How To Build Concrete Driveways
 Building a concrete driveway by mixing concrete yourself in a mixer can be a daunting task. The ingredients are heavy and you will do a lot of hard work shoveling them into the mixer. Driveways require a lot of concrete of course.

 We advise the use of ready mixed concrete delivered to your site and poured just where you want it. The saving in time and hard work is well worth the extra cost of the ready mix delivery. Because of the controlled mixing you will also get a concrete mix which is much more uniform in consistency than you could mix yourself. If you are in the concrete block making business you will often get calls to build driveways,patios,foundations and other projects. You can develop a working relationship with a ready mix concrete business to supply you at a good price. Experience tells us that this is the best way to go

. The concrete in a good driveway should be six inches thick. This will support the weight of a delivery truck which might use it occasionally. If only cars are to be allowed on the driveway then around four inches will suffice. This keeps the cost down somewhat. The driveway may be one solid strip of concrete the full width or it can be two narrow strips about two feet wide for the wheels of a car to run on. The full width driveway is the best but,if you must keep costs low,the two strip driveway is satisfactory. The grade of the driveway should be kept as low as possible. Steep driveways will be slippery when covered in snow or ice. After laying out the driveway route you should mark it out with stakes and string. Excavate to the depth of eithe six or four inches according to the thickness of concrete you desire. Remove all loose rocks and foreign material from the bottom of the excavation. Be sure that the bottom of the excavations is solid by tamping if necessary. The concrete must have expansion joints every twenty feet or so. Place greased boards across the driveway to form expansion joints and remove these as soon as the concrete hardens enough to maintain its shape. Fill the expansion joints with roofing asphalt or tar then sprinkle sand on top of the joint. When the concrete is poured have two or more people ready to spade and tamp it to prevent honeycombing. The work must be completed within thirty minutes of the pour. If ready mix service is not available and you must mix the concrete in a mixer use a 1:2 1/4:3 mix; that is cement 1 part,sand 2 1/4 parts,gravel 3 parts .To estimate the quantity needed figure that one bag of scement contains one cubic foot and that one ton of aggregate (gravel or sand) contains roughly 22 cubic feet.


                                                                                               

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