I've watched at least 70 videos on this process and Sir I must say yours is the easiest and not as labor intensive and the others. My confidence in being able to achieving this has shot up 500%. I'm trying your method as soon as the weather breaks. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and skills ❤❤❤😊😊😊
(For those who watch this) ALWAYS PROTECT YOUR LUNGS WHEN USING CEMENT, it is caustic, contains silica dust and can be very very bad for your lungs (and skin/eyes for that matter). With that said, you did a fantastic job with this. You did it right. Thanks for sharing.
Working with concrete products and other nasty material for over 50 years, of course you learn not to just sit there and breath the stuff in. Like any other dust or chemical. So many people over react to such stuff. Experienced working men do not live pampered lives, but have common sense. Thanks for watching CQ!
This is such a great video. Going to try this in our basement which has an unfinished dirt floor and somewhat difficult access. I suspect you may have just saved me at least 2 hernias by not having to lug all the sand and aggregate up and down that you would usually use of a concrete floor.
I did this on a crawl space floor in a 450 sq. ft. room that was undergoing a renovation. I had completely gutted the floor and floor joists due to everything being rotten after years of uncontrolled water in there. While I was working on exterior drain tile I got tired of trudging in mud inside after every rainfall so I sprinkled several bags of Portland around, mixed it in, wet it and troweled it. It set up remarkably hard and now that it’s encapsulated makes a nice crawl space floor. I even use it for storage.
I've been planning to do exactly this for the last few weeks - I've got bags of cement waiting in the shed. I'm really glad I saw this video before I started - now I have a good idea that it will work well, and how to do it - thanks!
It turned out pretty good. I clean the chicken coop out every two weeks, and it gets scraped with a metal shovel, and it's not falling apart. Thanks for watching!
your a clever man thank you, nothing like saving money and doing something so satisfying, I*m goin to do this this summer building a large attated to house lean to enclosed shed for my boat and other garden stuff and aquired over the years Junk thanks again wish you were my neigbour
Bless your heart. Me I am going to mix it in the wheelbarrow and dump it in sections, just like I did my side walk. I have a small rototiller, but I am not going to breathe or wear that cement dust!!
Also a good way to prevent rodents from burrowing up from below. I’m currently acquiring the materials to do my shop/barn floor with soil cement. Will use a gasoline powered tiller to mix the components. The tamp down.
@@MIhere2 it looks pretty good though. I’ve got about 1500 sq ft of covered space divided into 12x24 bays. Living in the desert the ground is so dry that dust from the dirt floor has become a major headache. I’m hoping the soil cement will provide a surface that can be vacuumed free of dust on occasion. Thanks for your inspirational video.
It sounds like you have a pretty big job ahead of you! 1,500 square feet. My little job was about 83 sq/ft. I guess if you do just one 12x24 bay at a time, and have some help, it may not go too bad. My best to you!👍🏻
@@MIhere2 one thing in my favor is the soil in the desert has very little organic content so I can take soil from just about anywhere. I was thinking to do a 12x12 section at a time. Easier to set up screed boards to get things level and less tamping. However harder to wheel a full size tiller around in a smaller space. I was curious as to how long it took for your floor to set up and get hard.
Hi James, it was about 3 hours after I went over it the final time with a wood float. I wasn't looking to get mine real smooth. Here; I had mostly sand and gravel with no clay. If you have a lot of clay in your ground, I'm not sure how that will effect it. Screed boards will make it easier! I just eye-balled mine...👁😁
Well done! I want to do something similar for a temporary workshop floor. My plan is to top it later with a concrete slab when I have funds. Thanks for sharing your process!
It may be a light duty floor, but it worked good for us and the chickens. It only cost two bags of Portland cement, and some time. Thanks for commenting!
@@MIhere2 here is a link to my video about my floor I did. Thanks for your inspiration! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-R8-jlxS2FUU.html
@@MIhere2 I think it is fine as long as the sub soil stays stable. If you want to use it for a driveway, it will have to be a thicker layer that was compacted in layers with good drainage and sealed on top with stronger slurry mix.
@@MIhere2 My floor is now 5 months old and still holding up nicely. Weight of cars are no problem at all. I can even use a pressure washer on it without it eroding. Got a few cracks due to the shrinking, but it is expected because it is a large area. If I would do this again, I would include some expansion joints. Thanks again for your video that inspired my project , my video has more than 10K views now!
Glad I found your video. I will use the mixture on a sandy slope topped with river rocks to stabilize the soil from erosion. I plan on topping the soil cement mixture with the river rocks and once I get them set the way I want I will wet everything down to set the mixture. I'm thinking it should do the trick.
I never did but, one of the older guys that i worked with in construction talked about using Troybilt rear tine garden tillers to mix cement into soil in areas of some smaller parking lots , where due to the smaller size they could not use the larger Soil stabilization mixers, corners where existing curbs and borders could not have be used
I considered using our rototiller, but the area I did was pretty small, and I think it was probably easier to get into the corners doing it by hand. Cleanup was easier too. Thanks for watching!
@@MIhere2 I agree that sometimes the time you spend washing and servicing equipment adds to your building time and in the end you are just as fast or quicker doing it by hand.
Ive been considering ways to have a harder floor for my chicken run in order to clean out easier with a shovel and prevent standing water & muck. First Considered hand mixing with Portland cement and creek sand & gravel. Then considering a 2 inch dry pour with bags of quickcrete. This looks a lot cheaper and effective for what I'd like to do. Not 100% as good as regular concrete but looks like it'll suit the purpose fine. I'm thinking clean run out good down to bare dirt, dump bags, run the rototiller over smooth out & grade it, then water it in. Maybe broom or float it depending on how smooth it is and how lazy im feeling
Really like your simple, affordable and environmental approach. We have a mostly clay / sandy loam based soil in a crawlspace, any thoughts on mixing this with cement for a somewhat hardened surface? Really would like a brown sandstone appearance just not sure how well it would hold up. Wouldn't be structural, mainly for tool storage and access to bottom of house. Thanks for the video, quite inspiring.
