Concrete, driveway - suggestions?

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#592405 8-Mar-2012 15:33

chevrolux:
freitasm:
chevrolux: Im building a fence at the moment and ordered the concrete just last week. Most expensive price was $200 from Firth concrete in palmy. Went to Higgins and it was $180.

But is this just the concrete, or the work?

I am looking at having the product and service done.

Yes just the concrete. All I'm saying is check that the builders aren't clipping the ticket on the concrete as they are making plenty off the labour costs.

FYI: GJ Gardner adds 20% to all quotes, labour + material. I believe it is the norm.

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Niel

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#592416 8-Mar-2012 15:46

timmmay: Concrete guys are some of the worst tradesmen I've found, in terms of responsiveness, communication, everything really. They're in huge demand and they know it. I think I put my job on builders crack, a standard sort of driveway, and got no responses at all.

Concrete generally needs to be done on a nice day, in summer, at least the coloured concrete does. The preparation can be extensive. If the concrete's coloured then a plastic sheet below the concrete's a good idea - I found that one out the hard way.

There are quality tradesmen around, we got one (in Auckland).

Concrete needs to be poured on a clear day with about 24h of no rain or maybe light spitting, else the cream (top layer) gets thinned too much and does not set properly and you end with a rough surface that looks bad. Water too early can also cause stains. From there on you need to wet it a few times over a couple of days, else the surface dries out and flakes before it has set. You can walk on it after a couple of days (technically 24h, I've do 48h). You can drive on it after 4 or 5 days, when the crack lines are cut. After 4 weeks it reaches 70% of it's strength. It takes many years to dry out, in the order of 5 years plus.

Laying plastic under concrete is to prevent ground water from rising and staining the surface. Not needed for normal concrete especially if it is raised above the ground.

Highly recommend completely barricading off access from the road/pavement a couple of meters away from the new concrete, and keep watch for at least 12h after the concrete arrives on site (preferably 'till 10PM). You have to do it only once and will have no footprints, initials, scribblings etc. I briefly dropped my guard 10h after pouring and a girl casually walked past dragging a stick over the footpath, was able to rub it out though.

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mattwnz

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#592421 8-Mar-2012 15:50

I poured my last concrete drive, as I had a concrete mixer. Not too difficult to do, and a lot cheaper. The material cost is actually very cheap. Largly just a truckload of aggregate and bags of cement, and human labour, and perhaps some reinforcing mesh under certain areas. Also a layer of compacted basecourse under it helps. No problems or cracking with the drive after 10 years. You can still get a very good finish.

timmmay

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#592439 8-Mar-2012 16:11

Under mine we had drainage coil with rock around it, dirt compacted, then more rock. Over that we had reinforcing mesh at 5cm height then 10cm of concrete. Even then we had a little cracking after 6 months.

mattwnz

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#592453 8-Mar-2012 16:35

timmmay: Under mine we had drainage coil with rock around it, dirt compacted, then more rock. Over that we had reinforcing mesh at 5cm height then 10cm of concrete. Even then we had a little cracking after 6 months.

10 cm would be minimum I would have thought. I did mine deeper than that, probably more like 120-150mm Also the strength of the concrete mix is important as is mesh. It also depends on the vehicles that are being driven on it. A large heavy truck can crack it, as you don't normally design a residential drive to have big trucks on it.

TechSol

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#592490 8-Mar-2012 18:27

Regs: you could try advertising the job on www.builderscrack.co.nz and let the contractors chase you with quotes instead of the other way around :-)

I tried that route for a driveway (Actually had it done last week) and ended up with outlandishly expensive quotes that varied between $10000 and $37000 for the same job...... ended up getting it done for around $5000 and very happy with the result..... just sayin'

Handle9

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#592499 8-Mar-2012 18:52

Niel:
chevrolux:
freitasm:
chevrolux: Im building a fence at the moment and ordered the concrete just last week. Most expensive price was $200 from Firth concrete in palmy. Went to Higgins and it was $180.

But is this just the concrete, or the work?

I am looking at having the product and service done.

Yes just the concrete. All I'm saying is check that the builders aren't clipping the ticket on the concrete as they are making plenty off the labour costs.

