Y’all did a great job on your dry pour driveway project! Wow! It looks amazing! We are so happy that y’all were able to save so much money and end up with fantastic results!😊
@@TUGG75 things cost different amounts in different areas. We live in one of the most expensive places in America. The cheapest I could find to have this concrete delivered was over $1,000 more than I paid for the bags. Ultimately we went with this process not only to save money but to experiment with a new technique. So far that experimentation has been fulfilling and rewarding and if the result ends up needing repair that'll be the next adventure.
@CajunCountryLivin We are humbled and flattered that you folks stop by to drop a comment! Thanks so much for all the videos you've shared doing this technique. I hope our video is the doorway through which people walk to find your information. We appreciate you for all your hard work, God bless!
The paint roller finish is definitely not my idea. In fact everything in the video came from Cajun Country Living except for the chain link which I got from a suggestion on the internet. There's a link to one of their videos in the description of this video that I highly recommend you watch.
I just did an 8x8 dry pour (4” thick) for a shed I’m building, and man was it so much easier than the traditional way. Holy crap I can’t believe I didn’t know this was a thing until recently. It worked out insanely well - I drilled all the way thru in a few spots for testing, and for the shed anchors, and it’s solid all the way through in the middle and the edges. Fantastic.
Thanks for doing this. Was hoping someone would tackle a big one and you did very well. Big savings and better than all the other driveways in your video. If it holds up it was a great investment in time and effort.
Great job good for you and taking on such a large project I've been watching a ton of dry poor videos and I'm getting ready to pour my own 8 by 15 for a shed glad to see you use the chain link fence for the steel reinforcement I'm planning on doing the same Cajun Country folks are awesome they are helping us all save a lot of money
It's certainly not a project for everyone but I found it very satisfying. It will be tempting to do the work without gloves but I highly recommend wearing them.
That is the very reason we are doing this experiment. With things getting tight it may be time to consider new techniques. I would hate to have someone invest time and money in something that will fail so we will be posting updates on the slab at the end of each season.
I love that people actually tried this! I have always wondered why this wouldn’t work, but who am I? I guess you showed all those naysayers. 😂. Thanks for taking the time for video this with such a large slab. 👏
As far as I'm concerned the experiment is still ongoing. We will be posting updates at the end of each season. I'm most interested to find out how it will hold up to the winter. We have very wet winters in our area with many freezing days.
Well done! I'm sure your neighbors thought you were crazy and at first I thought there is no way to get that huge done in one day. I love dry pour, but as a retired concrete person I think this will all depend on the structure of your base. The give and take of the land underneath over the seasons will be the key. As long as you are using it as parking pad you should be okay. Driveways that require actually driving up and down like a short street require 6-10" concrete w/ rebar/mesh, plus a tamped thick base. But in this case I think 4 is good. I would take a circular saw w/ bosch diamond blade (28 amazon) and cut you two channels from old drive to grass area and go about an inch deep. Start .25" deep as you cut with water, making 4 passes to get the channel. The concrete will crack, you just control the crack or as it is called "expansion/contraction". The negative people are concrete slingers upset at loss of income. Any DIY project you can do and learn from is a win. Even when we fail at DIY and it cost money, it was the satisfaction of trying and learning! By the way...the "professionals" who poured your original driveway should be ashamed. Throw the cuts in yours for cracks and put their wet pour to shame.
Thanks for the praise and especially thanks for the advice! I thought I was going to have to cut through the whole slab including the chain link fence. The slab is about 26 feet long so how far apart should the channels I cut be?
Put your joints in every 8ft and you'll be fine its all about your base and freeze thaw cycles are also important in how a slab reacts to cold weather? Bagged concrete I don't believe is air entrained...
It's all an experiment so learning is part of the process. So far it's holding up to being parked on on a regular basis. Plenty of people are on the journey with us and I feel like it was worth the time and money just for us all to learn together.
I'm going for it , I got the concrete out there waiting and it's exciting doing it myself and saving money at the same time two things I didn't think were possible before .
It was a lot of fun. Watch every video you can and read the comments in the videos. I didn't read comments and that may have saved me the mistake of not including expansion joints.
@@MejorYa Yes , I agree about the expansion joints and my plan is to go 6x10 slabs and join them together with concrete bonding adhesive so that each slab is the expansion joint itself . That's what I'm trying since a 4 inch deep should have expansion joints of no less than 8 to 12 feet according to google . I also saw a video where concrete contractors were making expansion joints after the fact with concrete saws , it was awesome watching them do that and same with your video , too.
When i replumed my home w pex 15 years ago i had people ( professional plumbers to) telling me i wouldn't be able to sell my home and that it would flood my home on and on ...well i sold the home it cleared inspection w no issues and i never had a single leak. My point is your Always going to get flack when your a diy. I watched your video and would like to tell you very nice job for a diy driveway. 👍
Retired Landscape Architect. I learned the Dry Concrete method from a Pole Building contractor. I was amazed how easy it was to get 6 x 6 posts set perfectly with little sweat. I have used that trick on my own fences. Now I am planning a sidewalk and will definitely use dry concrete premix. Have seen others use a topping layer of dry mortar mix for finer finish.
I'm hoping that the chain link works out. Quite frankly it got closer to the surface than 2 inches in a few places maybe even only an inch down and I'm a little bit concerned about those places.
@@MejorYa Coincidentally, my new neighbor just told me that I could have 300+ feet of 5' chain link fence, posts, etc. I just got to tear it all down. lol
I did a 12x10 grill area off of my patio. It was a lot of work because I pulled the grass and did 4” of concrete. I think most of my issues were because I only had two sides that weren’t up against a wall so my strokes couldn’t be as long. The roller smoothed it out great and it’s been a few months now and it looks great still.
I need to do a 12 x 16 ft area, but its inside of a metal building. So I got walls on all sides. Still trying to figure out how I'm going to be able to level/screed the concrete. Its only for walking, so I'm using gravel to level the dirt floor, then plan on adding 2" of concrete on top. And I'm most likely going to have to do it in 3 sections, because I don't think I have a way reach far enough to "mist" it for the first two waterings. Shower setting would be easy enough to reach though, but got to mist it first.
@@AkornzStash I made mine about 3-4” thick and dug down and tamped the ground. Im in Florida and don’t have ground freeze though. Definitely gotta mist and the paint roller really smoothed it out. If you don’t have room on any side I’m not sure how you can do it.
Wow nice job, and excellent feathering in the new slab with the old one. Glad you posted this because theres hardly anything online about dry pouring a driveway like this, and that's my goal sometime this summer when the money situation allows. I'm interested to know how this holds up over time so keep us posted ok?
I'm definitely going to post future videos on the driveway if there's any issues with it. Not only to make people aware who are watching this but also to get advice on how I might repair any damage that arises.
I would’ve done expansion pad to split the new from old pad. Looks good! I was going to do 8x15 dry for my shed but, I wimped out and wet poured it. Just didn’t want to tear down my shed and redo the slab.
This slab is useful but not mandatory. If worst came to worse and I needed to do repairs to it, it won't put anything out of commission. That being the case it seemed like a good candidate for this experiment.
Holy crap that's a HUGE dry pour! Looking good. But I would've separated the new pad with the old pad with a clean straight expansion joint. I think eventually the two will separate and it will look jagged.
As it turns out my application of an acidic compound between the two slabs is working out. They are separating with a crack that is very thin and follows exactly the border between the two slabs.
