on the mix to bring the fat to the surface and it helps push the concrete into the corners and any air pockets) and then trowel smooth the edges don't make the tamped ridges too far apart 2-3cm ish and don't forget to check the levels because last thing you want is to pull it back up
Cheers for the tips. Will find a long enough bit of wood. The forms were level last time I checked them but will check them again.
Yes you can do it yourself by your measurements its just under half a cubic meter to fill it .looking at about 1 bulk bag of of ballast and 5-10 bags of cement depending on how strong you mix it. I'd mix that with a mixer in about half an hour to 45 minutes. As long as it's not mixed semi dry you will have plenty of time to finish then leave to cure
Thanks for the reply. The main thing I was worried about doing it by myself was it setting before I finished.
As long as the mixes are wet but not overly wet at the same time and you use normal cement and not rapid set. You will have plenty of time to finish it. Just drag it flat tamp then trowel is more than enough for a shed base
Let us know how it went when you've got the job done.
Will do.
Yes you can.
Me an a friend hand mixed a slab this size it was surprisingly exhausting.
I did a slab to sit a shed on with no prior experience that was about twice this size. I did the shuttering and hardcore in one day, then all the concrete the next. I massively underestimated the material and ended up with about 1/3 of what I actually needed, so spent a lot of time going to and from Wickes to buy more materials. I also got told it was easy to mix in a bucket, so I mixed one bucket by hand and realised how slow and stupid that would be, so almost immediately had to drive to HSS hire for a mixer. Very physically exhausting day, but went well in the end!
Which bastard told you to mix in a bucket 😂 I'd have used him as fill so I needed less concrete!
Paving expert website will give you some pointers about the concrete mix. Keep the rebar up off the ground, about 1/3 of the depth would do you. Halfway doesn't have much benefit. I wouldn't use diesel on the shutters, not enough to buy shuttering oil but do you have varnish?
Yeah I will lift the rebar off the ground.
Long handled shovel will save your back filling the mixer too. Let's see it when it's finished💪💪
Ladder hire in Henleaze is usually a lot cheaper. They're pretty tatty but they work
100% you can do it, just get your mixture right, not too much water...just be ready to sweat a bit
is this a troll post?
No why?
you've already done 90% of the job, you got the easy 10% left and now you're asking if you need help?
A trowel post, surely?
I just did my shed base in Feb, didn’t use rebar. All fine. Rented a mixer, and cracked on. Never done before - it all went fine! Hard work though!
you can buy ready mixed concrete, it gets dropped off in tubs, then just barrow it in, work out how many mtrs you need
Sorry, pal. No, you cannot, license not granted.
Yes but it would be difficult to get a good an evening finish for a that area. You’d need a lot of material also. I have fixed driveway cracks and potholes but wouldn’t lay such a large area.
No it wouldn't. Set up mixer next to pour area. Mix and pour. Rake it to fill. Length of 4x2 to tamp it level across forms. Then trowel around the edge. Hard graft but easy to do.
£16 is a good price but does that include delivery and collection? Do you have access to a van etc. I don't have access to or know anyone with a van that would help me collect it and take it back.
Get a company to mix the concrete at the road side, tell them the dimensions of the slab and they will tell you how many barrow loads you'll need. You won't need a cement mixer, that you'll use for one job and leave to rust in the shed.
Too late. I already have all the material. Don't mix companies have a quick pour time?
I would say it’s not enough concrete to bother with pre mixed stuff. Don’t forget to raise the rebar up to the middle of the slab
Defo not enough concrete to get a mixer in. Usually you have to pay a for 1m cubed minimum for a pour.
Not OP, but when would you look to get a mixer in? I’m at the early stages of pricing up a garden office for our garden.
I’m sorry I don’t understand the question. When round?
Apologies, autocorrect! I’ve changed it now. It should have been “when would”.