Concrete drive help?

Hello everyone.

I hope some one can help me with a bit of advice.

I have a steep sloped drive way about 7 meters by seven meters. I need to concrete it so I can put some drop down parking bollards in as i have just purchased a nice trailer tent.

I also need to park my 110 defender and the wife's car on it.

I am guessing its got to be fairly thick and possibly have some steal rods/netting in it.

But how thick does it need to be and what grade should it be?

Iv got no idea how to judge the costs either so any help would be brilliant.

So I welcome some advice or any one wants both measurements and pictures of the area to price it, please let me know.

Cheers, Steve

Whats on the drive at the moment as this will depend what you need to do, basically between 4 and six inches of concrete will be ample, divide it into squares and fit some expansion filling between them it will allow some movement and stop it cracking when it moves

Hello,

My drive is currently made up of three sections all slightly bigger than the foot print of my 110.
Part one is already concrete, but is so old its had it.
The middle is block paved and can quickly come up.
The last section is just compacted scalpings, been down over four years now.

I was thinking of either doing it or getting it done in six sections. The first three along the front of the house are about 2meters x 2meters each and need a drain gully along the width of the house a main drain pipe is ready to be connected too.

The first sections can be upto 18 inches deep, so some of what i take out from the top of the slope could be put in the bottom of these sections, thus raising the ground level and taking some of the slope out.

The last three sections just need to slope down the drive towards the house and the new rain gully.

I'm worried about the costs and might have to learn how to do this myself. Iv got a petrol cement mixer but don't know yet what mix rate to do and it will take forever.

depends on what your ground is like ie clay or sand ,but 4 inches on hard core is ample no re-inforcing is needed

Even with a small mixer available, it's a lot of work, and it'll probably turn out a bit patchy.

Left to me I would definitely consider some ready-mixed concrete, tell the supplier what it's for and they'll probably be able to advise you regarding the mix strength.

Take your time with laying out and securing your shuttering, drainage pipework and channels. Use well compacted hardcore for bringing up the various levels, it'll be cheaper and easier. I wouldn't bother with expansion joints, provided that you work to a thickness of 100 to 150 mm, although one joint where there's a change of direction (a T or L shape) might be reasonable.

Do pay particular attention to the position of the damp proof course in the wall of the house if you plan to pour concrete right up against it, I believe there's a set distance below it which you should aim to be the level of the concrete, I think it's something like two brick courses or six inches, but I might be wrong.

No need to reinforce it with steel, but if you want to make things difficult for whoever might want to hack it all up again you could lay some chicken wire fencing in the concrete.

Of course if you were a real "greenie" and not a Landie owner you'd forget all about concrete and lay your drive (for your Prius hybrid) using those fancy blocks that let the water run away through them.

give mix a mate a shout ive done loads of concrete work with them wot u can do is get them to put fibers in it its better than metal reinforceing and easyer

Really good advice above. If your doing more than 1-2m cube go for ready mix, a petrol concrete mixer does about third of a cube per mix i think. Ready mix wagons range from 1-8m cube.

If your laying against other structures put in some 5-10mm foam or compressable filler board, and i can confirm as above keep 2 courses/150mm below the damp proof course of your house.

Also don't finish it too smooth, we usually have to run a brush over concrete to give it some surface texture/traction.

Most important thing is make sure the ground below is well compacted granular fill with no soft spots. Use some of the old concrete broken up.

Hire a whacker to compress the hardcore then 6 to 8 inches of concrete. Be aware that you will require a water drain or run off to avoid flooding. Some areas now require planning permission if you block/concrete your driveway due to flooding issues.

quit a few councils want you to use the blocks that water can drain threw

regarding the mix ratio.i layed a 4" slab. 7m by 3m last year with an electric cement mixer by myself in a day. i used a mix of 6 ballast to 1 cement. and all fine.
was a hell of a lot cheaper for me to do it as opposed to getting someone else to do it.

Yup, it is possible to do this sort of thing yourself with a mixer if you work steadily over the course of a day. I've done so with shed bases and similar projects. Personally, I'd favour putting some mesh in to make the slabs a bit more rigid, if you want something to drive over or support cars on jacks and axle stands, which really tends to concentrate the pressure. If you keep a 'wet edge' going (as you'd do with painting or plastering) it won't look patchy, and divide the area up into separate slabs that you can do in a day each. It won't take very many weekends.