I kept thinking it was going to rain on you. I pour a patio one time and the biggest rain storm came through. It was a mess trying to covered up quick enough. They still enjoying the patio but I will never do it again. Good job
It almost did for sure! We just got the dry rolling done and it started to sprinkle but thankfully it didn't get much harder than a sprinkle. Just enough water that if we were still working the powder it would have become a mess.
There's one update video up so far and we're going to do an update video at the beginning of each season. We get freezing weather here and I'll be interested to see what happens with it.
I figured it would work. My dad had a few bags of unused concrete that was stored in the shed for roughly 10 years. I decided to use them for a little project… but couldn’t because it’s now one massive rock in the shape of a bag. 😂
I have been waiting on a few driveway dry pours because I have been thinking of doing one. I would be interested in seeing update video’s of the pad in the months to come. It looks 👍
@@michaelstrout3839 The very opposed opinions between people who do this around their properties and professionals who would like to be paid to do it is one of the main reasons we did this experiment. We want to find out what the truth is.
Good job man. Good to see people taking work into their own hands. Concrete companies are so expensive and it always cracks anyway, even when done by pros. If its for a drive way or small shed, dry pour is a good use case.
I was curious about the technique having done concrete the traditional way several times in my life. I figured this would be a big test of the technique and I'm excited to see how the change of seasons affects the pad.
Nicely done! I've decided to DIY dry-pour all the concrete for my upcoming remodel. Like you, I'll also be widening my driveway. After the dry-pour fully cures, my plan is to cover the new and old with a layer of concrete resurfacer to make it all match. I haven't decided if I'll leave the dry-pour aggregate exposed or not, but I'll certainly not be doing all the extra screeding and rolling needed to make it look picture-perfect.
Thanks, we're complete newbies when it comes to this process but we had a lot of fun. I definitely recommend checking out the video in the Cajun Country Living video in the description of this video.
They make a refinishing type product that you could use on the small section that is not smooth. It mixes thin like a floor leveler and you use a big squeegee to finish it. It's pretty easy.
I think this is awesome. We can all learn and see. I would really like to see how much you could shake to make it settle 1st eliminating or trying to spaces or air pockets ...
The unexpected rain that we got in the early afternoon really forced us to hurry. If that hadn't happened I feel like I could have gotten a much better finish.
I would definitely reinforce something this big especially next to an existing driveway, probably connect the 2 so the slab can’t slide away. I’ve been thinking about trying this dry pour method on a sidewalk! Also, did you end it cutting joints?
Former Landscape Architect... typically a hole is drilled in existing slab and steel dowel (rebar works) would be inserted to pin old and new slabs together. This would be done every 2 feet, and 2' x 2' #4 rebar grid tied to it. Painting a delay agent along joint would keep new from sticking to old so it can expand / contract.
Except for the part where you couldn't screed it, it looks amazing. Much more smooth and uniform than other large dry pour slabs I've seen. The only thing I would've done differently is to have an expansion gap every 8 or 10 ft of length.
We did our best with the screeding. The weather report changed about an hour into the project and rain was coming so we had to go as quick as we could. If we would have had more time then we would have paid a lot more attention to the screeding.
Your feedback is extremely appreciated. I wonder what the solution would be to prevent that separation. But again, I've seen city sidewalks cracked and broken so I get it if it's not perfect. But that's cool that it hasn't cracked with the weight of the car. I'm actually going to give this dry-pour a try sometime soon. thx much
No problem. I suggest watching as many videos as you can on the technique and also plenty of videos that attempt to or successfully debunk the technique. I didn't find any debunking it that persuaded me not to try.
I just came onto this videos and I like it and I feel like I could improve on it. I might do some small projects before I attempt something ridiculous in size like a shop
In the end I looks good. But most people don’t put enough water to seep through the concrete. I been doing my shower pans the same way for years way before utube discovered it. The first time I did I thought it worked and the sand mix was strong and hard … well we decided to move the drain to the center of the shower and realized 3/4 down was still a powder form. The water on top made a crusty surface and slowed the water process from seeping down. Very disappointing. Look at mike days video on here before a dry pour. Thanks and honestly good luck with this driveway.
your driveway came out very nice looking. i am not a supporter of dry-pour concrete for any purpose other than maybe a backyard sidewalk or under a storage shed. i think you'll find that your new driveway is not going to last more than a few years but maybe it will be more cost-effective for you to just re-do your "dry-pour" driveway every few years. at any rate, i hope your process does last as you obviously saved a lot of money doing the "concrete work" yourself. best wishes.
The costs of dry pouring concrete over just ordering 3 and half yards of readymix concrete are about the same. And you have easy access for the truck. Order at least a 3500 pound mix for a driveway. Buy magnesium float and an edger. Rent a bull float and a wheelbarrow. Hire a strong neighborhood kid for a couple of hours to help out. In the end it will take a lot less time, be stronger and smoother. And you don't have to pick up and dispose of 138 bags. You should also put in control joints every 8 feet.
In our area all the concrete delivered by truck was a little over twice the price of the bags. We got a good deal on it buying it bulk and after seeing this technique I figured why not test it out. There are plenty of folks very concerned about my finances and my time and I appreciate them all but we're going to be okay on this project even if it fails.
I dont understand how people think this is a good idea.. its just as much work if not more than wet concrete.. mix it wet pour it screed it and it would be 10 times better than this.. just because you call it a adventure dosent make it smart idea
It's an experiment. I've done plenty of wet concrete projects over the years and the dry pour caught my fancy. We live in a time of unprecedented information sharing which means new techniques and new approaches are explored all the time. Exploration doesn't always end in success but it does always end in insight.
No problem! It'll be interesting to find out how it turns out. Will do an update video at the end of each season to see what the effects of freeze and thaw through the winter have on the project.
For sure, I learned a lot about this technique and things I should have done. If I ever do another slab that butts up against an existing slab I will use some old shingles I think that's a fantastic plan.
If concrete redi mix cost you $200 dollars per yard...135 bags is about 3 yards...delivery would be about $250. So $850 for materials. You already needed to do some formwork, but it would have needed to be a bit more beefy for redi mix. So you paid extra to do more work and end up with an inferior result. To each his own I guess.
It's a big experiment to test a technique that lots of folks are interested in. I'm honestly pretty amazed at how many people have strong feelings about it. It comes off as oddly authoritarian...
@@MrSteeDoo I mean from the perspective that so many people are so heavy-handed over something that is just an experiment. I'm not claiming that it does or doesn't work I'm doing a big experiment to see what the reality is. If it doesn't work and I tear it up and replace it with concrete done the traditional way I won't have a moment of regret. It's been a grand adventure.
I’ve been told by an engineer that the primary reason why concrete slabs crack is largely due to poor preparation of the under surface. If the ground is properly compacted first, then compacted with gravel, along with using rebars, slabs will generally hold up.
There's 2 in of compacted gravel on top of compacted soil under the concrete however I've been told by several comments on this video that my use of chain link instead of rebar will come back to bite me. We're just going to have to see.
I have a slab that’s 15 years old that we park two cars on. Not one single crack in it. When concrete guys say “concrete always cracks” what they mean is THEIR jobs always crack. If concrete always cracked they wouldn’t build skyscrapers and bridges out of it.
