On Sat, 4 Oct 2008 19:23:06 -0400, "cshenk" wrote:

:"Dan Musicant" wrote
: "cshenk" wrote:
:
: :Ok thanks! Not the same project we need but interesting thread to me!
: Kind
: f the 'learn something new each day'.
:
: My back yard has some faux brick concrete work.
:
:Good! That seems the cheapest easiest way to go for us. Thats a high
:concern as we've had $25,000 in repairs since since return (would be closer
:to $50,000 had we not been handy folks able to do much of it ourselves).
:Just bad luck of the draw with tenants but at least they kept us with enough
:from rent that we still own a house.

I used to rent this house along with other renters. After a while I was
the senior guy and handled the interactions with the property managers.
Our rent was cheap compared to the rest of the town because the house is
old (just shy of 100 years), and not really kept up. Now that I've
bought the house it's my hurculean task to get the house into shape to
sell. It wouldn't be so tough if I had the money, but even if I did have
the money to make this place ship shape, experienced GC's tell me I
wouldn't get my money out, so I'm trying to be judicious in what I do.
This house isn't the best for me to stay in, so I'm looking to sell.
:
: A tip or two: I used my wheelbarrow, a nice big 6 cubic footer. Use a
: garden hoe to mix, mix, mix the Quikcrete (or any other concrete
: mixture, even one you make yourself from Portland cement, sand and
: aggregate) with the water. I have 3 hoes, and one was perfect. The
: corners are rounded, so it doesn't scratch up my wheelbarrow. I cleaned
: the thing out afterward. I don't want my wheelbarrow looking like the
: one the plumbers used when they did my sewer lines!
:
:Grin, good point. I have a cat liter bucket I was going to try to use. One
f those tidy-cat plastic things but it may be hard to mix properly in that.
:My only wheelbarrow is plastic and cracked at the bottom. My own fault
:there, when stacking the 2 cords of wood, I dropped some pieces from too far
:up and it caused that. Still works for all other needs.

If you can swing it it might be a good investment to get a good steel
wheelbarrow. I got mine on sale for $30 back around 2002. Might cost you
almost twice that nowadays, but if on sale, probably cheaper. I use mine
very frequently, and it was way worth the investment. Usually I haul
yard waste, sometimes stone and brick, and just now, mixing and moving
concrete.
:
:Thinking... I have lots of construction grade (thick mill) plastic in big
ieces I can use to line that wheelbarrow. If a little seeps though, it
:wont be a problem. Alternative is a bonus left from the renters, a large
:cat litter pan we found tucked in the rafters in the garage last week
grin). Seems that would work too.

I have plastic sheeting too, but I wouldn't try to use it for concrete
work. Just too messy, too much of a problem to mix, remix, adjust
water/mix content to get the proper balance, remix, etc.
:
: My little project here came out pretty well. The portion I did actually
: looks a lot better than the stuff it was completing, which wasn't too
: sharp.
:
:Hehehe sometimes, thats the way of it. I've not done *much* work with
:cement but I have done small odd jobs over the years with little batches.
:Most 'recent' (if you can call 2000 'recent') before this was a nearby
:neighbor who's retired (limited fixed income), and crumbled back steps.
:Quite elderly with arthritis in the hips so this was both dangerous for him,
:and beyond his ability to fix. Other than replacing his steps with pre-made
:'blocks' and just mortaring them in with a little cement we mixed up, all my
ther projects have had others do the 'cement detail' while I sorta watched
:if not doing some other task.

Concrete work isn't all that hard, but I started late in the afternoon
(after 3 PM), had never done any concrete work before and wasn't at all
sure I was going to get done before darkness (~7 PMish), and so I felt
rushed. Besides, I had no realistic idea how much time I had to work
with the mixture before it would start going off. Also, I was nervous
about mixing two different batches, working in the first before mixing
the second and worried that this strategy wasn't wise. All in all it
made me work more feverishly than I normally would and I sure felt the
strain by the end as I worked and worked to smooth the cement, which was
all the tougher becuase I mixed much to dry. So, my back was really
hurting by the time I was done. I just wanted to do the work last
Wednesday, made up my mind to do so and did. It came out OK, all in all.
Not perfect, but OK for this.
:
OT but a sideline of mine from 1989-2001 was about 10 hours a month helping
eople with disabilities, make adaptions they needed but couldnt pay for.
:Mostly I built or adapted computers for the blind with screen reader
:software but i also did a fair amount of making ramps and things like that
:as part of a group. Many fine memories of working with and for people but
grin) not much personal cement work on my own part. Oh and yes, one of the
:members was a proper certified inspector and would run the permits for us if
:the particular job in his estimation required one. Like many things, you do
:what you can).

There are programs like that around here. I could probably even get them
to help me, but I haven't contacted them. I've been a DIY guy for years
and years and tend to just dig in and do things myself. It's actually
pretty amazing some of the projects I've managed to do on my own.

Dan