Author Topic: Concrete pad  (Read 5587 times)

Offline Leone4130

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Concrete pad
« on: February 24, 2022, 02:37:08 PM »

*Update* Pics on page 2





It took 22 years but it's finally happening, I'm getting a concrete pad poured in my backyard for flatland. It's prob only going to be 25x25' since I can't afford much more than that.




I'm in Canada, temp fluctuates from -20°C to 50°C and the contractor says that a broomed finish is required so it doesn't chip, he advises against a smooth finish for an outdoor slab. Think sidewalk texture. I ride fast and used to asphalt so I'm ok with that.


I've got an 8-man table and grind box I'll put off to the side. ordering parking lot lights shortly and  Thinking of making a privacy fence around it all.





I'm letting the pro's handle this project beginning to end, just wondering if there's anything else I should consider/request? Have the pad a little above the grass? flush? rectangle vs square? Any specific paints to use if I graffiti the surface? Any other sugestions?


How big was/is Terry adams pad in his backyard?
« Last Edit: November 08, 2022, 02:52:07 PM by Leone4130 »

Offline Revig

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2022, 05:34:22 PM »

 
great project!!


I guess your neighbor should be able to tell you!!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCG7VWODutK/

Offline eightyfivegt

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2022, 08:36:00 PM »
I’m interested in this endeavor too. A slab that large will definitely expand and contract due to weather and temperature changes, especially if exposed without a roof. I think you would need at least a few saw cut control joints to control the cracking. Steel wire mesh in the slab should be used for reinforcing. A very slight slope to the outside edges may be desirable for drainage. The broom finish doesn’t seem ideal IMO. Finished floor elevation should probably be at least a few inches above grade. I believe Art Thomason put a large slab in his backyard recently. He’d be a good guy to consult with.

Offline Leone4130

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2022, 06:27:51 PM »
Thanks guys, I appreciate the responses. I've also reached out to redbull for them to ask Terry Adams if he'd do anything different if pouring a pad in his yard again.

Dumpster arrives tomorrow and excavation begins soon!

Definitely will have lots of reinforcing and cuts to exceed minimum requirements :)

Anyone who wants to come over for a jam session is welcome! (I'm in Canada)

Free cannabis and liquor for all!

Offline out~riding

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2022, 06:34:06 PM »
I would look into some large stone slabs. Depending on the stone it can have a very good grip and you don't need to worry about temperatures and cracking.

Offline Leone4130

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #5 on: March 01, 2022, 07:05:27 PM »
I would look into some large stone slabs. Depending on the stone it can have a very good grip and you don't need to worry about temperatures and cracking.


Good idea, I'll have a look!

Offline out~riding

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2022, 01:33:18 AM »
I can recommend Travertine. It's a type of limestone that usually comes from Italy.
It's porous so it's slip resistant and it dries fast after it rains.
I don't know about availability or price where you are but it's really great.

Offline ortho

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2022, 04:30:20 PM »
I would look into some large stone slabs. Depending on the stone it can have a very good grip and you don't need to worry about temperatures and cracking.

+1

We have a new park that has an area with both poured concrete and some slabs. You can't tell the difference in your feet but the slab part rides so much better than the poured concrete parts. Even if the concrete is level there can be changes in the density of the material that you will definitely notice. A slab doesn't have this problem, it has a consistent hardness and structure. Maybe i'm thinking of pavers and not slabs.

Best of luck though! Hope it all turns out well.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2022, 04:34:30 PM by ortho »

Offline jerky

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #8 on: March 15, 2022, 05:29:09 AM »
I don't know if this might get to you too late to be helpful but I actually just had a pretty in-depth conversation recently with the San Antonio rider, Bobby Burge about the slab he has at his house. He had said his slab is a medium broom finish but afterwards found it still possible to loose grip. IIRC he said it would be surprisingly more slippery when it was hot. He later spritzed with with a muriatic acid wash to etch it and I think that did a good job at giving it enough bite. It feels pretty Goldilocks to me, enough bite to not wash out but not too much that it's grinding your tires into nothing. The thing he said would have probably worked better would have been applying the muriatic acid solution with a sprayer to make it more consistent than just kinda flicking it around with your hand. You can see where the acid solution etched it since it looks a bit more yellow-ish than the un-etched concrete. Art Thomason's slab came up in the conversation as well. Art's should be a heavy broom finish  and I want to say Bobby said it had a good amount of grip without needing any additional treatment like etching. Those broom finishes can be pretty subjective since I think all medium or heavy broom finishes have ranges. Sorry in advance metric friends, a medium finish would be 1/32 to 3/64 inch while a heavy finish would be 3/64 to 1/8 inch. Other stuff that came up was drainage, Bobby's is flat with pretty much no pitch so water will just sit on it (or find the one or two low spots) if it sits too long it can take a long time to dry out so if it rains a lot he'll broom the excess away. This could also be affected by good the ground underneath is at drainage.  I can't recall who's slab it was but someone has one with grass that is kind of even with the slab and he mentions water likes spill over from the lawn area to the concrete so the like eightyfivegt mentioned you might want to make sure its a bit above grade.

