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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 👍
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.
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
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
The height of that corner is over 2 ft tall. I put cinder blocks in that corner, two rows thick and offset so the spaces between the cinder blocks don't line up with each other. I filled those cinder blocks with concrete powder and wet it down just like I did the driveway but a lot more wettings. Then I added soil until I had a consistent 6 in and filled 2 in of that space with gravel which I compacted and added until I had 4 in of space left to pour the driveway. The framing is all pressure treated fencing that I had left over I think it's 6 in by 1 in by 6 ft. Between the cinder blocks and the frame there's about 3 in and I put some thick chicken wire in the middle of that space and then poured the concrete powder around the chicken wire. I still haven't removed the frame. Next spring I will remove it and use concrete patching material to make the side of the slab look nice.
In Your Opinion, can a Driveway only need to be 2-3in thick top support a Truck? It's already mostly Gravel. Also I would only be doing about a 4x8 section at a time due to a bad back and can only lift so much.. I am not needing it to be perfectly level or smooth and would be doing it by myself.. I just don't want to mow my driveway anymore and want a nice place to park the Motorcycle also..
I am no expert for sure. I went with 4 in because that was what my research indicated and I reinforced it with chain link fence because I saw more than one source stating that this was a possible strategy. This whole project is an experiment to test out the concept of dry pour concrete. If you want to do a dry pour there is a link to Cajun Country Living in the description of the video and they're a good place to start and I would encourage you to watch a ton of videos both for and against the process before undertaking anything.
We'll have to look in to renting a saw to cut the slab and put in expansion joints. I wonder if that's why the original driveway has cracked the way it has? The house built in 1979 so I'm guessing the original driveway was poured in a time when expansion joints weren't normal practice.
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.
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.
We don't have snow 5 months out of the year. We get freezing weather on and off from November to April with a few months of constantly frozen ground about the middle of that time. We don't always get snow and if we do it only stays around for a day or two.
What about expansion joints. And the part that meets the existing old driveway seems like it will come apart eventually. I would like yo see this in a few years dont think it will last with vehicle trafffic. Curious to see this in the future.
The original slab has no expansion joints and has cracked as a result so the intention is for this slab to crack in a similar fashion. We're the slabs meet the old slab was painted with vinegar and mud creating an intentional crack.
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.
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
There was water added. There is some lost footage. In the description of this video is a link to Cajun Country living and their original video from which we got this idea. Please watch their video for more details.
It has separated from the slab next to it with a thin crack and it has separated from the sidewalk at the foot of it with a thin crack but the slab has not cracked through the middle or anything like that. It is regular parked on by a Toyota Corolla four-door.
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.
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.
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.
I / we are interested in how this has turned out in about 5 months? I am concerned there are no expansion dividers in this huge slab. There should have been several expansion and settling seams in this huge slab. I like the idea of the mesh about 1/2 way into the slab to reinforce the entire slab. It does have to be placed near the middle of the concrete If at the bottom or near the top it does not have the strengthening desired.
We saw the technique on TH-cam and were interested to see how it would work on a big slab. The slab this one is connected to has no expansion joints and that's why I did not put expansion joints in this lab. The original slab has cracked and this one likely will as well but it will match the original slab if that is the case.
I used an online concrete calculator. I'm not sure which one. I used the volume I was filling as the input. I bought an extra 10 bags but did not use them. I would still buy the extra bags just because having concrete around is a good idea and if you discovered you didn't have enough concrete it could present a huge issue.
Water is added but I didn't get footage of that part. That's why I encourage folks to watch the video that I linked to in the description of this video.
It's holding up fine. The driveway that it's connected to has no joints and has the cracks that result from that so I opted not to put joints in this either so it would crack in a similar way. At least they'll match.
There is a link in the description of the video to the video I watched to learn about this technique. You do spray it down but you do so in a specific way. Please follow that link and watch the video that took me down this rabbit hole.
