Well, I'm a woman who comes up with all kinds of ideas for my yard, 18 years ago i had an idea to make me a patio in my front yard, but i live out to far for a concrete truck, so i came up with the idea of getting my brother to do the work with me, i went to the dry cleaners & they gave me over 100 wire clothes hangers, for free, i used those as my rebar, i bought 25 bags & a hose, a little work & yes my patio is 10 × 10, its been 18 years & still looks great, has not cracked nor broken corners, i say gooooo for what you know will work, Hallelujah

I was going to do a dry pour for a 7 X 11 pad for a shed. It was going to take 65 bags of concrete (60 lb. bags), rebar, gravel, etc. By the time I tallied up the cost at Lowe’s it came to about $675 (but that included a $105 delivery charge). I’m 64 and decided that I just didn’t want to do it. Hired a pump concrete mixing truck that came out to the house and the total cost to me (they did the screeding) was $1175. For me, all that work wasn’t worth $500 savings, plus I got the real stuff, as dry pour isn’t near as strong, but probably would have been fine for a shed base. Anyway, consider the costs and time involved. At my age, my time is more important to me than money, but to each his own.

I've been in construction for 20yrs and I've poured and finished more concrete than I want to remember . This is only the 2nd time I've seen a dry pour . Good job .

Ive watched a lot if videos of dry pours and this is the first time ive seen the paint roller method. Looks so good!

I need a walkway poured in front of my house about half the size of the pad you made in this video. I was quoted $2,300 for it. I'm so glad I saw this video. I'll be doing it myself using this technique. Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

Yes! Ur prep was awesome & correct + not allowing ur rebar to touch ur forms, 2 inches way is best. Exposed rebar/wire will oxidize causing rust eventually allowing slab to crack. Yes - define solid edges from framing. Misting is til slab turns a darker color. Showers are NOT too heavy, WITH 2 HOURS between showers. It’s 2 showers per 1inch of concrete thickness. Equals - 2 mists an hr apart, 8 showers(NOT SOAKING)total for a 4 inch slab. DO NOT OVER SHOWER WHEN executing showers or you can get raised blisters on the top of ur slab that will crack and crumble. Using the sifted power in tiny pocket areas is fine - I did the same, BUT you do not want to do lg areas or remove lg amounts of surfaced rock during screeding - other than a rock here and there filling in w/just sifted powder. Concrete needs the rock as a bonding agent. Forms can be removed when they naturally show they are pulled slightly from the slab. Be sure the slab is cured 28-30 days before rolling on a clear or colored sealer, 3 coats 4 hrs apart. Sweep thoroughly b4 applying the sealer to remove any loose granules. A sealer will protect from winter weather water in any tiny crevices that could freeze causing cracking. It’s also valuable to note that the framed in “ground area” is level to desired thickness of the forms. You don’t want some ground areas 2-3 inches deep & others 4 inches or u’ll over water shallower areas causing raised blistering during the watering process. Also if you must screed alone, you can actually knee inside ur framed concrete area on dry concrete to screed from the middle. 👍

Thanks Chris, thanks for sharing your experience. I think of all the videos I watched, you took the time to slow down and really show how to do it and why and I loved the tips as well. I feel more confident to do mine as well. Great job.

Looks great~~! Thank you for the video. Well done instructions!!

Great video! I need to pour some footings for some landscape block walls and with limited man power this technique seems to work very well!

Looks good. You prepped it smooth before any water. Good job

Love the Hammer Drill you where using. 😂😂. Great video.

Very nice! Instead of suspending the rebar I would have poured half before placing the rebar and it would be in the middle

Great video! I've watched multiple dry pour videos and found your to be very helpful. Your pad is very comparable to what I plan on doing. Thank you, sir!

Must admit I'd not heard of dry pour slabs before so this was very interesting, thanks.

Great video. Thanks for the step by step instructions.

Lots of great tips and good explanation of the process, thank you for doing such a good video.

Loved this!! This was exactly what I needed

Hand pats are also my go to for ensuring a solid monolith.

Love this video it’s encouraging for me to do it thank you

Good job, looks great. When you finished the paint roller and started talking about misting, I thought, "oh, don't forget the edging tool-- crap, he forgot to edge it." -- that's definitely important if you want the rounded edges but also just to ensure a clean break with the wood forms. There's also a KZfaqr who has removed the forms when the concrete was set up but not fully cured and then smoothed/rounded the edges with a brick. In any case, thanks for the video--

Thanks for sharing all this valuable info 👍

Awesome video! I’ve been watching tons of videos looking to show the process. I really like how you explained each thing along the way with what you see at each step! And love the tips you learned at the end! This has been super helpful! My only extra challenge is I need to run drainage directly under, but I think I can get by with a PVC and not worry about drains through the pad.

Great job my brother you saved me some money! Thanks!

