I want to rebuild my porch, It's relatively small.What kind of cement should I purchase.The more info. the better ;)
Not me I can get cement bags for far cheaper than that!
most hardware stores carry it...either as bags of portland cement or premixed bags of concrete...for amounts up to a cubic yard you might get by using premixed if you have enough help mixing and placing so you dont get any cold joints...for pours more than a cu. yd. you should get a truck in and eat the extra trucking charge because you will probably not be able to mix and place it fast enough...
You can buy cement powder at your local home store. The price varies on the types of aggregates. You'd want the more coarse aggregate as they function like support but they are more expensive. Otherwise use rebars when you mix them if you buy the cheaper powder. You have to have a big enough mixer to mix everything at once. Otherwise, it would be a pain to do it and very messy.
First off, you want Concrete, not cement. (Concrete is mostly sand and rock and about 1/6 cement) If you need just a little bit, you can buy this in sacks that you mix with water. If you need more, it's usually brought out in big trucks. Somewhere in-between is getting it in smaller amounts pre-mixed from local rental yards, or trucks that mix it as needed at your house. Do you just need pier posts instead? Those can be bought ready-made. Building forms for concrete and also pouring concrete are skills you should learn on someone else slabs first, don't start here, unless it's all pretty much stuff that doesn't show. It's real easy to do it wrong. I've had forms that blew out, and concrete that set up too fast. It's physically tiring to work with, and has to be done quickly sometimes. Poor concrete work seems to look ugly forever, and the material expense is high, too. I think this is a job worth hiring out. Cost for materials varies locally, concrete in large amounts is sold by the yard. I haven't bought it for awhile, I would guess $100 a yard delivered, but this could be pretty wild. Call some local concrete suppliers for a better guess.
