As part of the ongoing saga in the garden, in a couple of weeks I'll be starting the concrete-y bit of the job (once I've acquired a cement mixer). I've been reading, and re-reading Tony's excellent pages on concrete - there's a lot to learn!
Looking at the range of products offered by the usual DIY stores, I've a pretty broad choice of a variety of bagged products, mostly from Lafarge.. Mastercrete, general purpose, multi purpose etc..
I'll be using it for laying edge courses, mowing strips, a few slabs on edge and a bedding layer for sandstone slabs. I estimate I'll be needing about 500kg -ish.
Can anyone offer any advice as to which sort of bagged product would be right, given the quantities involved, would the cheapest be best?
Are there better places to acquire this quantity than the DIY stores? How much should I be expecting to pay at a builders merchant, given I'm 'joe public'?
As I'll be working over the course of a month or so on this, would I be better buying in smaller batches - how long would it last in the bag before I have problems?
This is also an exercise to prepare the holder of the purse-strings as to how much I'm going to be spending, she's Scottish
As you can guess, I'm fairly new to concrete and cement, other than putting fence posts in with post-crete (dump it in a wet hole), which arguably haven't fallen down yet!
Any other tips anyone would care to share on the acquisition and handling process?
Mastercrete is quite good for general purpose concrete etc. B & Q are currently selling it at £4 per bag (normally about £6.50 less a bit for bulk buys). The 3 bags I've just bought have got a 5 months "use by" period which is not bad in comparison with some of the others available (normally 3 months). Shop around at a few builders merchants and see what they can offer price wise.
As your from Newport, Wales I would get in contact with Dragon Alfa and get half a pallet, they are just down the road from you, so if you picked it up you should get it for under £3 a bag, i'm not sure if they would delivered a small load like that but they will sell it to you if you collect. Plus you will be getting a much better product, they will supply you with bagged CEM I 42.5R.
TheRockConcreting wrote:As your from Newport, Wales I would get in contact with Dragon Alfa and get half a pallet, they are just down the road from you, so if you picked it up you should get it for under £3 a bag, i'm not sure if they would delivered a small load like that but they will sell it to you if you collect. Plus you will be getting a much better product, they will supply you with bagged CEM I 42.5R.
I'd have trouble getting half a ton of cement in the back of my car (not impossible mind). But definitely worth a punt, as you're right, I'm just outside Newport..
