The number that blew my mind on our basement reno was 37 bags of concrete mix

We were doing a small basement slab pour in our 1950s house in Edmonton, maybe a 10x12 area, and I figured we'd need maybe 15 bags of that 80lb stuff from Home Depot. By the time we'd dug out the old floor, added rebar and gravel, and realized the slope was jacked, we ended up at 37 bags. That's like 3,000 pounds of concrete I had to haul down the stairs one by one, and my back still hurts thinking about it. The thing is, the bag calculators online are total garbage for old houses with uneven floors and random depth requirements. We had to go back to Rona twice, and the second time the guy just laughed at me. Has anyone else had a concrete project where the number of bags ended up way higher than you planned?

2 comments

2 Comments

elliot_harris252d ago

The "basement slab in an old house" part is the real kicker - those calculators assume you're working on a perfectly flat site lol. 37 bags is rough, I bet your stairs still have concrete dust in the corners.

alice_barnes352d ago

Had a buddy try this exact thing in his 1900s rowhouse. He found the old coal chute hole after the third bag went down, the slab just kept getting thicker in weird spots. Ended up having to make two extra trips to the hardware store because he kept running short. Think he still finds little piles of dust in his coat pockets.