Awesome🥰thank u for sharing 😊

Great job with the video and technique. I think the biggest point I see with wet pour vs. dry. If you have help around sure thing doing a wet pour. I am a one man crew. I can see doing the dry pour makes sense for me. I can stage everything. The big one is no rain and getting it in the frame smoothed etc. Then it’s on your time clock if necessary.

Turned out nice! Great job! I have done a few small pours myself

Totally off-topic: your property looks awesome, man. Love the work you did to your backyard. Other than that, thanks for the video, very informative.

Thanks to Cajun Country Livin' for actually doing proving this method works.

Great job!

that's incredible

Looks good. Thanks for the information.

Architectural designer here, background in concrete technology, thousands of yards poured, proponent of dry pour methods: Respectfully, helpfully, major error at 19.08 (you’re pointing at it). Long concrete void at bottom of slab. Significant structural issue. Always tap forms same as if wet pour to vibrate mix to full depth at edges. Do this as when placing the dry mix against the forms so it can be seen effective, and once again just before final screeding so that any final settling is adjusted for in screeding, etc. Cheers.

Good job and lots of patience ... #NinerEmpire 49ers 4Life👍👍

Good job!

It turned out amazing! You did a great job!

Great job

This is great, we did a 10 x 10 dry pour and plan on a few more. One step I didn’t see you do is use some type of power tool to vibrate the out boards to find air pockets on the edges. It also makes sure you get powder on edge walls for a smooth surface.

I like how you can tell who shops at Lowe's or Home Depot based on the hose attachment, lol. Thanks for the video.

Niceee. I was expecting you to water in a little bit as you went. I guess that’s an option too? Also, I have not seen every comment so sorry if someone already said this, but you can just buy sand topping mix for the final touch which is concrete without the aggregate, saves you from sifting.

Looks good.

you do save time in moving bags into mixer, then wet concrete from mixer into wheelbarrow, then dump it in the form. But like you said, biggest thing its easier when you're working by yourself. This is why I'm looking at doing a dry pour. But its a 12' x 16' area... and its inside of a metal building. So still trying to figure out how I can screed/level it with the walls in the way.

looks good

Thank you for the vid

Like your hammer drill.

Where can I buy that drill/ Hammer combo 😂 JK. Great job. Cheapest method for walkways and garden shed pads. I used dry pour under a deck after setting post in footers with wet pour and additive that increased hardness (instructions stated for machine grout footers) It worked and I enclosed underside of deck for garden equipment storage

As informative as the Cajun kids and I love the extra tip of sifting some of the concrete. There's another guy who uses mortar for a final finish, so this makes perfect sense. Can you share what it was you used to sift it? Thanks for a great explanation! Outstanding job!

Thanks I was going to do 60 bags for a 12 x 12 😊

Thanks for sharing your experience. Honestly I’m over the dry pour mumbo jumbo. It’s fun for smaller projects but takes wayyyyy more time.

Great video looks amazing. I did a 8 by 16 in back of my garage framed out. Was thinking of getting started today Saturday. But we got rain coming next week. Do you recommend i wait until the rain passes by or should i be good. Cement will be going in back of garage for a shed. Today Saturday and rain will come Sunday- Wednesday i Believe

Doing a dry pour this weekend. Never seen someone put down stone in the dozens of videos I watched. Saw ur supposed to saturate the dirt your dry pouring on prior to putting the concrete down. The bottom layers of concrete absorb out of the ground and saturates more

I did my first dry pour today. I wish I would’ve seen your video beforehand, I’m about to go give it one last shower before calling it a night. This is the best how-to video on dry pour concrete.

2 soakings per inch, not one lol. 😂 Good job though, can't wait to see shed on it.

Great job! Question… how many bags did you use and what size is that?

Lowes carries small concrete blocks that are aboit 2" x 2" with two 3" or so soft twist wires sticking out of the top. These blocks fit under the rebar.

Yep gotta use a concrete edging trowel dude!

A couple of points from my dry pour side walk. 1. Don’t rush. Take your time. Cover and make multi day 2. Oil your forms - I use old synthetic motor oil. 3. Plastic base and add loads of water on bottom before first bag 4. Bullnose all edges next to forms 5. Use Sand Topping Mix instead of sifting. Much better results. Excellent work and don’t listen to the naysayers. I overbuilt my sidewalk and it came perfect. Just me solo with 4 pallets of concrete. No way to do that without dry pour process.

great hat!!!!!!! RCJ!!

Good tip - sifting the concrete for the powder... I bought the patching powder for my small dry pour project, but I like your sifting idea. btw - Go Pack Go!! :)

Gotta run to the store over and over. Yeah, i know that routine.

