How Much Money Did I SAVE Pouring A CONCRETE Slab Myself??? Time, Quality, & PRICE Comparison

Your slump was to low should have been a 6 slump looks like a 3 maybe a 4 slump that’s a big difrence in the dry time

Your Tim is 1250$ on top of your maternal price

I have a driveway project going on. Come check it out

Bidenomics triple that

I'm watching this video in the shower. I'm going to keep it running as I drive to work. I ain't got no kid. I ain't got no guuurlfrand. Ain't nothing going to stop me from doing two things at once 😜

Like you said depends if you're willing to live with the mistakes you made .
If not pay the money for a perfect slab

"Time is valuable"--how much will a person have to work to pay for $3,000 of contractor time, or how many weeks of time would a person have to spend to replace $3000 from their savings account? If you invest your time in learning new skills and building up the equipment needed to do these projects on a regular basis, you get more capability and can do these things more efficiently. There might be strategic reasons to have contractors do things too versus DIY, but for some segment of the population, DIY is always a better option.

This is put together so well. In 8 minutes (I skipped over a few parts) I knew very clearly that I did NOT want to pour my own concrete. Thanks, fella!

I find some value in teaching and showing my kids how hard work pays off.

those contractor were waaaaaaay too high!!! glad you did it your self my man!!

I've seen the results of many DIYers pouring and finishing concrete. 100% are inferior in every aspect and would have ended in a lawsuit if it was a contractor that did the work. A man needs to know his limitations.

One thing this guy forgot, THE COST OF HIS TIME, if you look at the labor hours he spent designing, prepping, and installing, he actually spent the same amount of money than hiring a contractor, in which would have been completed two weeks sooner.

rock seems to be the variable, from state to state. Good rock can be impossible to get in east texas, and shale might not be that good of a solution in northern NYS.

Man, I wish contractors in Utah would bid 4500 for this slab. It's getting crazy out here. Min bid would be 10k and you'd probably get bids into 20k. Also the warranties and quality of work of contractors has plummeted to the point that you should expect serious issues.

I always do the balance test to decide my diy projects. I tend to tackle the smaller projects myself and use the money saved to put towards pros for the bigger ones

Spend 150-200 bucks on a mini x rental and cut a lot of that time down 😂😂. He’s just doing it the hard way. Get a buddy or two to help you could knock out a decent size pad in a day.

That’s a Rough slab thinset pavers on it it will look good

You didn’t convert your time to money though..

Like my dad always said. Learn to do things yourself and it will save you so much money. Thanks for the video!

Loved the ending, lol, i missed a few good moments myself, best regards, Dante

I saved almost 70% doing my pad for my shed by myself a few weeks ago

👀

I all ready like this channel.

You made it easy for me. I make 65 bucks an hour working so 50 hours of labor is 3,250. A 2,700 savings would be about break even and I have to deal with the headache. I would be better off working OT to save up for the contractor.

Mexicans can doing all this form, base rock compact 1 day 2nd day pour job done on to the next ✌️

Umm you left out the 2nd and 3rd biggest considerations 2nd : quality. Im a very experienced jack of all trades and theres no way i can do half as good a job as a pro. A pro is a pro. So he saves 2500 to get a concrete slab nut will it crack in its first year? Maybe. Ive done a dozen concrete/mason jobs. All saved me a lot. None of them came close to pro. To me, thats a big consideration : understanding its likely not going to look/last like a pro. As well: physical strength: Why not mention how freaking hard that job was? Like lifting/carrying the 50 bags of sand and 30 bags of Portland and rocks plus is it manually mixed in a tub or mixer? To be cheery and happy like you just painted a bird house is being a bit disingenuous. It's physically, one of the hardest DIY jobs there is! So it's not just about saving money

When I was around 30 I definitely would have undertaken something similar. But now at 60, with a bad back, I guess I'll take the "contractor" route.

This doesn't take time away from family. The kids will work. The children yearn for hard labor.

These are great contractor prices. I do labor for a living and thus my time is valuable. But I'm trying to get a contractor.

Great video sir! Thank you.

You should also add in the time you need to take off work to be available while the contractor does the work. Each time I hired 5 star rated contractors for a bathroom remodel and whole house rewire, each time I had to babysit them. Komar Project made a good point, could you live with the mistakes a contractor makes v.s doing it yourself.

-Bathroom, they didn't install the tub surround correct. Studs are to be 10" between each other so there's enough backing. The surround flopped around. I made them redo it. They insisted they did it correctly. They wanted to screw a railing onto the tub surround to hold it in place so it wasn't flexing as much. Floor joists, they cut more than 1/3rd of the total width of the boards. I made them redo it.

-Rewire, instead of installing new switches, they wanted to use external remotes to control my ceiling lights. Wanted to NOT use dedicated circuits for items that required it. Tried to keep the knob and tube for lights, despite agreeing to remove it all and run new lines. It was in the contract, follow it.

My brother said, eventually no contractor will want to work with me (He's a carpenter). Sorry, you're not going to charge me $150/hr and do stuff wrong, I let them get away with a lot of stuff, that I personally don't see as a big deal, but other people would.

I eventually decided I'll save myself the headache, take off and do things slowly on my own. Then if you withold money, you'd have to worry about liens, suits and all of that....

Very helpful video! I wanted to see the steps in building a concrete pad so I can properly assess the quotes from prospective vendors who will lay a 12' x 30' patio slab.

bro is making bank, who cares

Thank you for mentioning the value of someone's time. Depends on what you make per hour. If you make $15/hr, then it makes sense to do it yourself, if you make $100/hr, probably best to pay someone to do it.

Shooot! A contractor wanted 6k (labor and materials) to build three cement stair steps and 5’Lx 3’Wx 4”H slab underneath the stairs.

Your gravel cost is crazy. You used expensive gravel for your base, in New York base RCA is about $15 per yard. So $50 to deliver and $60 worth of RCA = $110. Quite a bit cheaper than what you paid which would equate to more savings.

Thank you for share you video thinking about do it myself and I going to do it👍

DIY: 40-50hrs and $1700
PRO: 10hrs and $4500

Always cheaper to do by yourself of course but some people obviously Prefer to done it by professionals and owner can make more money at their jobs instead of dealing with that.

Too much talking, not enough getting to the point

It’s always oh how hard can laying concrete be.
Lol. Especially homeowners who don’t believe that adding a bed of rock, as simple as it is, can be the difference in cracking.
Pouring over grass or unsettled or tamped dirt is a no go.
Rebar is the way to go but heavy gauge wire is just a cheaper way to reinforce. Light gauge wire is a joke.

Thanks. I’m DIY

You worked for $8 / hr

Excellent!

I'm planning a 16'x20' pad in my backyard uphill from the street now. I think I've learned from a past shed pad that if the truck cannot pour directly on the pad, I'm not doing it myself.

This was a well done video thank you for sharing.

I dug and installed a 3’x3’x4’ radio tower base solo. I had to dig the hole twice because my wife didn’t like the location. It wasn’t bad for me.
I think Id contract it out for a pad. I may do the groundwork- but because I like doing work like that.