@@bguen1234 the original slab next to this one has many cracks in it. We get freezing winters out here in a ton of rain and I'm guessing that that's part of it.
I'm sorry about that. That's why I say in the video that anyone interested in the technique should watch the video that is linked in the description of this video. I was so wiped out by the time the project was over that every time I went out to water I took a picture instead of taking a video. 😅
I'm a firm believer un dry pour. But that was a huge slab to do at one time. By setting a temporary form board across the area. you could have done it as 3 or 4 separate slabs, day after day. Just carefully knock the Temporary form board out and start the next slab right next to the first. If the first slab chips along where the form was, no harm. you can even chip it down about an inch and blend the next slab into the first. Once it all cures it will look like you did it all at once. Screeding can be the hardest part because you need to do it aggressively to get the fine and the powder up to the surface. The better you do the Screeding, the better the final surface will be. When you get a spot that you can't reach well with the long screed, you can use a short one or even a float. You dust want to compact it slightly and get the fines up. Even if it is not dead on level. when you roll it, it should ease any transition. The beauty is that if it doesn't look quite perfect, add a bit more concrete and hit it again. If you are doing wet pour from a truck, you have no choice, you have to finish it all the same day. But with dry pour you can take your time and do it in multiple sections. Just spend a bit extra care screeding and rolling where the slabs meet and it will look fine!! I built an electric vibrating screed which helps a bit. But I've seen someone attach a vibrating palm sander to their screed board and it looked like it worked. The one I made is a bit more engineered than that, but the basic principle is the same. Just did a pretty big one in 3 sections and made my own 123 concrete dry mix with sand stone and cement, in a Harbor freight mixer. Saved quite a bit over the Sakreete bag mix. But I also have a dump trailer and bobcat, so I didn't have pay delivery for the materials. Mixed it and umped it right there were I needed it. Just lugging all those 80lb bags is like work!! My goal was to cut as much manual labor out of it as I could. Worked at an easy pace. I've done wet concrete pours in my younger days and want no pert of that anymore!
@@MejorYa I pretty much follow Cajun Country's methods exactly and did a lot of testing to verify their validity. I even precisely measure the amount of water applied and strangely enough. the amount matched the minimum listed on the bags. I use a very fine mist until full surface color change. I made test slabs in see through molds and you could watch each watering migrate down into the mix. What I found was that it pretty much stopped migrating after 30 minutes, so I changed the frequency to every 30 minutes. Ended up with the same number of waterings but with the more frequent rate, you'll be done quicker. I watched each watering being absorbed until it slowed way down or stopped absorbing. I used mist for every watering and the calculated number if waterings. After the last mist, the slab was fully absorbed, I can see this varying somewhat depending on you water application method. I think the 30 minute cycle on a thick slab may work just a bit better, reducing total time, but also helping keep that top skin from curing too soon. IDK that it makes that much difference, but by my analysis, it works fine. and just might be a bit better from a cure standpoint. Cajun country's method is solid. The other things I mentioned are minor deviations from an engineers perspective. Their approach is excellent as opposed to a few others I have seen mostly dreamt up by concrete guys. But I have come to believe that the very first thing you need to do before dry pouring, is to forget everything you know about a traditional wet pour. I think that's why so many of the concrete pros have so much trouble making it work well. It's because their minds are locked into a certain way to do concrete and they can't let go of that thinking. I've watched several of their "fail videos" and invariably I find myself saying "There's your problem' quit thinking like it's a wet pour!!" It's not easy to retrain your brain to do something differently!
I am not trying to be malice or mean with this post. Please anyone who is watching do not do this. I’ve been doing concrete for a very long time. This is a really bad idea. Especially reinforcing it with galvanized fencing that will deteriorate very quickly unfortunately I believe this slab will structurally fail sooner than later. I do wish the best of luck with it though. Just remember folks you get what you pay for
Same here I try not to be mean either but it pains me to see. Never turns out good, always looks bad due to the constant flooding of water while it’s trying to cure. Nice concrete can add value to a home, can’t say the same for this. Like walking in a home with a bad drywall job.
It's an experiment so folks will know the truth of this approach. For us it's worth the money and time to find the facts. Don't worry, if it fails we'll tear it up and "do it right".
how long did you wait before parking your truck on it? after watching this, i will attempt on my driveway 😆. Thanks for your video. I hope my driveway looks like yours when finish
It's a big experiment and I'm okay with whatever happens. Of course I would prefer that nothing goes wrong but if it does then we'll just figure out how to fix it and we'll post a video of that too.
It's been holding up really good. It gets parked on every day by a four-door Corolla. I do have one crack forming in the middle of it which will be shown in the next update and that may have to do with my use of chain link instead of rebar. I would suggest using rebar instead of chain link for reinforcement.
I've been a concrete analyzer engineer for 19 years. I just want to let you know that if your dry pouring 3,500 PSI concrete, this will dry to about the consistency of high quality Adobe with some cement mixed in so somewhere between 1200 but no more than 2000 PSI. Concrete needs the chemical reaction of the water in order to attain its full strength. This is a lazy unthinking and ignorant thing that people are doing, but if that's all you want is a driveway that's going to last half as long and only be half a strong. Then you've achieved your goal, especially if all you care about is that it will only look half as good.
The goal is to test the process so I don't mind either way. I try to make it pretty clear in my response to comments that this is an experiment and I try to avoid endorsing that anyone else do it. If someone does say that they want to do it I encourage them to watch as many videos as they can especially the ones seeking to debunk the process. It sounds like you have the background to do a great video debunking the process.
( This was submitted on another site by a civil engineer. What's your opinion on what he's advising here as an alternative to dry pour?) @mikehewitt1253 1 month ago (edited) Dear all, let me try to help everyone understand concrete. The cement part of any mortar or concrete reacts with water in a hydraulic chemical reaction (exothermic reaction i.e. generates heat). When thoroughly cured, meaning allowing enough time for this reaction to take place and preferably throughout all the cement particles where they become irreversibly hardened and water proof. However, cement on it's own will shrink significantly and crack all over so it needs a binder - sand - this 'stretches' the cement through the mix so when it hardens via Curing it's bonded to lot's of already hard sand particles and more cement particles alike creating a hard material that doesn't crack - mortar. However 😁 mortar is not strong in itself. For strength we add Aggregate, ideally for strength you want some flat, some irregular stones (not pebble like) of 3 sizes - pea size, golf ball size and halfway between those - giving us Concrete when Cured throughout. Now, I've watched many dry pour vids with interest and listened to the nay sayers saying it has to be WET to cure and therefore dry pour is nonsense......... Time for education folks where (after that which I have outlined above) you will be surprised that I'm on the side of dry pour ....... SORT OF...... When dry pouring, it is tamped thoroughly down before spraying - this is GOOD - but cement particles and sand particles and aggregate elements throughout will not all receive moisture, will not Cure and will remain as dust in parts - not good. BUT Wet is not great either! It's CONVENIENT. The best, strongest concrete is Mechanical Concrete which is made with JUST ENOUGH water to provide moisture throughout for correct curing. The test is - grab a small fist full, squeeze hard together in palm of hand and if doesn't hold shape and crumbles when released from pressure, needs more moisture. The shape should Break cleanly in two pieces without crumbling - if stretches in the break test, it's too wet. So my recommendation to all is........ Dry pour mix thoroughly together with rake, add moisture by spraying so as not to over-wet BUT rake that moisture throughout and THEN Tamp down hard compacting it all properly and level off. All this 24 hrs later stuff is inadequate - Minimum curing time is a month - covered to keep that minimum moisture in the mixed pad, base, driveway, - shouldn't be touched, don't go near it - best of both worlds here as easy as Dry Pour and stronger than the normal convenient Wet stuff which because of too much moisture cannot be as compacted and consolidated to provide the same strength. Go Mechanical guys, it's the best. Anyone want to hear my views on Earthcrete, which I find fascinating - by the way - I'm a Civil Engineer - spent an entire year studying Concrete - an entire bloody year on nothing but concrete. PS DON'T use quickset anything, you won't have enough time for all rake work, use standard Portland.