FYI: GJ Gardner adds 20% to all quotes, labour + material. I believe it is the norm.

Depends really. My builder adds 10%, so do more some do less. There's usually a trade off between hourly rate and materials markup.

As a rule $35 - $55 per hour and 10% for materials is the rule. If you want to save on materials then you can pay it yourself and have to deal with any conflicts if there are issues. Personally I'd rather pay the extra and have one person to deal with.

On my building job last year we paid about $210m3 for concrete with $100 per hour for a 4 tonne digger and $100 per hour for the truck (can't remember what size but I think it held 4-5 m3.

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timmmay

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#592505 8-Mar-2012 19:19

mattwnz:
timmmay: Under mine we had drainage coil with rock around it, dirt compacted, then more rock. Over that we had reinforcing mesh at 5cm height then 10cm of concrete. Even then we had a little cracking after 6 months.

10 cm would be minimum I would have thought. I did mine deeper than that, probably more like 120-150mm Also the strength of the concrete mix is important as is mesh. It also depends on the vehicles that are being driven on it. A large heavy truck can crack it, as you don't normally design a residential drive to have big trucks on it.

I left the details to my concrete guy, who has 20 years experience. It's thicker in some places, and it's all tilted very slightly towards the drainage we build in.

Drainage is important, both underneath the surface and above.

mattwnz

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#592506 8-Mar-2012 19:22

timmmay:
mattwnz:
timmmay: Under mine we had drainage coil with rock around it, dirt compacted, then more rock. Over that we had reinforcing mesh at 5cm height then 10cm of concrete. Even then we had a little cracking after 6 months.

10 cm would be minimum I would have thought. I did mine deeper than that, probably more like 120-150mm Also the strength of the concrete mix is important as is mesh. It also depends on the vehicles that are being driven on it. A large heavy truck can crack it, as you don't normally design a residential drive to have big trucks on it.

I left the details to my concrete guy, who has 20 years experience. ?It's thicker in some places, and it's all tilted very slightly towards the drainage we build in.

Drainage is important, both underneath the surface and above.?

Agree about drainage, it can undermine the edge foundations if not done right. I thicken the edges anyway, like you do with house slab foundations.

timmmay

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#592510 8-Mar-2012 19:32

Yeah my edges are up to 20cm thick on one side.

NglButiLoveTechnolog

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#2792175 9-Oct-2021 12:46

timmmay: I have a professional concrete guy who lives and works in Johnsonville (as do I) who did my driveway. He did good work, with some cavets, but they're about the color not the structure. He works mostly for the new home builders, he's got a very good reputation. I can give you his contact details, and if you want to have a look at what he did for me PM me and we'll work out a time for you to drop around and have a look. I'm only a few blocks from where you live, give or take.

I suggest you have one tradesman do all the work, not one for preparation and one for the concrete. That's a good general rule too.

Hey I was wondering if you could provide me with the details to your "Professional concrete guy who lives in Johnsonville"? I'm wanting some concrete placing works done. Thnx

Mehrts

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#2792229 9-Oct-2021 14:11

NglButiLoveTechnolog:

Hey I was wondering if you could provide me with the details to your "Professional concrete guy who lives in Johnsonville"? I'm wanting some concrete placing works done. Thnx

Wow, I haven't seen a thread revival after almost 10 years for a while!

Somehow I think that the info you're after is a bit outdated.

Lias

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#2792232 9-Oct-2021 14:18

I know Braden and a couple of guys who work for Tidy Slabs. Never actually had any work done by them thou.

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timmmay

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#2792285 9-Oct-2021 15:35

NglButiLoveTechnolog:

Hey I was wondering if you could provide me with the details to your "Professional concrete guy who lives in Johnsonville"? I'm wanting some concrete placing works done. Thnx

His phone has been disconnected, and the job he did while ok isn't up the standard that I'd recommend him for.

neb

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#2792320 9-Oct-2021 16:33

Zippity: Welcome to the Kiwi DIY brigade.

Roll up your sleeves and give it a crack yourself

I was just about to say, you don't really qualify as a kiwi bloke unless you go on periodic concreting binges... you're not... foreign are you?

Edited to add explanatory note: This thread was originally started by Mauricio :-).

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