my dad is planning to build a patio in the backyard. i was wondering how hard is it to work with cement. i have search the web on diy articles and it doesnt seem too difficult. just wondering if anyone here have had any experiences with doing their own concrete patio? maybe you can give me some advice. also how are those power mixers? we're planning to rent one at home depot.

 

Pay someone that knows what they are doing. East LA is full of self poured concrete and most of it looks like s--t.

 

A patio of any reasonable size is going to take a lot of concrete. You are going to need a truck load.

 

Or try paver bricks....very easy to do!

 

You are nuts man My stampcrete patio alone took 1 /1/2 truckloads alone and then another 3 for the pool and walkways. See the pics just to gauge how big of a patio you want compared to what I did and then you decide. If its a small slab maybe its worth it, but I would think you would want to hire it out.

 

thanks. we're looking into that now.

 

i didnt realize how much cement it would take. only reason i ask is because we're already have a small concrete are by the sliding doors. so we were thinking about extending it a bit.

 

Looks like your concrete sprung a leak!

 

They are fountains

 

I like the paver look, but I wouldnt call it "very easy to do". The sand base has to be perfectly level, packed tight and once the bricks start going down they have to be leveled often. Very time consuming. But done right it looks fantastic IMO.

 

DIY gives you one short period to get it perfect. After that you pay or work like hell to undo your screwup. Then you pay more to hire someone to do it right.

Shop around for a hungry experienced worker. Check references and look at prior work.

 

If I can do it....

Seriously...yes there is some exacting work to do, but once you get the hang of it, it is no problem at all. The good part is that you can easily pull up an area and redo it- even years later.

I've done 2 separate areas and one of them includes a patio with a long walkway attached to the driveway and I think that it turned out very well. A couple of weekends of work on them.