The dry paint roller improves the finish. In the description of this video is a link to Cajun Country living and their video from which we were inspired. We encourage you to watch that video for more details.
It's been a little while since doing the pour so I don't have the measurements memorized anymore but as I recall it's something like 10 ft wide at the top 8 ft wide at the bottom and 28 ft long.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
Damn this is an impressive finish if you ask me! This is the best finish I have seen from dry pour.
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.
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.
Good job looking forward to seeing rest of your work 😊
Thanks! Feel free to explore our channel for more videos you may enjoy.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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
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. 🤣🤣🤣
looks outstanding to me great work!
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.
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.
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.
great job, ive done a few now by myself, what a job.
Thanks! We really enjoyed the process.
Bravo man, great job!
Thank you very much 😎 it was a fun project and quite satisfying.
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.
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 TH-cam concrete channel on here
@@southernslipping4225 yes easy money
That's a great job you both have done 🎉❤🫡💯
Thanks very much! We appreciate it.
Wow! Thanks for sharing this!
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.
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.
Looks good, y'all. Yes,that angle change is tough.
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.
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!
Definitely a serious undertaking. Just gonna be nice and say good job on not being afraid of hard work.
Wow using chain-link fencing instead of Rebar. I love it.
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.
Nicely done.
Thank you kindly.
Great job!
You are too kind! 😎
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
Very nice job 👍👍
Thanks! We're newbies for sure. 🤣🤣🤣
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 😁
Maybe i missed it, but, how much time passed before you parked your truck on the slab? Great video.
A full month.
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
Good job
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.
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!
Good video
Good Job!!!
Thanks, it was a fun experiment.
How did you frame it (side next to grass) with a steep sloping driveway ?
The height of that corner is over 2 ft tall. I put cinder blocks in that corner, two rows thick and offset so the spaces between the cinder blocks don't line up with each other. I filled those cinder blocks with concrete powder and wet it down just like I did the driveway but a lot more wettings. Then I added soil until I had a consistent 6 in and filled 2 in of that space with gravel which I compacted and added until I had 4 in of space left to pour the driveway. The framing is all pressure treated fencing that I had left over I think it's 6 in by 1 in by 6 ft. Between the cinder blocks and the frame there's about 3 in and I put some thick chicken wire in the middle of that space and then poured the concrete powder around the chicken wire. I still haven't removed the frame. Next spring I will remove it and use concrete patching material to make the side of the slab look nice.
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!
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.
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
In Your Opinion, can a Driveway only need to be 2-3in thick top support a Truck? It's already mostly Gravel. Also I would only be doing about a 4x8 section at a time due to a bad back and can only lift so much.. I am not needing it to be perfectly level or smooth and would be doing it by myself.. I just don't want to mow my driveway anymore and want a nice place to park the Motorcycle also..
I am no expert for sure. I went with 4 in because that was what my research indicated and I reinforced it with chain link fence because I saw more than one source stating that this was a possible strategy. This whole project is an experiment to test out the concept of dry pour concrete. If you want to do a dry pour there is a link to Cajun Country Living in the description of the video and they're a good place to start and I would encourage you to watch a ton of videos both for and against the process before undertaking anything.
Post continuous updates. Every month or so. Curious what it looks like 6 months from now with no expansion joints.
We'll have to look in to renting a saw to cut the slab and put in expansion joints. I wonder if that's why the original driveway has cracked the way it has? The house built in 1979 so I'm guessing the original driveway was poured in a time when expansion joints weren't normal practice.
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.
No Guiness record yet? Holy Moly, it's a huge dry pour !
It was a big job for sure but soooo satisfying.
it's 8 months later... how is it holding up?
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.
Awesome!
Thanks!
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.
So this slab is 6in deep, with chain-link after 2-3 inches?
Trying to find where you are located to see if you have snow 5 months of the year?
We don't have snow 5 months out of the year. We get freezing weather on and off from November to April with a few months of constantly frozen ground about the middle of that time. We don't always get snow and if we do it only stays around for a day or two.