Thanks! It'll be interesting to see how it holds up. I've done concrete the old fashioned way since I was a teen. This is the first time I've tried this technique and I'm fascinated to see what the results of winter freezing will be on the slab.
Why would you want to keep the new slab separate? Should have added some rebar ties and locked them together. They both move or neither move. I’ve done a couple dry pours myself and for me at least, they only work ok for small things that are not seeing dynamic loads, like an AC unit pad or garden planter pad. I did a parking pad for my GSXR and the edge broke off and the concrete anchors for a roof post split out.
Since the slab itself has no expansion joints and the existing driveway is cracked in a few places I figured I would create a week layer between the new slab and the old driveway so if there was any need for expansion or movement it could happen along that weak point.
Think of concrete as being a sponge. It is not waterproof. If it gets enough water, it will hydrate. It will harden. If your slab will be exposed to the rain, if you live in an area that gets enough rain, the rain can do the job of setting the concrete for you. Keeping fresh concrete wet is good for it. Letting it dry and then get wet alternately, not so much. It just needs two things, time and water.
This is amazing, I had no idea you could do this. Do you live in below freezing climate? are you suppose to have relief cuts? I am starting the research now. Is this suppose to last as long as wet mix concrete?
In the description of this video is a link to the video i watched to start down this rabbit hole. Definitely watch that video and try to find as many videos as you can debunking the process so you can be aware of any possible pitfalls. Yes I should have put in relief cuts and I have the saw blade I just always end up with something else on my plate and haven't put in those relief cuts. We do live in a climate that gets freezing weather through the winter and that's one of the reasons I've been doing update videos. Those update videos will help us all find out together how well it holds up.
@@SeaDooEric this project is about testing the process. I saw it online and figured I'd do something big and then post updates at the end of each season. We will find out together how it holds up.
So far I've parked an 8000 lb RV on it as well as my half ton pickup and my son parks his four-door Corolla on it everyday. As far as compression testing goes it's doing what I need it to. Ultimately this is an experiment to test the process and I will be posting updates at the end of each season to see how it holds up to weather. I'm neutral on the concept and thought I would provide data to the public at large.
This is not just a 'big'. I feel like this should be listed in the Guinness Word Records as the biggest Dry Pour Concrete project. :)
We're humbled!
A dry pour that size is a major undertaking. Well done for sure.
Thanks very much. We had a ton of fun doing it and came away with a good sense of accomplishment.
I have a lot I want to say but in the spirit of kindness I will keep my thoughts to myself. 😂😂😂
Thanks for the view and the comment.
😂😂😂
@@MuddyfeetConcretePumping 😁
@JoeGerding 🤣
@JoeGerding I'm here to help folks find out if this works or not.
Y’all did a great job on your dry pour driveway project! Wow! It looks amazing! We are so happy that y’all were able to save so much money and end up with fantastic results!😊
@@TUGG75 things cost different amounts in different areas. We live in one of the most expensive places in America. The cheapest I could find to have this concrete delivered was over $1,000 more than I paid for the bags. Ultimately we went with this process not only to save money but to experiment with a new technique. So far that experimentation has been fulfilling and rewarding and if the result ends up needing repair that'll be the next adventure.
@CajunCountryLivin We are humbled and flattered that you folks stop by to drop a comment! Thanks so much for all the videos you've shared doing this technique. I hope our video is the doorway through which people walk to find your information. We appreciate you for all your hard work, God bless!
Looks like shit and flakey wait for a couple months that’s why we are the concreter are you are delusional creators
Y'all should be ashamed of yourselves for spreading so much ignorance. It's disgusting. I would be suing you if I were these people.
@@MejorYatake your god bless and shove it.
Thanks for the video. Gives me confidence to try my own dry pour for my carport area. I love the chain link reinforcement and the paint roller finish.
The paint roller finish is definitely not my idea. In fact everything in the video came from Cajun Country Living except for the chain link which I got from a suggestion on the internet. There's a link to one of their videos in the description of this video that I highly recommend you watch.
I just did an 8x8 dry pour (4” thick) for a shed I’m building, and man was it so much easier than the traditional way. Holy crap I can’t believe I didn’t know this was a thing until recently. It worked out insanely well - I drilled all the way thru in a few spots for testing, and for the shed anchors, and it’s solid all the way through in the middle and the edges. Fantastic.
Sounds like you did a great job! Congratulations!
where are you located at? ie, NW Ohio, Southern Kansas, etc... Thanks!
@@billsmith9249 Western Washington State.
Yep.harder than a wedding ....
@@mikekemper9566 The wedding is difficult, the wedding night is often the reward.
For all her efforts 🎉 We hope this works out for you as your wife is a champ❤
It's a big experiment and we hope it works out too but if it doesn't we'll definitely post about it.
Thanks for doing this. Was hoping someone would tackle a big one and you did very well. Big savings and better than all the other driveways in your video. If it holds up it was a great investment in time and effort.
We'll see how it does through the winter. 🤔
Great job good for you and taking on such a large project I've been watching a ton of dry poor videos and I'm getting ready to pour my own 8 by 15 for a shed glad to see you use the chain link fence for the steel reinforcement I'm planning on doing the same Cajun Country folks are awesome they are helping us all save a lot of money
It's certainly not a project for everyone but I found it very satisfying. It will be tempting to do the work without gloves but I highly recommend wearing them.
How did the shed base go? I'm doing the same this week for my 8x15 shed.
Good job looking forward to seeing rest of your work 😊
Thanks! Feel free to explore our channel for more videos you may enjoy.
Damn this is an impressive finish if you ask me! This is the best finish I have seen from dry pour.
Good job, and way to preserver! Things have gotten out of hand on cost and a lot of us are figuring out other ways to get things done.
That is the very reason we are doing this experiment. With things getting tight it may be time to consider new techniques. I would hate to have someone invest time and money in something that will fail so we will be posting updates on the slab at the end of each season.
I love that people actually tried this! I have always wondered why this wouldn’t work, but who am I? I guess you showed all those naysayers. 😂. Thanks for taking the time for video this with such a large slab. 👏
As far as I'm concerned the experiment is still ongoing. We will be posting updates at the end of each season. I'm most interested to find out how it will hold up to the winter. We have very wet winters in our area with many freezing days.
