Building a QP

[caffeine man]

Im really bad at this

[pat]

keep trying you'll figure it out.
portland is the grey stuff (the actual concrete), sand is the tan, and agregate is the rock. the three together equal concret mix.
you can use ready mix quikrete bags, but buy and extra bag of portland to mix in, usually an extra shovel of portland for wvery bag of ready mix.
you def nee to ge a real trowel. and a float.
google concret trowel and concrete float and read about the two. keep at it, you'll get better every time.

[Salamander]

The pile of dirt and bricks is no longer with us. It was completely dry when we tried to skate. We definatly covered it enough (inch all over). Not too sure what went wrong but some the gravel in the mix was quite big and might of messed things up.

Convinced the others to not use coping and drew out transitions today. Got most of the filler next to the build so it's pretty much just the pour left. Is Portland a brand of cement? Will any cement do or is Portland special? And what's a trowel? Made the last one with a garden spade 

Ok, a garden spade will probably not be the right tool for this. Also, you will probably need 2-3 bags of ready mix and 1 bag of Portland to get this at least 3-4" thick, 1" will not do the trick. That's why it broke apart so easy. Remember Google is your best friend when researching, I found these images that way.

Quikrete works good.


Any bag that says Portland cement. (smallest or cheapest since you will only need about 2-3 shovels) make sure you mix the portland into each mix if mixing 1 bag at a time. Or if you are going to mix 3 bags of ready mix at once just throw 3 shovels of portland in.


Depending on how wet the concrete is you will need to let it sit and dry up a bit before using a pool trowel. But you can hit it a few times with a wood float or magnesium float. Either tool will help push those big peices of gravel (agregate) down and help make a smoother suface. If you cannot afford one of these tools you can just use a 2x4.
Wood float

Magnesium Float


After you have smoothed it out a bit with a float or 2x4 let it sit for a while longer but don't wait for it to completely dry and then hit it back and forth with a pool trowel. At this point you should see it start to take shape. and some cream to work with on the surface.


Make sure when you mix the water it is not too watery of a mix and that it is wet and mixed all the way through, kinda sticky, this will help you be able to work with it better. You can probably find little helpful video's on this through you tube as well.

[krusher]

1 inch of concrete is not thick enough, just like everyone else is saying you need at least 3 inches but 4 is better. This way all of the rocks in the mix will go to the bottom. You need to do more reading on concrete work before you do your next pour

If you are not going to use steel to reenforce the concrete then you can't use any dirt filler.

Look at this quarter it is the same size as yours and it is holding up because they used only concrete



It will hold up better if they put some wire fence or mesh in there

[caffeine man]

Filler is going to be rocks and smaller stones so will it need metal through the concrete?

[Frank]

Filler is going to be rocks and smaller stones so will it need metal through the concrete?

Yes. Find old chainlink fence or chicken wire. Make sure it sets an inch to 2 inches from the bottom of your crete.

[bailgun]

really good info here..... the only thing id add is USE REBAR. OR AT LEAST SOMETHING TO HELP STIFFEN IT UP SO IT WILL LAST A WHILE.

but other than that, this thread is killing it.

[caffeine man]

Ok we are all on the lookout for some wire mesh/fence and will buy some if we cannot find anything suitable. The garden spade is actually a masonry trowel but we will buy pool trowel as well. What do you mean by rebar bailgun? Like in the ramp?

[dtotherob]

i poured this last month.  i had never poured before.  i know it's not a QP, but you can get the idea.  the rebar is near the front of the form.  it's basically .5 inch thick steel rod.  you see it laying around construction sites all the time.



if you check the salamander ranch thread, you can see lots of rebar too.

[pat]

here is a pic of a quarter i am pouring soon, completly ready with rebar.

[pat]

[caffeine man]

Could we just use rebar instead of chicken wire? And also are they hard to bend for the vertical ones?
Cheers

[pat]

yes, you can use rebar inrtead of chicken wire. depends what size rebar, you want #3 rebar, it bends pretty easy.

[C H U C K]

really good info here..... the only thing id add is USE REBAR. OR AT LEAST SOMETHING TO HELP STIFFEN IT UP SO IT WILL LAST A WHILE.

but other than that, this thread is killing it.

Seconded. Great job guys on helping the lil groms get going on some DIY. Best of luck to the kids... stick with it and pay attention to the advice on here.

[caffeine man]

Yeah thanks for all the advice everyone, we'll pinch some rebar when we find some but until then the pour is on hold. We might cement the blocks together this week but not expecting to pour too soon. Friends have decided to go with coping again but I'm not too fussed about that although I agree a concrete lip would be quicker and more interesting to skate