Pouring a Huge Concrete Slab Using Bagged Concrete | I Saved $10,000

Wow, much respect! In 2009 I retired at age 60 and set forth building a new house. Except for help framing and roofing I did it all myself. I sheetrocked a 3600sq ft house with 9' ceilings myself. People ridiculed me, what's taking you so long, bla bla bla. It took me 2+ yrs to complete, cost approx 280 k . Appraised last year at approximately 800k. Be proud of what you accomplished. No one can take that sense of pride and accomplishment , GREAT JOB!!

I worked commercial construction for 40 years and I know that was a ton of work. Congratulations on a job well done. Not only saving money but the satisfaction of doing something like this yourself can’t be beat. Your the man!

Wow. Respect! I did build my house in Germany all myself. Watching your video, it reminded me when it was on the time to poor my floor in the second level with concrete. Without any knowledge of how much work it would be to “flatten” 23 cubic meters of ready-concrete, I ordered a concrete pump truck with it. 5 concrete trucks showed up on that morning. The pump truck driver looked at me and said: Looks like your crew is late today. I answered: You looking at it! 😮 The guys looked at me and said: Are you crazy! - In the end, I got it done. From 6am to 7pm I flatten the whole thing. It was an adventure for me to get off the second level. I couldn’t move my arms. I had no power in my fingers. It was a kinda sliding, falling down to the ground. Took me at least 30 minutes to get each boot of my feet. And I was crying because I was soooo tired. I promised that evening myself: No more than 5 cubic meters of concrete each day….. 😂 I was 28 at that time. - Now I am 60. And I have to make a slab inside the house. 5-6 cubic meter to do it. I think this time, I hire 2-3 extra guys. 😅

As a concrete pump operator I can respect you accomplishment of saving $10,000. Time well spent

Very nice, my son and myself did our 36' x 26' pole shed using bag concrete. We were unable to get concrete truck to the location of the building. I poured 13' x 6' sections that seemed to go well. Mine was a little more of a challenge with the building already up. It was nice doing the job together with my son , he mixed and i did the pouring and leveling. That was a couple years ago, he was 16 at the time and i was 57. My son is in the Air Force now and I miss him not being around to help with my projects. Anyways, nice job. Take care.

I'm a cheapskate and a hard head. This brought joy to my heart. Very well done. Very inspiring.

I cannot imagine mixing 830 bags of concrete LOL. Well done 👏

What a beautifully done youtube.com/post/UgkxYGamVaHfdHiPlAQaLa7zkwR02OKpG… ! The instructions and the photographs are brilliant. It is thorough and genuinely informative. Ryan got another winner! No one does it better!

I am a professional concrete finisher and I have never done that even once in my life, much respect that is a TON of work! Never used a mixer for more than a small side walk, mostly for very small pours. That is just huge.

That is one of the most insane thing I ever seen. I been in the trade a minute. The average person doesn't know how much work this is. Much respect

Almost unbelievable. Your physical ability to do this and staying consistent to the task speaks volumes. I admire your fortitude . Congratulations

My attitude is, if they can do it, I can do it. The key to a job like this is planning and setup. If you're running around hauling bags 100 feet away, you've already lost. Have everything ready, get into a nice rhythm and make corrections as you go. You'll find that the first block segment is the most difficult and each one after gets progressively easier. One tip is, have your bags at waist height. bending over a picking up a 80 lb bag is not going to do your back any good. You want to lift the bags while keeping your back and straight as possible, Having them in a truck or set up sawhorses and line up the bags on boards or something. Huge respect to you.

You are a machine!! As a construction manager, I appreciate what you did. Assuming your base was adequately compacted, I would have put some #4 rebar sections in as 'dowels' to tie the different panels together since they were all cold joints. That would preclude any future differential movement.

YouTube recommended this video 2 years late. Hats off to you.

That's a LOT of work ! Glad to see someone who's not afraid of it, like most people today. I think the only thing I would have added, would have been to drill some horizontal rebar stems into the slabs that were set up before pouring the ones in between, just to try and keep any one slab from rising or falling at all, compared to the one beside it.

When I was a kid on a dairy farm we all worked with our dad pouring large slabs for cattle lots. We used 2x4 form boards and poured broom finish redi-mix without a vapor barrier, no wire or rod, no control joints and no experience. This was over Michigan clay where frost goes deep and hard. The slabs were run over daily by tractors, feed wagons, loaded manure spreaders, and heavy livestock. Were there cracks here and there over the years? Probably, but none of the damage was bad enough that slabs needed to be replaced. There's such a thing as good enough, which is almost perfection when the savings are huge.

I love seeing this kind of video. Just some suggestions for anyone watching this. (a) this is A LOT OF WORK - lifting and dumping 80lb bags will work you out - be ready for it (b) if your breaking up the pads like he is (and I did the same) make sure you include some rebar dowels so the pad shifts uniformly, otherwise each of those pads will shift individually (c) use welded wire mesh to reinforce the pads (d) use an apron - lifting those bags and breaking them into the mixer ALWAYS produces dust and it gets on everything AND lifting that many bags you get sweaty - cement and sweat = chemical burn (dont ask me why I know this - burned chest is not fun) (e) make sure whatever shoes your wearing, the "lips" are covered - you dont want cement power in those either. Love the video - seeing someone doing this (almost all alone) shows everyone that no task is impossible.

Me reading through the comments thinking what the heck I'm getting myself into, planning to build a double story house when I haven't done any construction in my life... Thanks for the motivation and knowledge

I love the line “I don’t make 10 grand a week” lol. So awesome man. That’s a really big project. I have the same cement mixer and plan on doing a back patio this summer at our house in sections. Seeing people take on something this big makes me feel good about taking it on.

Last year I thoroughly gutted and remodeled both our hall & master baths for a grand total of $7,400 and it all turned out great! If I hired a contractor it would have easily been $25-30,000. This remodel added about $50-60,000 in value to our home! I am 55 years old and have NEVER done this before. What's my secret? Watching lots of YouTube videos like this guy pouring his concrete pad. There is so much good and free information out there you just gotta apply yourself and go for it! Great job on that pad bro! 👍