Well done! I'm sure your neighbors thought you were crazy and at first I thought there is no way to get that huge done in one day. I love dry pour, but as a retired concrete person I think this will all depend on the structure of your base. The give and take of the land underneath over the seasons will be the key. As long as you are using it as parking pad you should be okay. Driveways that require actually driving up and down like a short street require 6-10" concrete w/ rebar/mesh, plus a tamped thick base. But in this case I think 4 is good. I would take a circular saw w/ bosch diamond blade (28 amazon) and cut you two channels from old drive to grass area and go about an inch deep. Start .25" deep as you cut with water, making 4 passes to get the channel. The concrete will crack, you just control the crack or as it is called "expansion/contraction". The negative people are concrete slingers upset at loss of income. Any DIY project you can do and learn from is a win. Even when we fail at DIY and it cost money, it was the satisfaction of trying and learning! By the way...the "professionals" who poured your original driveway should be ashamed. Throw the cuts in yours for cracks and put their wet pour to shame.
Thanks for the praise and especially thanks for the advice! I thought I was going to have to cut through the whole slab including the chain link fence. The slab is about 26 feet long so how far apart should the channels I cut be?
@@MejorYa u should b good with 2 cuts or wherever ur concrete is cracked or cut on the otherside, just follow them threw the new slab
Put your joints in every 8ft and you'll be fine its all about your base and freeze thaw cycles are also important in how a slab reacts to cold weather? Bagged concrete I don't believe is air entrained...
awesome tips limbo, thanks for sharing your expertise with us! I'm getting ready to do my own dry pour and will definitely do as you say
@@adrianromerocodes3211 for sure, limbo has some good advice.
Congratulations! You just created concrete that has the strength of concrete that aged about 25 years. Good job!
It's all an experiment so learning is part of the process. So far it's holding up to being parked on on a regular basis. Plenty of people are on the journey with us and I feel like it was worth the time and money just for us all to learn together.
I'm going for it , I got the concrete out there waiting and it's exciting doing it myself and saving money at the same time two things I didn't think were possible before .
It was a lot of fun. Watch every video you can and read the comments in the videos. I didn't read comments and that may have saved me the mistake of not including expansion joints.
@@MejorYa Yes , I agree about the expansion joints and my plan is to go 6x10 slabs and join them together with concrete bonding adhesive so that each slab is the expansion joint itself . That's what I'm trying since a 4 inch deep should have expansion joints of no less than 8 to 12 feet according to google . I also saw a video where concrete contractors were making expansion joints after the fact with concrete saws , it was awesome watching them do that and same with your video , too.
When i replumed my home w pex 15 years ago i had people ( professional plumbers to) telling me i wouldn't be able to sell my home and that it would flood my home on and on ...well i sold the home it cleared inspection w no issues and i never had a single leak. My point is your Always going to get flack when your a diy. I watched your video and would like to tell you very nice job for a diy driveway. 👍
Thanks very much. It's appreciated.
Retired Landscape Architect. I learned the Dry Concrete method from a Pole Building contractor. I was amazed how easy it was to get 6 x 6 posts set perfectly with little sweat. I have used that trick on my own fences. Now I am planning a sidewalk and will definitely use dry concrete premix. Have seen others use a topping layer of dry mortar mix for finer finish.
When I showed my uncle my video he laughed and said that he's been setting fence posts that way his whole life. He is in his '80s.
@@MejorYa He's pretty smart
I like the chain-link fence idea for the rebar. I just poured a 10 bag slab alone but I mixed each bag with water in a wheel barrow.
I'm hoping that the chain link works out. Quite frankly it got closer to the surface than 2 inches in a few places maybe even only an inch down and I'm a little bit concerned about those places.
Doesn't chain link fencing cost more than wire mesh? @@MejorYa
@@BrickMudge I got it cheap from a guy in a van.
@@MejorYa Coincidentally, my new neighbor just told me that I could have 300+ feet of 5' chain link fence, posts, etc. I just got to tear it all down. lol
looks outstanding to me great work!
great job, ive done a few now by myself, what a job.
Thanks! We really enjoyed the process.
Turned out great thanks for sharing the video.
Thanks for the positivity! I certainly have to handle a lot of negative comments on this project. 🤣🤣🤣
I did a 12x10 grill area off of my patio. It was a lot of work because I pulled the grass and did 4” of concrete. I think most of my issues were because I only had two sides that weren’t up against a wall so my strokes couldn’t be as long. The roller smoothed it out great and it’s been a few months now and it looks great still.
That would be tough with the two sides obstructed. I'm glad it turned out for you.
I need to do a 12 x 16 ft area, but its inside of a metal building. So I got walls on all sides. Still trying to figure out how I'm going to be able to level/screed the concrete. Its only for walking, so I'm using gravel to level the dirt floor, then plan on adding 2" of concrete on top. And I'm most likely going to have to do it in 3 sections, because I don't think I have a way reach far enough to "mist" it for the first two waterings. Shower setting would be easy enough to reach though, but got to mist it first.
@@AkornzStash I made mine about 3-4” thick and dug down and tamped the ground. Im in Florida and don’t have ground freeze though. Definitely gotta mist and the paint roller really smoothed it out. If you don’t have room on any side I’m not sure how you can do it.
Wow nice job, and excellent feathering in the new slab with the old one. Glad you posted this because theres hardly anything online about dry pouring a driveway like this, and that's my goal sometime this summer when the money situation allows. I'm interested to know how this holds up over time so keep us posted ok?
I'm definitely going to post future videos on the driveway if there's any issues with it. Not only to make people aware who are watching this but also to get advice on how I might repair any damage that arises.
@@MejorYa Well i sure hope it goes well for you with it. Peace
I would’ve done expansion pad to split the new from old pad. Looks good! I was going to do 8x15 dry for my shed but, I wimped out and wet poured it. Just didn’t want to tear down my shed and redo the slab.
I did it with a mixer rental from Home Depot and used 56 80 lbs bags. That was a pain in the ass
This slab is useful but not mandatory. If worst came to worse and I needed to do repairs to it, it won't put anything out of commission. That being the case it seemed like a good candidate for this experiment.
You whimped out and did it right!
Bravo man, great job!
Thank you very much 😎 it was a fun project and quite satisfying.
Looks good! That's a big ole dry pour.
Thanks! It was a fun project to do as a family. Big shout out to @CajunCountryLivin for introducing us to this technique.
Holy crap that's a HUGE dry pour!
Looking good. But I would've separated the new pad with the old pad with a clean straight expansion joint. I think eventually the two will separate and it will look jagged.
As it turns out my application of an acidic compound between the two slabs is working out. They are separating with a crack that is very thin and follows exactly the border between the two slabs.
Until it gets bigger and bigger. Why not just cut control joints?
@@carlosmorales9216 I got the saw blade now I just need to cut the joints.
@@MejorYa can you make a video of that process too? Thanks.
@@markgriff9265 the next time I get a day here that's not raining I'll do it.
I kept thinking it was going to rain on you. I pour a patio one time and the biggest rain storm came through. It was a mess trying to covered up quick enough. They still enjoying the patio but I will never do it again. Good job
It almost did for sure! We just got the dry rolling done and it started to sprinkle but thankfully it didn't get much harder than a sprinkle. Just enough water that if we were still working the powder it would have become a mess.
Wow using chain-link fencing instead of Rebar. I love it.
How you guys did that without fighting is amazing.
Thanks! We also don't fight when I'm parking the travel trailer and she's guiding me in. That's not a euphemism...
That's a great job you both have done 🎉❤🫡💯
Thanks very much! We appreciate it.
Wow! Thanks for sharing this!
I dried poured my driveway five years ago, I sealed it with epoxy grey paint, I live in Ohio, haven't had one issue.
That's great to hear. I'm really glad that it worked out for you.
