Okay, my first assumption is this guy is full of poo-poo (pardon the harsh language) but before I go spouting off to the building owner I want to make sure I’m not mistaken. The stairs are your basic concrete stairs going down into a basement entrance, nothing special about them at all. In fact, only the top stair needs rebuilt, but owner want to do all 7 of them for consistency.
So what happens is I give him my price, and a fairly reasonable one. Then this concrete guy comes along and tells owner that stairs require a special “High Strength” concrete that costs 3 times what normal sidewalk concrete costs.
So, before I go telling owner that concrete guy is full of… well, you know. Am I right or am I wrong? Do stairs really require high strength concrete?
Edited 7/12/2008 6:47 pm by Ted W.
Replies
For stairs that might be in use next week I might use 30 mpa concrete but I usually use a 20 mpa mix. Here the difference in cost is maybe $20 or $30 a cubic meter. Aint ever seen concrete that was 3 times the cost.
Thanks artacoma,I think whatever the case, will have to keep people off it for a couple of days. Since it's a 7 unit building with people regularly using the basement entry, I'll offer to replace the top step. I can expose the aggregate a little to make it look similar to the existing. If he insists on replacing all seven steps, I'll tell him to go with the concrete guy. Bottom line is, concrete guy will do the job more efficiently than I can, and it's not like I need the extra work.
Just guessing, but could it be a set time issue? Rapidset has high strength concrete and grout that reaches usable psi very quickly, and tops out at unnecessarily high levels. I use it when I want a quick cure, not because I'm shooting for the eventual 8000 psi or whatever.
trowel fast, though.
k
I thought about that but concrete guy used the phrase "High Strength" and not fast setting. Even if he was refering to a high-early mix I can't imaging he would have use the phrase high strength. I just get the impression he's trying to sqeeze a little extra money out of the job.
Still, I'm only willing to rebuild the top step since it's the only one that needs it. If the building owner wants all the steps done, I'll stay out of it. Unless, of course, he explicitly asks for my opinion. In that case I'll say he should get a couple more estimates, and to recite what's been discussed here - that fast setting may be a good idea, but high strength is something altogether different.
Thanks for your input.