I am in the planning stage of a project that will involve pouring a 10'x10' concrete slab and a 10'x6' concrete slab. In both cases, the slab would be between 4 to 6 inches thick. The two slabs would not have to be poured on the same day. I am thinking about just mixing and pouring the concrete myself, using a small portable electric mixer. I will likely be working alone. My question is, would either of these size slabs be too much for one person to handle or are they both doable by one person?

 

Is the area already excavated?
I'd say you need help. That's a lot of cement to shovel and move.
Just to have a partner to help drag a 2 x 4 across to give a finish will require help.

 

I'm not a mason pro but I used an online calculator to figure how much concrete you needed.....
it's a lot..... 1.55 sq yards..... 70) 80 pound bags for the larger pour.

Concrete calculator

 

No way I would do that. If you take a break (and you will likely want to take several, working alone) you will likely get cold joints between pours. As you add concrete back and forth across the 10' wide pad, the new concrete needs to get mixed/blended with the previous pours or you can get cold joints... where the fresh concrete won't want to bond well to the previous concrete that is already starting to set up. It will make finishing difficult because by the time you get to the end, the first part will be setting up. This will affect the uniform appearance of the pad.

I've mixed over 100 bags of concrete by myself in a day but I had the mixer set up over the holes and I was simply pouring the concrete down into the round footings and filling up Sonotubes. (Relatively easy... mix and dump right in the hole) And I was about dead the next day... and worthless the rest of the week.

Pouring a sidewalk is also pretty easy, being only 3 or 4 feet wide. You can stop anytime and it doesn't really matter since its broke up into squares. But a 10x6 pad is more than I would attempt by myself... and definitely not a 10x10. At 1.5 cubic yards, (at 4" thick) I would be ordering a redi mix truck and getting a helper for an hour. (At 6" thick it becomes 2.25 cu yd.)

It also costs far more to buy and mix concrete by the bag than it does to just get it delivered. Plus your labor is far more. I only mix by hand when the job is small and there is no way to get a truck into, say, a backyard.

Last big pad I did with a mixer was 5' x 6' and I got my wife to help rake and shovel. That was enough fun for one day. You definitely need 2 people to strike the concrete off.

 

I just had a 6" 11x13 slab poured for my spa last year, they had 4 guys working that day.

I do everything but flat concrete work is one project I am not going to kill myself over!

 

Ya, concrete finishing is one of the jobs that is best hired out if there is any size to it. It's a hard demanding job and as mentioned earlier it's not a job you can take a break when you get tired. When I was younger I mixed/poured an 8x12 slab by myself - not something I'd want to do again! [even if I was still young]

 

I have done 3 home concrete projects 20x40 back patio, 30x30 garage floor, 10x35 extension to back patio.
Those were in my teens and twenties, using cement trucks and friends for the large projects.

Pouring a 10'x10' or 10'x6' pad IS possible, but you would need to use the LARGEST electric mixer you can get to minimize the number of pouring joints.

That being said you're PROBABLY better off setting out forms and height pins for both pads, and then ordering the concrete for delivery from a truck.

 

An old time concrete contractor told me two things I have always remembered
1: add enough bracing to the forms then double it and it will probably be enough
2. better to have a spare ma leaning on s shovel than having too few and having the pour get ahead. or I'd rather push the pour than have the pour push me
If you don't contract it out at least get plenty of help and if you use amateurs get some extra.

 

OK, thanks everybody! I had my doubts about being able to handle that much concrete at one time by myself. I think I will just get one of the local concrete guys to do it instead.

 

10' x 6' could easily be done by 1 experienced guy in 2 'pours' requiring 22/23 80# bags ea 5' x 6' @ 6" pour,,, other could be done in 4 pours - 5' x 5' @ 6" = 18/19 80# bags,,, why the thickness difference ? you don't say which is thinner so i cal'd both @ 6",,, how's YOUR back ???
after all, this is a diy forum, remember ?