Definitely a serious undertaking. Just gonna be nice and say good job on not being afraid of hard work.
Looks good, y'all. Yes,that angle change is tough.
Great job!
You are too kind! 😎
That is gigantic! You should def do update videos since this is a one of a kind size dry pour that's on the net right now.
There's one update video up so far and we're going to do an update video at the beginning of each season. We get freezing weather here and I'll be interested to see what happens with it.
I figured it would work. My dad had a few bags of unused concrete that was stored in the shed for roughly 10 years. I decided to use them for a little project… but couldn’t because it’s now one massive rock in the shape of a bag. 😂
I wonder if that's how the first person got the idea for dry pour, the concrete turning into a rock in the bag.
Very nice job 👍👍
Thanks! We're newbies for sure. 🤣🤣🤣
I have been waiting on a few driveway dry pours because I have been thinking of doing one. I would be interested in seeing update video’s of the pad in the months to come. It looks 👍
Thanks very much. I just wish we hadn't had rain roll in and been hurried. Given time I believe the finish could have been amazing.
Ryan said it's A bad idea
@@michaelstrout3839 The very opposed opinions between people who do this around their properties and professionals who would like to be paid to do it is one of the main reasons we did this experiment. We want to find out what the truth is.
@@michaelstrout3839 you talking about victory’s Ryan ?? If so I believe they are the best CZcams concrete channel on here
@@southernslipping4225 yes easy money
Nicely done.
Thank you kindly.
Good job man. Good to see people taking work into their own hands. Concrete companies are so expensive and it always cracks anyway, even when done by pros. If its for a drive way or small shed, dry pour is a good use case.
I was curious about the technique having done concrete the traditional way several times in my life. I figured this would be a big test of the technique and I'm excited to see how the change of seasons affects the pad.
Please do a follow up in about a yr or so and let people see what it looks like. This looks great!
We're going to do an update at the end of each season.
Nicely done! I've decided to DIY dry-pour all the concrete for my upcoming remodel. Like you, I'll also be widening my driveway. After the dry-pour fully cures, my plan is to cover the new and old with a layer of concrete resurfacer to make it all match. I haven't decided if I'll leave the dry-pour aggregate exposed or not, but I'll certainly not be doing all the extra screeding and rolling needed to make it look picture-perfect.
If nothing else it's a fun and satisfying project.
Good job!
Thanks, we're complete newbies when it comes to this process but we had a lot of fun. I definitely recommend checking out the video in the Cajun Country Living video in the description of this video.
Great job
Thanks a lot! I'm very interested in seeing how things will turn out over time. We intend to do update videos at the end of each season.
Nice job! You’ve gave me inspiration. Quick question! How’s it holding up. Any cracks and do you park your car on it - thank you
It gets parked on daily by a four-door Corolla and I did an update video today.
Probably slept good for a few nights after that. Looks great
After a few nights I got a good night sleep. I was sore for a few days and that led to some restless sleep. 😁
They make a refinishing type product that you could use on the small section that is not smooth. It mixes thin like a floor leveler and you use a big squeegee to finish it. It's pretty easy.
Thanks for the tip!
I think this is awesome. We can all learn and see. I would really like to see how much you could shake to make it settle 1st eliminating or trying to spaces or air pockets ...
The unexpected rain that we got in the early afternoon really forced us to hurry. If that hadn't happened I feel like I could have gotten a much better finish.
Good Job!!!
Thanks, it was a fun experiment.
I would definitely reinforce something this big especially next to an existing driveway, probably connect the 2 so the slab can’t slide away. I’ve been thinking about trying this dry pour method on a sidewalk! Also, did you end it cutting joints?
We haven't cut the joints. It's something that we would like to do but right now our schedules aren't allowing it.
Former Landscape Architect... typically a hole is drilled in existing slab and steel dowel (rebar works) would be inserted to pin old and new slabs together. This would be done every 2 feet, and 2' x 2' #4 rebar grid tied to it. Painting a delay agent along joint would keep new from sticking to old so it can expand / contract.
Except for the part where you couldn't screed it, it looks amazing. Much more smooth and uniform than other large dry pour slabs I've seen.
The only thing I would've done differently is to have an expansion gap every 8 or 10 ft of length.
We did our best with the screeding. The weather report changed about an hour into the project and rain was coming so we had to go as quick as we could. If we would have had more time then we would have paid a lot more attention to the screeding.
Your feedback is extremely appreciated. I wonder what the solution would be to prevent that separation. But again, I've seen city sidewalks cracked and broken so I get it if it's not perfect. But that's cool that it hasn't cracked with the weight of the car. I'm actually going to give this dry-pour a try sometime soon. thx much
No problem. I suggest watching as many videos as you can on the technique and also plenty of videos that attempt to or successfully debunk the technique. I didn't find any debunking it that persuaded me not to try.
Good video
No Guiness record yet? Holy Moly, it's a huge dry pour !
It was a big job for sure but soooo satisfying.
Awesome!
Thanks!
Good job
Came out good.
I appreciate your comment. Many would beg to differ. Thank you for your support!
I just came onto this videos and I like it and I feel like I could improve on it. I might do some small projects before I attempt something ridiculous in size like a shop
My back hurt just when moving a few 60lb bags. I can't imagine what 80lb bags felt like.
My back made it through all right which was a surprise. I will never work with dry concrete with bare hands again though let me tell you!
In the end I looks good. But most people don’t put enough water to seep through the concrete. I been doing my shower pans the same way for years way before utube discovered it. The first time I did I thought it worked and the sand mix was strong and hard … well we decided to move the drain to the center of the shower and realized 3/4 down was still a powder form. The water on top made a crusty surface and slowed the water process from seeping down. Very disappointing. Look at mike days video on here before a dry pour. Thanks and honestly good luck with this driveway.
I made sure to soak it pretty good once I made it through the first series of wettings. I hope I got it right. 😃
Outstanding
Thank you very much!
your driveway came out very nice looking. i am not a supporter of dry-pour concrete for any purpose other than maybe a backyard sidewalk or under a storage shed. i think you'll find that your new driveway is not going to last more than a few years but maybe it will be more cost-effective for you to just re-do your "dry-pour" driveway every few years. at any rate, i hope your process does last as you obviously saved a lot of money doing the "concrete work" yourself. best wishes.
Thanks. More or less I just wanted to do a big project to test the process.
That's cool!
Thanks!
The costs of dry pouring concrete over just ordering 3 and half yards of readymix concrete are about the same. And you have easy access for the truck. Order at least a 3500 pound mix for a driveway. Buy magnesium float and an edger. Rent a bull float and a wheelbarrow. Hire a strong neighborhood kid for a couple of hours to help out. In the end it will take a lot less time, be stronger and smoother. And you don't have to pick up and dispose of 138 bags. You should also put in control joints every 8 feet.
In our area all the concrete delivered by truck was a little over twice the price of the bags. We got a good deal on it buying it bulk and after seeing this technique I figured why not test it out. There are plenty of folks very concerned about my finances and my time and I appreciate them all but we're going to be okay on this project even if it fails.
I dont understand how people think this is a good idea.. its just as much work if not more than wet concrete.. mix it wet pour it screed it and it would be 10 times better than this.. just because you call it a adventure dosent make it smart idea
It's an experiment. I've done plenty of wet concrete projects over the years and the dry pour caught my fancy. We live in a time of unprecedented information sharing which means new techniques and new approaches are explored all the time. Exploration doesn't always end in success but it does always end in insight.
