Tony Sinclair wrote:
On 18 Jan 2006 20:24:43 -0800, "Harry K"
wrote:


snip

You could build the forms yourself or have them built (a whold field of
knowledge in itself) and buy pre-mix - probably find that the cost of
the concrete in place would exceed by much your cost of mixing it
yourself.

Either you left a word or two out, or I don't have a clue what you are
talking about (or both). Can you restate that paragraph?


You're right. it should have read "would NOT exceed by much the cost
of doing it yourself" By the time you have a mountain of sand,
aggregate and a pallet of cement hauled in, the costs have started to
add up before you mix the first shovel full.

There was a good suggestion made by someone. Get a standard bag of
premix, make up a cobbled together mortar tub (couple boards and piece
of flashing or just use a wheelbarrow) and mix it to specifications
using a common garden hoe. Now look at it and see just how much work
that was to mix up just 2/3 of a cubic foot - that is the amount in the
common size bag. The work is some less but still hard even using a
mixer. It is a valuable bit of practice as you will no doubt be wanting
small quantities of concrete around your place in the future for other
tasks. Good to know what it is like before you go into a project.

Harry K