Concreting tips.

Lawless

Member
Just looking for bit of concrete advice for finishing concrete in an open yard that will get a lot of lorrys over it.
Once you have poured the concrete and been over it a couple of times with either a roller beam or twin vibrating beam, what would you do next?
Do you float it straight away? Read somewhere that you should use a magnesium bull float then leave it for a while to let the 'bleed water' evaporate before sticking a 'big blue' float over it?

What's best?
Can you just leave the screeding beam finish as the finished surface?
 

foxbox

Member
Location
West Northants
We only pull the beam across the concrete once, having cut through the slabs later on (as always having realised we've concreted right over the bit we need to dig up) there's no air within it so any more passes than this appears to be for your own amusement rather than achieving anything particularly productive.

On open yards we've put a large float across it and followed that up a while later with a fairly course brush finish. It provides a good surface for machinery and lorries to shunt on without scrubbing tyres too much and even after years of use it won't have polished up to badly. It also sweeps well in any direction.

On cattle access areas we've gone with brush finishes too but they do become slippy in time so now we're starting to groove the concrete with a profiled float (timber with bits of V belt nailed to it) when the concrete will hold the grooves. It sweeps well with the grooves but is a pain in the butt if you're going against them.

I think a hand tamped finish may be too rough for lorry areas, it's ok for occasional cattle access I guess but I think would be a bit harsh for daily use.

Ensure you put contraction joints in (we cut the slab 24 hours after pouring now although you can get shuttering etc to form this for you too (K-Form I think it's called).

Also; from experience if you decide you want grooves in it after it's gone off get some other bugger to do it, it's a horrible job!
 

Derky

Member
Location
Bucks/oxon
Depends on what finish you want ? Grip than a vibrating beam screed or roller tamp. Polished then you lay it with a vibrating poker then put a power float on it. We have used K form its dear but bloody good.
 
Just looking for bit of concrete advice for finishing concrete in an open yard that will get a lot of lorrys over it.
Once you have poured the concrete and been over it a couple of times with either a roller beam or twin vibrating beam, what would you do next?
Do you float it straight away? Read somewhere that you should use a magnesium bull float then leave it for a while to let the 'bleed water' evaporate before sticking a 'big blue' float over it?

What's best?
Can you just leave the screeding beam finish as the finished surface?

If you use a roller screed then you'll have to vibrate it with a poker first aand roll it a few times just to get the slab height right. If you use a beam tamp just run that over once and it's done (y) as to finish. It's always hard on a yard for traffic, a brush finish looks good and is grippy but how long it'll last with wagon tyres screwing round on it I don't know. Several options leave a tamp finish, which depending on your beam tamp could be rough or if it's like mine it'll be a smooth finish.

You could brush it which I think is favourable

You could wait till it goes off then rough the surface up with a power float, won't look pretty but will be grippy

Or put a roller tamp finish in It
 

BAC

Member
If you use a roller screed then you'll have to vibrate it with a poker first aand roll it a few times just to get the slab height right. If you use a beam tamp just run that over once and it's done (y) as to finish. It's always hard on a yard for traffic, a brush finish looks good and is grippy but how long it'll last with wagon tyres screwing round on it I don't know. Several options leave a tamp finish, which depending on your beam tamp could be rough or if it's like mine it'll be a smooth finish.

You could brush it which I think is favourable

You could wait till it goes off then rough the surface up with a power float, won't look pretty but will be grippy

Or put a roller tamp finish in It

Would personally use a beam tamp, depending on the area split it into bays and use runners for the tamp. get it perfectly level then as well
 

Lincsman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
how do you go about forming a retaining wall??? all you need to make sure is that you have removed the air from inside the mix
You use a poker with care, its experience that will tell you know what it was like on the last jobs you took the shutters off. In fact over pokering can break your shutters open, usually you only add 1meter deep/30 mins, so a 3m wall needs 3 "runs" along it and gently pokered together.
 
We have a grain store conc. floor to put down some, will be laid by ourselves in 4 pours over a 2 week period - how would folks finish it? The forms are pressed metal channels, we don't have any type of power float, just a timber hand tamp. What about one of those long handle floats, are they any good?
 

Lincsman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
We have a grain store conc. floor to put down some, will be laid by ourselves in 4 pours over a 2 week period - how would folks finish it? The forms are pressed metal channels, we don't have any type of power float, just a timber hand tamp. What about one of those long handle floats, are they any good?

Needs to be powerfloated so its easy to sweep, this can be an all night job in the wrong conditions and you dont want retarders in the mix, a walk behind machine would be OK for the areas you are doing at once. I had a professional outfit do mine, wet mix so nearly self leveling, lightly pokered and raked level, then "magic tamped", then ride on power float, whole shed in one pour, it was about 10 loads, but seemed no effort for 4 men.
 
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Ideally u will need a professional with the proper tools to do a proper job.
A powerfloat pan will pull cement via suction from the hardening concrete. This paste is then closed in with the blades over several runs to ensure a hard wearing impact resistant surface.

Concrete just closed in with a bull float will wear through fast exposing aggregates bellow and leaving a roughish surface prone to wear!

If you want grip a then pan the surface to suck up paste, then bull float to smooth top, let harden a while and a brush finish. will last far longer than a brush finish straight of the top of "green" concrete.

Also an aluminium edge that's broke in will leave a far nicer more uniform tamper finish than a gastly piece of timer.

Just my 2 cents worth...
 
Probably are no doubt, but I'd have thought easy cleaning and hard wearing would have been desirable? I'm in Ireland and am unsure what the going rate is in England. But if the rate over there is anything like here it won't cost an arm and a leg!
 

Lincsman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
What sort of rate is charged for a professional power floated finish? I'm sure there are plenty of store floors that are just tamped down tho.
For a 1 pour lazer leveled, the labour and equipment about £7/m2, and will be done in a day. It will need cuts put into also which may add another £1/m2
Dont forget you will only do this once.
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
We have a grain store conc. floor to put down some, will be laid by ourselves in 4 pours over a 2 week period - how would folks finish it? The forms are pressed metal channels, we don't have any type of power float, just a timber hand tamp. What about one of those long handle floats, are they any good?

I would suggest that hiring a power tamper would be very worth while
they won't be dear
 

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