Some things are better done traditionally
Thk you for doing it…
No problem! It'll be interesting to find out how it turns out. Will do an update video at the end of each season to see what the effects of freeze and thaw through the winter have on the project.
Wow lots of work with all those bags but some old pieces of roofing shingle would have provided a great barrier between slabs.
For sure, I learned a lot about this technique and things I should have done. If I ever do another slab that butts up against an existing slab I will use some old shingles I think that's a fantastic plan.
If concrete redi mix cost you $200 dollars per yard...135 bags is about 3 yards...delivery would be about $250. So $850 for materials. You already needed to do some formwork, but it would have needed to be a bit more beefy for redi mix.
So you paid extra to do more work and end up with an inferior result. To each his own I guess.
It's a big experiment to test a technique that lots of folks are interested in. I'm honestly pretty amazed at how many people have strong feelings about it. It comes off as oddly authoritarian...
@@MejorYa authoritarian? It's hundreds of years of actual real-world work and experience.
@@MrSteeDoo I mean from the perspective that so many people are so heavy-handed over something that is just an experiment. I'm not claiming that it does or doesn't work I'm doing a big experiment to see what the reality is. If it doesn't work and I tear it up and replace it with concrete done the traditional way I won't have a moment of regret. It's been a grand adventure.
I’ve been told by an engineer that the primary reason why concrete slabs crack is largely due to poor preparation of the under surface. If the ground is properly compacted first, then compacted with gravel, along with using rebars, slabs will generally hold up.
There's 2 in of compacted gravel on top of compacted soil under the concrete however I've been told by several comments on this video that my use of chain link instead of rebar will come back to bite me. We're just going to have to see.
@@MejorYa I am no expert, but if your chainlink is galvanized, I don't see how it would.
I have a slab that’s 15 years old that we park two cars on. Not one single crack in it. When concrete guys say “concrete always cracks” what they mean is THEIR jobs always crack. If concrete always cracked they wouldn’t build skyscrapers and bridges out of it.
@@bguen1234 the original slab next to this one has many cracks in it. We get freezing winters out here in a ton of rain and I'm guessing that that's part of it.
The best part to watch is the watering.. it’s the most satisfying part to watch.. and it’s completely skipped 😭😭😭
I'm sorry about that. That's why I say in the video that anyone interested in the technique should watch the video that is linked in the description of this video. I was so wiped out by the time the project was over that every time I went out to water I took a picture instead of taking a video. 😅
it's 8 months later... how is it holding up?
Please post a video one year from the day that you finished the dry slab, would like to see how it’s holding up.
So far there's one update video we posted that was the beginning of Fall and our intent is to post an update video at the beginning of each season.
Nice!
I'm a firm believer un dry pour. But that was a huge slab to do at one time. By setting a temporary form board across the area. you could have done it as 3 or 4 separate slabs, day after day. Just carefully knock the Temporary form board out and start the next slab right next to the first. If the first slab chips along where the form was, no harm. you can even chip it down about an inch and blend the next slab into the first. Once it all cures it will look like you did it all at once.
Screeding can be the hardest part because you need to do it aggressively to get the fine and the powder up to the surface. The better you do the Screeding, the better the final surface will be. When you get a spot that you can't reach well with the long screed, you can use a short one or even a float. You dust want to compact it slightly and get the fines up. Even if it is not dead on level. when you roll it, it should ease any transition. The beauty is that if it doesn't look quite perfect, add a bit more concrete and hit it again.
If you are doing wet pour from a truck, you have no choice, you have to finish it all the same day. But with dry pour you can take your time and do it in multiple sections. Just spend a bit extra care screeding and rolling where the slabs meet and it will look fine!!
I built an electric vibrating screed which helps a bit. But I've seen someone attach a vibrating palm sander to their screed board and it looked like it worked. The one I made is a bit more engineered than that, but the basic principle is the same.
Just did a pretty big one in 3 sections and made my own 123 concrete dry mix with sand stone and cement, in a Harbor freight mixer. Saved quite a bit over the Sakreete bag mix. But I also have a dump trailer and bobcat, so I didn't have pay delivery for the materials. Mixed it and umped it right there were I needed it. Just lugging all those 80lb bags is like work!! My goal was to cut as much manual labor out of it as I could. Worked at an easy pace. I've done wet concrete pours in my younger days and want no pert of that anymore!
So wise suggestions there...
@@MejorYa I pretty much follow Cajun Country's methods exactly and did a lot of testing to verify their validity. I even precisely measure the amount of water applied and strangely enough. the amount matched the minimum listed on the bags.
I use a very fine mist until full surface color change. I made test slabs in see through molds and you could watch each watering migrate down into the mix. What I found was that it pretty much stopped migrating after 30 minutes, so I changed the frequency to every 30 minutes. Ended up with the same number of waterings but with the more frequent rate, you'll be done quicker. I watched each watering being absorbed until it slowed way down or stopped absorbing. I used mist for every watering and the calculated number if waterings. After the last mist, the slab was fully absorbed,
I can see this varying somewhat depending on you water application method. I think the 30 minute cycle on a thick slab may work just a bit better, reducing total time, but also helping keep that top skin from curing too soon. IDK that it makes that much difference, but by my analysis, it works fine. and just might be a bit better from a cure standpoint.
Cajun country's method is solid. The other things I mentioned are minor deviations from an engineers perspective. Their approach is excellent as opposed to a few others I have seen mostly dreamt up by concrete guys. But I have come to believe that the very first thing you need to do before dry pouring, is to forget everything you know about a traditional wet pour. I think that's why so many of the concrete pros have so much trouble making it work well. It's because their minds are locked into a certain way to do concrete and they can't let go of that thinking. I've watched several of their "fail videos" and invariably I find myself saying "There's your problem' quit thinking like it's a wet pour!!" It's not easy to retrain your brain to do something differently!
Maybe i missed it, but, how much time passed before you parked your truck on the slab? Great video.
A full month.
I am not trying to be malice or mean with this post. Please anyone who is watching do not do this. I’ve been doing concrete for a very long time. This is a really bad idea. Especially reinforcing it with galvanized fencing that will deteriorate very quickly unfortunately I believe this slab will structurally fail sooner than later. I do wish the best of luck with it though. Just remember folks you get what you pay for
Same here I try not to be mean either but it pains me to see. Never turns out good, always looks bad due to the constant flooding of water while it’s trying to cure. Nice concrete can add value to a home, can’t say the same for this. Like walking in a home with a bad drywall job.
It's an experiment so folks will know the truth of this approach. For us it's worth the money and time to find the facts. Don't worry, if it fails we'll tear it up and "do it right".
@@redline4124 it's all good. See the response to the comment above. This is a fact finding expedition.
how long did you wait before parking your truck on it? after watching this, i will attempt on my driveway 😆. Thanks for your video. I hope my driveway looks like yours when finish
I waited a full month to let the concrete cure to 100% strength.
Not bad. If you're happy we're happy
I'm down for the adventure!
In Michigan those quick Crete bags crack after a year or two because the stones are too small hope it works out for you
It's a big experiment and I'm okay with whatever happens. Of course I would prefer that nothing goes wrong but if it does then we'll just figure out how to fix it and we'll post a video of that too.
