Dry Pour Concrete Pad (With Steel Mesh Reinforcement)

I have even more faith in this channel's content with them showing their challenges. Much appreciated the honesty

Love the transparency! Instills more trust in this channel when you are not afraid to show your mistakes as well as your success'. Keep up the good work! You are really helping inexperienced guys like myself a ton with all of your videos. 👍🏾 (ps. I'm the thumbs up guy)

Great video! Too many people only put up their success and make everything look easy. This is a great way to to teach the complexity of dyi construction. Thanks!

I live in Quebec and did a dry pour last year following exactly what Cajun Country Living did and it worked. I also put in the mesh like you did and it worked great. You didn’t soak it enough. This method truly works but you need to soak it. Also not sure you used the right bags. I will be doing more in my yard this summer for sure.

I am a carpenter/contractor, not a concrete contractor. I have used dry pour for the ground-pad for exterior steps and short slopping paths. From Aotearoa/New Zealand... temperate, maritime climate. My penny's worth is: 1. good strong boxing as per Cajun Country Living. 2. Saturate the ground, please. To ensure bottom up curing to be at the same rate as top down. 4. optional... but I prefer to do this, dry pour and level the first 1/3 and leave it covered with an old tarp or sacking for a few days to cure. 5. Always add reinforcing. Rebar is not necessary, but thick square welded fencing is a good enough cheaper option, I have used old clothes dryer racks for my own home pads. Keep reinforcing at least 2inches/50mm short of the outside edges. You can drive heavy nails into first layer leaving them proud. 6. Add the remainder dry pour after soaking the now cured first 1/3. Screed to raise the dust, edge float. Screed to lift the dust BUT avoid a smooth finish with a paint roller. You will get a fragile surface, hence dusty slab. 7. Mist x2 with 1 hour between, cover with an old tarp or sacking between. Once dry, sweep surface with a fine floor brush across the direction of traffic to produce an exposed aggregate, grip final surface. 8. Shower x4 with 1 hour between for the likes of size of path above. Cover with an old tarp or sacking between showers. Cheers Phil.

Love that you're throwing your son in the mix of your videos, love to see Father and son kind of videos just recently became a father so I'm excited to be showing him what I learn from you and stud pack that I watch

Seen this done so many times now, always seems to be more effort than just mixing it with water in a wheelbarrow and doing it properly to start with. that way you just put it down and done, no tarting around watering every hour and wasting 10x the amount of water that you really need.

I have dry poured 5 different slabs over the yrs . largest 8’x8’ and oldest 6 yrs ago for my grilling area and they all have been fine .

Knowing what doesn’t work is valuable information too! Thanks Jeff. 😂

Jeff with the dry pour you didn't put enough water. Depending on the thickness you mist spray 3x then shower 4x or so then you could've edged it with a concrete edger. After that week it would've been solid. I did my garage apron dry pour.

I recommend wetting the ground a little before adding the powder and rounding the edges before making the imprint.

Come on Jeff! I am a beginner and I can tell concrete was not showered enough. But yes, thanks for the video, it is an eye opener for diyers

When I've see dry pour done, they're soaking that stuff numerous times with the hose. I don't think it's about getting it wet to the instructions on the bag, but to make sure water soaks through it all. I don't know a lot about concrete, but I know that once it's in place, more water is better.

Hi Jeff, Thank you for your content! I absolutely love your work. My family and I worked on 2 separate pads using the dry pour method. We did a 10x30 (split into 10x10 sections) and an 8x10. Both times the pads came out great. Just like everyone has commented, after misting we watered to saturate the pads hourly for approx 10 to 12 hrs. The pads are being used under sheds so they’re not super structural however they’ve worked out perfectly for this purpose and we’ve had them up for 1 1/2 yrs now. We followed the Cajun country videos to the letter. I hope you try this method again.

That definitely needed a lot more water. Cajun says to mist once an hour (2x) and then shower spray once per hour per inch used (so in your case, 2 mists and 4 showers = 6 times over 6 hours). Don't follow the bag water mixture. Cheers!

My dad was a bricklayer, I've made mortar and concrete since I could pick up a shovel, I don't understand where this drypour trend came from, not only does it not work in our climate, but honestly it seems like more work! All that dust blowing around, having to come back for what seems like hours to water it again and again, it's not that hard to dump it in a wheelbarrow, add your water, mix it and pour real concrete, cover it and call it a day. Still, great video Jeff, keep em' coming!

I know very little about concrete, but dry pour seems like those people you dump the hot chocolate packet into tge cup first and then add water. It just doesnt quite mix uniformly, and you still have dry pockets of chocolate in the bottom.

I always love watching your videos and I always learn. I'm probably late in figuring this out but I finally know the best part... you sound just like Bob Ross! I'm very relaxed watching your videos

I knew 2 or 3 pails of water wouldn't be sufficient. I'd have been way more shocked if it had worked out.

Still a good learning video. I accidentally left a bag of quick dry concrete outside and it happened to rain overnight, which turned the bag into a solid hunk of concrete.