On Sep 18, 5:00*pm, "Steve B" wrote:
"Home Guy" wrote in ....
Steve B wrote:

Then there is buying and moving 500 80# bags, then hoisting each
one into the mixer. *It says it takes one 80# bag per two square
foot form. *And at about $3.75 per bag, that's $1,875.

Just to clarify, your form has a volume of .29 cubic feet - if it is (as
you say) 2 sq feet in area and 1.75 inches high. *That much concrete
would weigh 42 lbs. *It would take even less in your case, considering
voids built into the form to give internal separation between the
blocks.

An 80 lb bag of premix concrete would therefore easily do 2 of your
forms - not one.

You would therefore need 200 to 250 bags, not 500.

You should look into the cost of pigment because that's not going to be
cheap.

And this would be the kind of project where you buy a small electric
mixer - not rent one. *Once you buy it, you use it at the pace you
want. *Not under the gun to bring it back in a few hours or by 10 am the
next day.

I have a vintage mixer that works beautifully. *Not an issue. *And 250 @
3.75 ($937.50) certainly does sound better than twice that. *It's the labor
that I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around. *80# sacks, 250 of them
........ and me having broken my back, a knee surgery, two shoulder
surgeries, and chronic neck pain.

Wait, wait. *I know the answer to this .......................

Most of us knew you knew the answer and were sneaking up on it in your
own time.

I'm not sure of where the pavers are going and other constraints/
variables, but I'd be _sorely_ tempted to go with a poured slab and
stain it with some acid stains. You can get some pretty nice looking
stuff that way and it would be done with minimal fuss and muss.

You said ~1000SF, and with a 4" slab that's about a dozen yards of
concrete. Not sure what the prices are like where you are, but that
would probably be about the same cost as the bags of concrete mix
alone.

Pick your battles. Rule number one in picking your battles is saving
your labor for the skilled stuff that costs more, not the grunt work
that's low paid. Rule number two is to save your body so you can do
the skilled work.

R