Been thinking about doing this for my back patio. How is yours holding up four months later? Any wear and tear starting to show?
It's been holding up really good. It gets parked on every day by a four-door Corolla. I do have one crack forming in the middle of it which will be shown in the next update and that may have to do with my use of chain link instead of rebar. I would suggest using rebar instead of chain link for reinforcement.
So It's been 8 months. Any cracks, any issues?
I've been a concrete analyzer engineer for 19 years. I just want to let you know that if your dry pouring 3,500 PSI concrete, this will dry to about the consistency of high quality Adobe with some cement mixed in so somewhere between 1200 but no more than 2000 PSI. Concrete needs the chemical reaction of the water in order to attain its full strength. This is a lazy unthinking and ignorant thing that people are doing, but if that's all you want is a driveway that's going to last half as long and only be half a strong. Then you've achieved your goal, especially if all you care about is that it will only look half as good.
The goal is to test the process so I don't mind either way. I try to make it pretty clear in my response to comments that this is an experiment and I try to avoid endorsing that anyone else do it. If someone does say that they want to do it I encourage them to watch as many videos as they can especially the ones seeking to debunk the process. It sounds like you have the background to do a great video debunking the process.
( This was submitted on another site by a civil engineer. What's your opinion on what he's advising here as an alternative to dry pour?)
@mikehewitt1253
1 month ago (edited)
Dear all, let me try to help everyone understand concrete.
The cement part of any mortar or concrete reacts with water in a hydraulic chemical reaction (exothermic reaction i.e. generates heat). When thoroughly cured, meaning allowing enough time for this reaction to take place and preferably throughout all the cement particles where they become irreversibly hardened and water proof.
However, cement on it's own will shrink significantly and crack all over so it needs a binder - sand - this 'stretches' the cement through the mix so when it hardens via Curing it's bonded to lot's of already hard sand particles and more cement particles alike creating a hard material that doesn't crack - mortar.
However 😁 mortar is not strong in itself. For strength we add Aggregate, ideally for strength you want some flat, some irregular stones (not pebble like) of 3 sizes - pea size, golf ball size and halfway between those - giving us Concrete when Cured throughout.
Now, I've watched many dry pour vids with interest and listened to the nay sayers saying it has to be WET to cure and therefore dry pour is nonsense.........
Time for education folks where (after that which I have outlined above) you will be surprised that I'm on the side of dry pour ....... SORT OF......
When dry pouring, it is tamped thoroughly down before spraying - this is GOOD - but cement particles and sand particles and aggregate elements throughout will not all receive moisture, will not Cure and will remain as dust in parts - not good.
BUT Wet is not great either! It's CONVENIENT.
The best, strongest concrete is Mechanical Concrete which is made with JUST ENOUGH water to provide moisture throughout for correct curing.
The test is - grab a small fist full, squeeze hard together in palm of hand and if doesn't hold shape and crumbles when released from pressure, needs more moisture. The shape should Break cleanly in two pieces without crumbling - if stretches in the break test, it's too wet.
So my recommendation to all is........
Dry pour mix thoroughly together with rake, add moisture by spraying so as not to over-wet BUT rake that moisture throughout and THEN Tamp down hard compacting it all properly and level off.
All this 24 hrs later stuff is inadequate - Minimum curing time is a month - covered to keep that minimum moisture in the mixed pad, base, driveway, - shouldn't be touched, don't go near it - best of both worlds here as easy as Dry Pour and stronger than the normal convenient Wet stuff which because of too much moisture cannot be as compacted and consolidated to provide the same strength.
Go Mechanical guys, it's the best. Anyone want to hear my views on Earthcrete, which I find fascinating - by the way - I'm a Civil Engineer - spent an entire year studying Concrete - an entire bloody year on nothing but concrete.
PS DON'T use quickset anything, you won't have enough time for all rake work, use standard Portland.
@@illiniwood it's an interesting read. I chose to do a dry pour concrete project for this driveway largely as an experiment to test the technique.
I will wait to give my real thoughts in a few months time 😂.
I'm curious to see what happens. It's an experiment and I'll be posting updates at the end of each season.
please post an update :) please!! like 6 months 1 year 2 years 5 year - this video will show the world a lot of things!!!
We're going to do an update at the end of each season. I'm all in it for the experiment and I'm curious to see what we're going to find.
this is amazing ... i really want to know the state of the driveway you extended after 12 months ... where are you based in .. rough region will do ..
The Pacific Northwest
Isn't the dry stuff available wholesale by the trailer load?
So this slab is 6in deep, with chain-link after 2-3 inches?
Expansion joint would be a solution for the transition..
Props!
Thanks! It'll be interesting to see how it holds up. I've done concrete the old fashioned way since I was a teen. This is the first time I've tried this technique and I'm fascinated to see what the results of winter freezing will be on the slab.
Why would you want to keep the new slab separate? Should have added some rebar ties and locked them together. They both move or neither move. I’ve done a couple dry pours myself and for me at least, they only work ok for small things that are not seeing dynamic loads, like an AC unit pad or garden planter pad. I did a parking pad for my GSXR and the edge broke off and the concrete anchors for a roof post split out.
Since the slab itself has no expansion joints and the existing driveway is cracked in a few places I figured I would create a week layer between the new slab and the old driveway so if there was any need for expansion or movement it could happen along that weak point.
Think of concrete as being a sponge. It is not waterproof. If it gets enough water, it will hydrate. It will harden. If your slab will be exposed to the rain, if you live in an area that gets enough rain, the rain can do the job of setting the concrete for you. Keeping fresh concrete wet is good for it. Letting it dry and then get wet alternately, not so much. It just needs two things, time and water.
For us this was a big experiment and it's going to be exciting to see how the weather and seasons affect the pad.
Do an update vids so we can see progress of it holding up as ou keep parking on it. Great job
Thanks! I plan on doing one per season so the next one would be in the fall.
This is amazing, I had no idea you could do this. Do you live in below freezing climate? are you suppose to have relief cuts? I am starting the research now. Is this suppose to last as long as wet mix concrete?
In the description of this video is a link to the video i watched to start down this rabbit hole. Definitely watch that video and try to find as many videos as you can debunking the process so you can be aware of any possible pitfalls. Yes I should have put in relief cuts and I have the saw blade I just always end up with something else on my plate and haven't put in those relief cuts. We do live in a climate that gets freezing weather through the winter and that's one of the reasons I've been doing update videos. Those update videos will help us all find out together how well it holds up.
A poorly finished wet pour would hold up better and be much less work
@@SeaDooEric this project is about testing the process. I saw it online and figured I'd do something big and then post updates at the end of each season. We will find out together how it holds up.
Looks good like use of chain link sandwich my only suggestion next time you paint the vinegar mixture and have your son lift the bags your poor back!
Looks very nice. Will it hold up for sometime like poured concrete would ?
Thanks for sharing this video 👌🙏
That's part of what we want to find out.
No
It’s cheaper to have it delivered and it’s done correctly. Add it up before a comment.
Why would anyone put that much time, money and effort into something that is inferior. The dry poor will not pass a compression test.
So far I've parked an 8000 lb RV on it as well as my half ton pickup and my son parks his four-door Corolla on it everyday. As far as compression testing goes it's doing what I need it to. Ultimately this is an experiment to test the process and I will be posting updates at the end of each season to see how it holds up to weather. I'm neutral on the concept and thought I would provide data to the public at large.