I think as long as there isn't any organic soil in the mix; I would give it a shot. If the clay is damp and clumpy, it may be a little hard to mix in the portland. Thanks for watching!
Was wondering if sealing that slab would be a good idea. Concrete being porous would absorb Chicken messes ...even with some bedding material? Just a thought.🤠
I just cleaned out the coop yesterday, and it's true; it does soak up some chicken drippings. I expected it would, but I don't know if it will deteriorate it any faster. I probably won't go to the expense of trying to seal it up. Thanks for the idea though!
This is a great idea and a cost effective solution for a chicken coup. I am going to incorporate your method for building the floor of my roughly 100 square foot chicken coup. I am starting from scratch. I am stuck on how to do the foundation. What about a trench of concrete around exterior with bolts ready to accept the 2x4 stick construction? Single layer of cement filled concrete blocks? Directly on the slab created with Portland cement? 4x4 posts on corners in concrete? I am worried about wood to dirt contact. How would you build the foundation saving money but wanting something that will last for 50 years? Thanks!
Where we live, we have to prepare for Arctic like winters. I wanted to be able to inexpensively maintain an above freezing temp. in the coop over the winter. So eggs and water won't freeze. It was least expensive to do that in the barn. Styrofoam insulates the footing, and the walls are insulated 2 x 6, with R-38 in the ceiling of the coop. So a lot depends on where you live. Mixing your own concrete is probably the least expensive way to go, if you just have to buy a few bags of Portland cement, and just do a 'slab on grade'. If I did that here, I would have to insulate with styrofoam around the perimeter in the ground to keep the cold from conducting in. We get those -40˚F temps, and we wanted the hens to lay all winter, so that's why I built it the way I did. We just use a small coop heater. Some people don't heat their coop, but then the chickens will stop laying in the cold times. Hope that helps in your planning. Best wishes in your build.
Great job. I'm building a chicken house currently for my mom. I'm going to used your method for the floor in my mom's chicken house. How is the floor holding up?
Do you think this would be a good method of putting a "slab" like flooring in a coop/run with an existing dirt floor? Looking for something that would be easy to clean and would be ok getting wet.
It has been working good for us, and it's been two years now. It's really just a weaker concrete mix. It's good for foot traffic, but It wouldn't hold up very good for car traffic. Ours gets wet with spilt water and manure. I clean it off with a steel shovel, and it's still alright.
@@MIhere2 Thank you. What do you think if I use mortar mix instead of Portland cement, since it already has sand in it? I've very little experience with concrete, so this is really helpful to me. Thank you for your time, and making this video.
@@thomasjoseph9463 Portland is what give the mixture it's strength. If your floor is pretty small, you could just buy a 'concrete' mix, (not mortar), and just use that for your floor without mixing in your clay soil, or very little. It depends on how strong you want your floor. Why not try a test spot of say, 2' x2'? Try some kind of mix you think will work for you. Let it harden, and see how strong it is.
No, I haven't had any problems with it. I clean the coop out every couple of weeks with a steel shovel, and haven't noticed any cracks. The shovel would have caught on them if there were. Thanks for watching!
Great video thank you! I'm about to revive an old out building and was thinking of using this. Just dirt floor in there now but I'm thinking of doing this and then framing a slightly raised wood floor over it. Thinking it would add stability and hopefully keep critters from burrowing in. With your experience do you think that might work ok?
My intention was just for foot traffic, so I wouldn't recommend car traffic with this mix. It would probably toughen up your driveway, but would probably break up. I read somewhere that for some roads, some Portland would be mixed in on gravel roads to strengthen them, but it was still a gravel road that occasionally needed to be graded and leveled. That's my take on it.
Hello Queen. No, I wouldn't use soil-cement for a foundation. It's a cheap solution for light duty use; -foot traffic, chicken traffic.🐥 Thanks for watching!
Hi Queen, I'm building a root cellar & greenhouse dug into a side hill right now; using concrete. It's still pretty inexpensive compared to lumber material. I'm also doing this alone. Here is the link for mixing and doing the footings: "ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7P3Hh4uhU0A.html"
Hello; for a topping coat, I would mix up fine sand with Portland cement and water (4 sand, to 1 Portland), at about a toothpaste consistency. And spread a thin layer over the surface with a trowel. Thanks for watching!
@@MIhere2 Thanks for the reply. We just put in soil cement in part of our barn. (It's on day two drying) A few spots are 'pitted' so I was wondering if I could put a thin layer of powdered portland cement on top and water it right in. What do you think?
If the 'pits' are really tiny you could try just portland and water. After I finished my soil cement coop floor, I had a couple of big gouges in it where a rock had broke loose, and where I don't think a spot had enough water. I just mixed up a little portland and sand and filled them; and that worked good. When I did the topping layer of stucco on my house, I mixed 4 parts sand, 1 part portland, and 1/2 part lime. The topping layer was about 1/8 to 1/4 inches thick and over the whole wall. I used hardware cloth to screen the sand, so there were no rocks in it. -hope that helps some.🙂
I dampened the soil first. Then I sprayed a little more water on after too. -Just enough so I could pack it, but not so much that is was too mushy or soupy.
At first, no. It was more dusty than regular concrete. After much sweeping and cleaning in the chicken coop over this time, chicken poop sticks very well to it now. So probably got all the looser stuff cleaned off it now, so paint would probably stick now if chicken poop sticks. 😊