Outstanding
Thank you very much!
So It's been 8 months. Any cracks, any issues?
What about expansion joints. And the part that meets the existing old driveway seems like it will come apart eventually. I would like yo see this in a few years dont think it will last with vehicle trafffic. Curious to see this in the future.
The original slab has no expansion joints and has cracked as a result so the intention is for this slab to crack in a similar fashion. We're the slabs meet the old slab was painted with vinegar and mud creating an intentional crack.
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.
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
Came out good.
I appreciate your comment. Many would beg to differ. Thank you for your support!
was there water added? Or is that a specific ry pour that does not need water at all? Rookie here!
There was water added. There is some lost footage. In the description of this video is a link to Cajun Country living and their original video from which we got this idea. Please watch their video for more details.
Isn't the dry stuff available wholesale by the trailer load?
has the slab cracked in any way since you completed it?
It has separated from the slab next to it with a thin crack and it has separated from the sidewalk at the foot of it with a thin crack but the slab has not cracked through the middle or anything like that. It is regular parked on by a Toyota Corolla four-door.
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.
Can I use this same technique on my basement floor?
That's cool!
Thanks!
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. 😃
Nice!
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.
what was the dimension of the drive and how long to get it all spread. Thanks
Closest to the house it's around 10 ft wide, closest to the road it's just over 8 ft wide, the whole thing is about 26 ft long.
@@MejorYa awesome thanks. I have a similar area to do and am looking to do the same
@@MejorYa How thick is the concrete of the driveway?
@@bamaadventures6132 4 inches of concrete with 2 in of gravel underneath.
I / we are interested in how this has turned out in about 5 months?
I am concerned there are no expansion dividers in this huge slab. There should have been several expansion and settling seams
in this huge slab.
I like the idea of the mesh about 1/2 way into the slab to reinforce the entire slab. It does have to be placed near the middle of the
concrete If at the bottom or near the top it does not have the strengthening desired.
We saw the technique on TH-cam and were interested to see how it would work on a big slab. The slab this one is connected to has no expansion joints and that's why I did not put expansion joints in this lab. The original slab has cracked and this one likely will as well but it will match the original slab if that is the case.
Any advantage of this versus just getting a concrete truck?
For us this was much cheaper. That will depend on your location.
How did you figure out how many bags of concrete you would need? If you used a wet concrete calculator, was it accurate?
I used an online concrete calculator. I'm not sure which one. I used the volume I was filling as the input. I bought an extra 10 bags but did not use them. I would still buy the extra bags just because having concrete around is a good idea and if you discovered you didn't have enough concrete it could present a huge issue.
@@MejorYa Thanks! Getting ready to dry pour a shed slab
@@diytwoincollege7079 what size
@@diytwoincollege7079 Best of luck to you. Let us know how it turns out.
If no water is added how does the concrete harden?
Water is added but I didn't get footage of that part. That's why I encourage folks to watch the video that I linked to in the description of this video.
How’s it holding up? Is there a joint(s)?
It's holding up fine. The driveway that it's connected to has no joints and has the cracks that result from that so I opted not to put joints in this either so it would crack in a similar way. At least they'll match.
Did you have to get a permit from the city?
We had the utility lines located and flagged and got all the necessary Ps and Qs Qed and Ped.
How does
Dry pour work tho? Do you spray with water
There is a link in the description of the video to the video I watched to learn about this technique. You do spray it down but you do so in a specific way. Please follow that link and watch the video that took me down this rabbit hole.
What , exactly, is up with the paint roller ?
The dry paint roller improves the finish. In the description of this video is a link to Cajun Country living and their video from which we were inspired. We encourage you to watch that video for more details.
How wide and long did you pour ?
It's been a little while since doing the pour so I don't have the measurements memorized anymore but as I recall it's something like 10 ft wide at the top 8 ft wide at the bottom and 28 ft long.
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.