building a concrete footbath

[cam_low]

I have a customer who would like a concrete footpath built. It is merely 4m long and a metre wide. She is thinking about the topps tiles mosaic in the victorian style.

Now, the two builders who have quoted to build this concrete path, which in my eyes is excavation, compaction, (dpm?) setting levels, shuttering and pouring (rebar?), tamping, finishing and curing.

The prices they have quoted are plus £3k. She feels this is a bit extreme as do I. So as you guessed it, I'd like to get stuck in and learn something new. She is under no illusion nor premise that I have done this before however I'm sure I can get this sorted for her as its not rocket science. (I wont charge her, the experience will be enough for me as long as she covers materials.)

Can anyone here tell me whether I am one the right track and anything I should look out for ?

cheers

Cam

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

is this on the out side leading to the front door

 

[CJ]

Quick look, found this.

http://youtu.be/lFK3PAMzbfY

 

[mike1979]

3k:yikes: I used to do pattern imprinted concrete and was good at it too !! I used to charge 80 quid a square metre or a bit more on small jobs so I estimate it to be around 500-800 tops that path will need around half a cubic metre so a small load on a mini mix wagon plus a small load charge probably will cost 130 quid for the concrete and I would use a p320 straight opc with fibers at around 50 slump mix

 

[Ajax123]

£3k for a four m by 1 m path.... Jeez..... I hope they were wearing their masks at the time.

At most...

1 skip at £100
1tonne harcore £40
1roll of DPM £16 lots will be left over
timber £50
concrete through volumetric mixer £150

labour for two days say £400

Im still less than £1000.... For the sub base

add you tiling costs.... 4m2

£3k seems a bit blatant to me

 

[mike1979]

I used to have a small tipper and I'd take the rubble to local farmers so I'd get shot of it for free plus I'd get a tonne of sub base for 25 quid

 

[Alan M]

3 thousand is ridiculous money. you could do a whole house footpath for that.

a few tips.
use good timber for the shuttering because any blemishes will show in the concrete
temp in the filling in small layers

wet the filling before you pour to stop the filling pulling the moisture out of the concrete

get a bull nose trowel for the edges. run the outside edges and inside edges against the house. then float up to the house. this will push down the stone a bit and give a nicer seal against the house

no need for rebar in a domestic footpath unless they are driving on it with oil lorries etc

no need for dpm , it will get under it anyway

take your time floating , wait for it to soak well before floating , if you float too early you will create dishes in the conctete that will hold water

when you are screeding the concrete do it twice and tap it as well. the more you do it the less likely of dishes

put some wetter mix around the outside . if you put dryer mix it will leave little holes on the face

 

[Ajax123]

3 thousand is ridiculous money. you could do a whole house footpath for that.

a few tips.
use good timber for the shuttering because any blemishes will show in the concrete
temp in the filling in small layers

wet the filling before you pour to stop the filling pulling the moisture out of the concrete

get a bull nose trowel for the edges. run the outside edges and inside edges against the house. then float up to the house. this will push down the stone a bit and give a nicer seal against the house

no need for rebar in a domestic footpath unless they are driving on it with oil lorries etc

no need for dpm , it will get under it anyway

take your time floating , wait for it to soak well before floating , if you float too early you will create dishes in the conctete that will hold water

when you are screeding the concrete do it twice and tap it as well. the more you do it the less likely of dishes

put some wetter mix around the outside . if you put dryer mix it will leave little holes on the face

All good advice. The concrete suppliers generally will always recomend a polythene sheet under the concrete to stop the hardcore pulling moisture out too quickly. We pused to say "or wet the hardcore" but problem was people often didn't so hence the DPM. You would be wise to put some pp fibres in the concrete or air entrain to stop frost attack. For the sake of a couple of quid it's worth it. Minimum cement content of 270kg per m3 is the NHbC standard for footpaths and it should be a minimum of 50mm ideally 75mm deep.

 

[Stef]

Good thread this as I'm going to do my own front path to the house.
If I can get the time!!!

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Well I reckon it's on the money!
Even at 2 days for 2 men and materials, transportation, parking + charges, and skip its 1200 and that's just to get it ready for tiling.
Then to supply and fix 4 weeks+ later you are into another 1200.
So minimum so far is 2400!
Yes it can be done cheaper but this is a business not DIY.

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

dont under price your self you are not looking at the time it takes you are looking at your skill to do this .so how long will it take you to dig this down and remove 1.6 m3 of top layer soil and clay now you bring in the hard core 0.80 m3 then conpact down you have paid for this and spent time getting it and conpacting it how much did you hire the conpactor for how much of your time was spent doing this next you need to mix 0.60 m3 of concarete do you own a mixer then charge a hire rate and a clean rate plus time to mix and lay plus your time to get the matiraels to mix now you need to mix the sand and cement 0.20 m3 so now lay tiles in to wet screed over board over night to allow entry how much did that cost now come back and grout and clean you have just laid a 100 year floor do not devalue your know how .every day i deal with tilers looking for a tile for there clients and have spent there day looking for the right tile while there client has been at work all day earning money my advice is all ways the same when you take them the samples give them a bill for your time .they would give you a bill for theres .every second is one you wont live again dont waste them for clients who dont waste theres only yours

 

[mma]

That last sentence is so true ray t t

 

[cam_low]

Yes, two separate builders quoting ridiculous prices. A very nice street to live on so I'm just assuming they think they have lots of it.

Thank you so much for the help and advice. I am now confident in tackling this path after I have a couple of questions answered.

If using dpm I would just be using it to stop weeds growing through it ? Will that do the job I require? At which stage does the dpm go down ?

Thanks again.

Cam

 

[TJ Smiler]

Cam don't do it for free, it don't look professional. I know what your saying about getting the experience but it will still be your time and effort and in the end your skill being used. Your running a small business mate, charge for absolutely everything, the customer is expecting to be charged so charge - if you say you will do it for free (in the customers eyes) it don't say much about Complete Tiling Solutions as a professional Service. Rather than not charge You would be better off telling her you can find someone else to do it for her, then putting a couple of hundred quid on top of whatever they want - take a day off and watch/help them do it, that way your getting paid while your learning and she is saving money and you come out smelling of roses.

But it really is nothing you couldn't tackle yourself mate - just make sure you charge!!

 

[widler]

I think it's a kick in the teeth for the builders to be honest, completely different pricing South of the boarder,.

cam, if you do it for nowt you are also kicking everyone on here in the teeth mate, we all moan about prices on here , and try and get as much as we can for the job we do , which is a skill we have trained for years to get right.

3 grand is a lot, but ****, imagine if you went to price a bathroom and said " 3 grand mate" and they said " I've had a price for £500 ,so I will go for them"
Imagine what you would say.
personally I think your mad [emoji106]