Thank you

Looks good! Would you use the dry pour method for a larger shed/garage (16x20)

Cool vid; thanks for sharing. Don't think this process is for my next shed slab (12x16). All that dust of the dry concrete cannot be good for anything (lungs, skin, house, you name it). And it looks like as much work as just mixing two bags in a mixer and pouring it down, old school. Especially if you have an extra set of hands. I could see this for small slabs - under 4x4 foot - when I just don't want to clean the mixer. But anything larger? Not so much. FWIW, you can rent mixers from HD by the day, or just buy one from Harbor Freight for about three days' rental. Thanks again for sharing. It's probably great for some. I see the value for people who are single-handing the process.

good job thanks, would this work for a drive way if I use rebar?

Great job. Does this type of slab require expansion joints?

Awesome hammer

I wonder would wetting the ground a day before dry pouring the cement help put a little moisture to the bottom help

Cheers for a great video. Boos for being a Jayhawk fan. Disclaimer: I'm a BYU fan :/

Saw a video of a guy attaching a vibrating sander to his screed board. It seemed to really help push the aggregate down from the surface.

Based on ur experience and let me say I think it came out great, Do you think that it would be possible/practical to work the finish after the first misting? In the hope of getting a really nice finish. Thank you and great job!

Can you go and use an edger tool or one of those seam tools at some point during one of the soaks?

Have you thought about putting a fabric on top when you do the soaking?

Pump up sprayer works great for the misting stage?

Nice video - I need to do a 8x12 slab for my hot tub - do you think it will hold the weight of it if I do dry pour? also how long would you wait for it to cure before putting the hot tub on it? Thank you.

Nice

Wow… 5 inches… I thought you had 2x4 going around it… looks wonderful

I'm doing a 3' hole a little bit larger than a basketball to put in a flag pole. Would you use rebar in the hole? Can I use the same watering method that you used in this video? Thanks!!!

Thanks

Nice video , I do have a question though , so pouring the water , I think it will dry the top so when you pours more water , I don’t think it will log inside anymore , isn’t ? It won’t go down

You glossed over the depth of the base of your rock/gravel base. How many inches is it? How thick will the slab end up being?

🔥🔥🔥

Thanks chris, how do you know that using more,water would be better? Did you do another test pour or just look up better,advise? Ill be doing same,soon . and fyi for a true ASTM standard test concrete is cured underwater for 28 days ( after initial set up). So more,wster,should help , but does it help with dry pour? Thanks for videos ,cheers,warren

How’s it holding up? Considering doing a shed this spring in Ohio just like this

I did a day pour a week or show ago and when it’s rained a few times since it seems to soak into the concrete and turns dark again. Seems like I need to add a concrete sealer

I like calling my concrete supplier and simply run down shoots to project. Easy level. Got time when finished to grab a rod , go fishing, cook, beer , tv, service wife, go to bed. Happy happy happy 😂. Friends helping are overrated unless framing or roof!😁🤣😂😂

Rock Chalk!

Chris how many bags of concrete did you use for this 8x12?

I saw where another gentleman after skreeting it went back with a 3” PVC pipe and rolled it which helps even better to push any of the pebbles down under the powder! I used that method and was TOTALLY PLEASED!

Probably too late, but you might consider oiling your forms so the concrete doesn't adhere to it. Good video and a good looking slab.

If I do an 8’x8’ for a shed how many 80lb bags would I need do you think? Thanks

Hell, I'm 67 years old. And handicap and I still miss concrete

Hi great video , With this, Will this be strong enough for a car port, Thanks

so what was the total number of bags? before raking out you said 48 that figure of sixty seems about ten too many? the rolling made such a difference. great job from the start with extra tasks with fencing and cleaning out stuff. good instruction for beginners.

There is no possible way that a wet pour would save more time.. impossible great video

Nice cordless hammer.

Was that a Milwaukee hammer you used to remove the front form at 18:47 ??? 😄 Great video, thanks!

Hello, I wonder how to comply with the water proportions if you shower the slab like it....

There are some videos where they are testing the strength of dry pour vs wet pour. I would encourage everyone to watch them first.

I am not a fan of dry placement of concrete. While it can look as good as wet placement, it is much weaker. I can say that with confidence because I have tested both wet placement and dry placement samples. BTW, high strength concrete has Portland cement in it. Aside from really expensive polymer based concretes, all use Portland cement as a constituent. Another common problem is in the process of misting and flooding, it can wash away some of the fines at the surface so you tend to see more exposed aggregate. For the samples I tested, the surfaces looked almost better than wet placement, but the edges were easier to chip off. But in the compression test the true reality sets in. It broke at half the strength of the wet pour using the same mix design.

All these people doing dry pours are going to regret it. It's literally half the strength of properly mixing it. The lazy way never pays off.

It is important to keep in mind that dry-pour concrete may not offer the same level of strength and durability as wet-mix concrete. Dry-pour concrete can also be more prone to cracking and shrinkage, which can lead to structural issues and the need for costly repairs over time.