Math help, yards of concrete

[moosehunter]

 Doing my first ever concrete floor, I have helped many other but was always just a grunt!

The floor/pad is 24'x30', monolithic. Perimiter is 12" deep, 15" wide, tapers quickly to 5.5".

I come up with 15 yards. Is that right?

Any help/ suggestions are welcome.

Mike

[exssnelt]

I came up with 15.2 yards, but i always round up. As a general rule we order 5% more than calculated, just in case. It's better to have too much and pour some sidewalk than to have too little and have cold joints.

Jim

[Gary_C]

If all your estimates were exact, it comes up to 14.87 yards. You should add some based on how good you feel about your measurements, especially the thickness.

If you allow a lot extra, make preparations before the truck arrives for somewhere you need a pad or sidewalk. At $100+ per yard it pays to be prepared just in case you have too much.

[moosehunter]

 Thanks,
I do plan on having two extra forms ready, one for the walk in door and one for the large door entrance.

[Murf]

Mike, even if (especially if??) you have absolutely *no* intetions of ever putting anything like a bathroom, heat or extra electric, etc., in that shop, spend the $20 now and put a couple of pieces of capped conduit and piping through the slab and out to a spot a few feet past the building perimiter.

It will take you 10 extra minutes now, but may save you many days of cursing & sweating later on.   >:(

Don't ask how I know..........  :    :D

[Engineer]

15 yards is in the ballpark, but order at least an extra yard to cover the possibility that you have 6" thick slab in some spots, that your taper is a bit more than expected, etc.   Worst case is you have to find someplace to hide a yard of concrete.  Build some 2' square forms out of 2x4's and cast some 'pads' if there's leftovers.  Always find a use for that.

[DanG]

I figger ya need about 4860 board feet.  I'd go with 5,000 to make sure.

Hope this helps. ;)

[Gary_C]

DanG

Is that in 2 x 4's or 2 x 6"s ?    ;D

[thurlow]

Personally, if I thought I needed 5000 bd ft of concrete, I'd go ahead and get 5,280 ft;  probably be the only one in the neighborhood with a mile of concrete. 8)

[Gary_C]

I just talked to a farmer that was thinking about building a bunker silo. He needed a concrete pad about 30' x 80' and the concrete alone was going to cost $39,000!   :(

So if you bought 5000 yds of concrete, the bill would be $500,000.

If I had that many dollars, I sure would not pour it out on the ground.   ;D

[UNCLEBUCK]

When we lived in st.paul before moving up to the farm my dad hired a couple local concrete men to pour a slab on the farm . When we came up to the farm the next week the concrete men showed up to get paid and my dad wrote the check and subtracted 2 yards off the total and his eye starts to twitch when he gets steamed and the local concrete experts left with red faces as they had to confess where the extra 2 yards went to . Fun to watch my dad go into a lumberyard and get ahold of a hotshot or a cement plant . I am the kind where I would just pay it and forget it but he is one tough ol'dude .

[moosehunter]

 Large rental tools are lined up. Concrete is ordered. Breakfast is at 7am Sat. morning, first truck at 7:30.
Anyone not busy Sat. morning?
To get to my house you just go uphill 'till you get a nose bleed, we're the first place on the left ;D
Bring yer own trowel.
mike