DIY poured concrete patio?

GnomeSweetGnome

Has anyone DIYed a concrete patio?  I want to put one in our backyard, but I'm not sure how labor-intensive it is.  Alternatively, do you know how much it would cost to have one put in professionally?

Jason&Christy

How big will the patio be? My DH does a lot of concrete. I know that he worries about the weather and having enough time to level it before it dries. A lot of the work is doing the form and prepping. You would probably need to cut it the following day. 

Wine Enthusiast

My H does concrete for a living so we have a lot of DIY concrete around our house.  He makes is look easy but it is pretty labor intensive and you will need quite a few finishing tools.

If you dont know anyone with all the tools, it would probably be pretty costly to rent all the things you need to do it correctly.  Depending on what is there now you may need a bobcat to tear out what is there.  You need a laser to make sure its on grade.  You need a tamper to compact the stone.  You'll need all the material to frame it.  And then you will need quite a few finishing items (viber strike, straightedge, hand/bull float, trowel, fresno, edger, jointer).

We always order concrete from a local plant because the quality is much better than a Home Depot or similar store.  If you order from a plant and cant back the truck up to the spot, you'll need a few men wheel barreling it as fast as they can.  If you do bag mixes, you'll need a mixer for a decent size patio.  And if it looks bad it would be a huge pain to tear out so unless he knows someone that knows a little about it, I would save the hassle and hire it.  

I'm not positive of the price but I think @ $3-4 / sq foot is average around here.  I live in a high COL area with a lot of union work so even non union companies charge quite a bit.  I highly recommend stamped concrete- it looks AWESOME!

Jhawks482

We had a concrete slab poured under our deck and a stamped concrete patio poured last fall. I was able to watch the entire process. There are a lot of times when I feel like I see something that would be an easy DIY project (laying tile, for instance) but this as certainly not one of them. It was very labor intensive and it was apparent that it takes some skill and know-how to get the cement the right texture, outside temperature, leveling, etc. I suppose if you were pouring something small- say a few feet by a few feet- you could DIY with good results. But an actual patio, hire that out if you've never done it before. I cannot speak highly enough about our stamped concrete patio. It's amazing and totally worth the money.