I was picking Bobby's brain about his spot since like you are already undertaking, I hope to do something similar sometime in the future. Hopefully my brain dump of what I picked up is of some use to you or others.

Offline Leone4130

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #9 on: March 15, 2022, 02:22:09 PM »
Thanks for sharing Jerky! This is good info.


I ride very fast and need grip so that makes me feel good about the broom finish.


I will definitely have it raised above the grass a little now, thanks. And I'm ok with brooming water as a trade-off for no slope.


Much appreciated!

Offline jerky

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #10 on: March 15, 2022, 07:06:01 PM »
One other thing that come to mind that might be helpful was the conversation eventually turned towards lighting. It goes without saying that lighting options are much better with LEDs that are pretty cost effective, use fraction of energy as other lights and can output a lot of light. The lights at Bobby's spot originally were something like halogen or sodium vapor, used way more electricity and threw off a ton of heat. So much so that he said you could feel the warmth across the yard. The ones at his house now are all LED rigs. There is a pair of smaller ones right next to the slab on poles that have 4 large LEDs and then across the yard there is a pair of units with 10 large LEDs each. They all do a good job at lighting the place up at night.


I don't know if you planned on being able to ride your slab at night but figured a real world example would be helpful. Here's an overview of the place and a night time shot it took recently since the family was curious where I'd been out riding the last several Sunday nights. It gives you an idea of what the effects that lighting combo has on illuminating the place at night.






Offline Leone4130

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #11 on: March 15, 2022, 07:12:00 PM »
thanks for the pics, that's an awesome looking spot!
As for the lighting, I've been researching lighting standards for tennis and have found some good "Parking lot" LED's. Its a couple hundred dollars but the option to ride at night is one of the main reasons for the pad :)

I went out to mark the area and now I'm thinking that 25x25' is a tad on the small size.

Do you know the size of the pads you mentioned earlier? Bobby's and Art's or any other at-home setups?

Offline jerky

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #12 on: March 15, 2022, 09:35:15 PM »
>>As for the lighting, I've been researching lighting standards for tennis and have found some good "Parking lot" LED's. Its a couple hundred dollars but the option to ride at night is one of the main reasons for the pad.


That sounds about right from what Bobby said the light fixtures cost him. I want to say the larger rigs on the far end were several hundred each and the smaller ones were maybe $100-$150 a piece


Bobby's slab is roughly (again apologies metric folks  ;D  ) 28'x42'. Art's is about 40'x40' but Bobby described Art's spot as being a bit of a parallelogram-like shape not a perfect square. McGraw and Will Redd's home spots came up in the conversation too. I don't recall dimensions on either of those though but I just remember the sizes of all the spots talked about falling somewhere between 1100-1600 square feet. Bobby referenced Voodoo jam's floor space as being the inspiration for his spot's size to kinda force the issue of getting more comfortable with less space. That is something I'll say about his spot is it is pushing me out of my comfort zone. My regular spot is the big parking lot of the middle school my kids go to, riding at the slab is forcing me to figure out how to go in circles instead of a straight line.

Offline Leone4130

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #13 on: May 27, 2022, 05:07:03 PM »
Update, pad is scheduled to be poured tomorrow! To say I'm excited is an understatement!!

It's been delayed 3 times and was supposed to be completed a month ago but mother nature wasn't happy til now.

I'll upload pics soon.

Offline charlier

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Re: Concrete pad
« Reply #14 on: May 31, 2022, 10:50:04 PM »
re: top coat and grip

What about putting something like the tennis / basketball / soccer court type of spray on? Those tend to be grippy to varying degrees.