Hi Everyone. I thought I'd just start a new thread on this one, as I need some logistical advice for build day. Our project will have a bunch of concrete re-laying involved. I was thinking of including the concrete pouring in our site prep days, but then some other posts got me to thinking that I should do it ON build day (to coordinate all the volunteers at one time). We have a volunteer who works with concrete that is committed to head up the labor, free of charge. But, I know he'll need some help if we don't want to rent a cement truck. We're re-furbishing the outdoor basketball courts, so that will take some significant tear out and re-pouring. So, should we tear out and repour in our site prep days so it'll be dry for build day, or should we tear out and put the forms in on site prep day and pour and handle the concrete on build day?? Any suggestions would be great.
Tina
Wow, you're brave! I can't imagine doing an entire basketball court with hand-mixed cement & volunteers-- or even hand-powered mixers-- in the course of a Build Day. But then again, you never know what volunteers can achieve!
I think the most important thing to consider would be the safety of the volunteers. If you're planning to have serious equipment on site, like a cement truck, it should probably be on a site prep day so you don't have so many volunteers around dealing with such a hazard. On KaBOOM!-led builds, we try not to have any power tools or equipment on site on Build Day, for safety reasons, and I think this works well. Not to mention, a whole basketball court of wet cement is a hazard in and of itself, and if you do it by hand, that's a lot of cement dust getting kicked up in the air around all those volunteers too.
The volunteer heading up the cement pouring will certainly need volunteers, but there's no reason you can't ask 20 or so of your build day volunteers to come out on prep day to help with this project-- that way you have them around to help with other preparation tasks as well! Then the courts would be dry by Build Day and you could even paint the basketball court lines on them using the build day volunteers. (Check out this website for a neat basketball court stencil: www.usmapstencil.com).
I'd ask the volunteer in charge of the cement pouring how many people he needs for the project, how long he thinks it'll take, and how many he feels comfortable managing. You may also want to make your site prep days a bit further out in advance of the build day so that the cement has more time to dry, even if laying it takes longer than expected. We use fast-drying Quikrete or Sakrete on KaBOOM! builds, and even this takes 48 hours. The stuff in cement trucks may have a longer timeline for drying. Hope this helps, good luck!
Hello,
We are building a large playground in June and are pouring two concrete slabs on which to affix the equipment. We are having the concrete poured two weeks ahead of time. I'm learning there is a lot of prep work involved in concrete pouring. I'd also recommend it be done ahead of build day in case something goes wrong or there are delays for some reason. For our project we needed a backhoe to dig out the 4' slab areas, have a concrete flooring company come in and put in the forms, have a concrete company coming to pour the concrete and at that time the concrete flooring company people smooth out and tamp down the concrete and grade it with the correct pitch for water run off. In our case, all of this must be done before build day. I'd suggest you consider doing yours in advance too and consider finding a local concrete company to donate the concrete which would come from one of their trucks. It would be much easier than hand mixing concrete for such a large space.
Good luck!
Well, it's funny how things turn out. We're in the heart of build week here and we ended up not doing the basketball courts at all (not enough money), having the blacktop resurfaced where the tables and activites are (professionall - a splurge) and we did a volunteer pour for a walkway in the garden. So, lots of different avenues, but the volunteers came out when I didn't expect it and it was a great success.
It's also important to note all, that concrete takes quite some time to cure. So at least 2 weeks before you're drilling into your concrete slab is necessary, and more time is usually better. That concrete pad you'll probably want professionally poured, since oftentimes your surfacing vendor will suggest a slight grade to aid drainage.
As far as painting on the concrete, I think you'll need more than 2 days before you can paint a freshly laid pad. I would give it a week.
As far as concrete for holes, you'll be surprised how quickly 20 volunteers can mix 200 bags of concrete with about 15 wheelbarrows!