COLD CLIMATE DRY POUR CONCRETE Chicken Coop Apron

[Music] okay hi everyone welcome back to the life and Pines pine cones and pine needles I'll never get used to that we are back today because we live in Minnesota and when the weather is nice up here you gotta capitalize on it but we are so excited because today we're doing something that we've been wanting to do for a long time today we are going to try dry poor concrete right here yep this has been something that we've wanted to do for quite a while friends of ours over at Cajun Country Living they've perfected this they are the pioneers of the dry poor method and we feel so fortunate that we were able to put our heads together because they live in Louisiana and they've dry poured they don't have to worry about Frost teething we obviously live in northern Minnesota where we have to worry about Frost cold weather extreme temperature swings yeah we go from like negative 30 to like 100 degrees so that is the temperature difference that we can see here so yeah so today we're going to do what's considered cold climate dry pour I would say yeah the reason that we've wanted to do this for so long is we've had these little pavers in front as like kind of like a little patio but it's not doing what we need it to do there's obviously dirt that builds up around it and you can see our chicken coop is white so last night for instance we got a torrential downpour and it just splattered all the dirt up on our beautiful white chicken coop it just looks horrible so we have to go out and sweep it clean it it just doesn't stay clean so that's one reason we want to do this Jenna loves decorating and loves flowers so she always has little Planters on the front and the chickens dig underneath them and then they tip over or the wind tips them over because they're not on solid grounds you can see there's like a little hole right right here underneath that the chickens dig our barn cats dig they dig under their chickens lay eggs under there so we need to get rid of that access point for for them too yeah some of you may know some you may not if you've been following along our videos are right at the renovation house so we're lucky enough to have a project that where we can be on our Homestead and it's a project that we normally would not feel comfortable doing but with this technique we have this whole new confidence of we can do this and anybody can do anybody can do this so we're super excited like he's just been amped all morning it's been I'm excited kind of funny but yeah it's something new and it's it looks fun I've seen Jim and Lydia do it several times I'm a strong believer of C1 do one teach one and we're gonna do one and try to teach you at the same time so yeah but we're gonna get this started we bought the two things that we really needed the concrete concrete and then we are going to put in concrete enforcement reinforcement so we've got leftover wood from the chicken coop from the renovation house from random Pro things that we've done we're gonna send the kids to go get that so that's the great thing about doing this method too is that most of the supplies that you need you already likely have on hand if you're any kind of homeowner so excited let's get it going yeah okay so the first step is we need to clean out this area we've got these pavers we're going to start get rid of these and then we can start doing some measurements and figure out where we need to kind of scrape a little bit and fill this area and get it ready for the dry pour concrete come here I'll just sit here [Music] all my framing stuff's at the house I don't even have a speed square here [Music] so Jenna is just kind of scraping just a little bit of the top soil off of the area where we want to lay the slab typically you could just frame this up as like a box where you got two by fours all the way around we want this to be pretty close to our chicken coop so that's why we screwed that 1x4 treated piece of wood to the chicken coop and that's where this concrete is going to stop so we're going to build a form we want it to come this chicken coop is eight by twelve so this is exactly that board is exactly eight feet this two by four here is exactly eight feet and then we want to come out about four feet but we have to do some figuring because we bought that remesh that goes in there that's exactly I believe four by eight I have to measure it uh but so we either need to make the frame bigger than four by eight or manipulate the remesh that's in the back of the truck right now and you do not want any of this coming out of the concrete so if anything you want an inch all the way around this remesh so we could do a couple different things we could like I said make the form bigger or I think I got a better idea I'm excited to hear what it is I think we could just take these and just bend them oh bend them in like this and what's that measurement no well if you do you just want to bend the one one side so now we're at 45 so that would give us an inch and a half all the way all the way around good idea yeah you're so smart okay that works for the for the four foot way but what about the eight foot way are we gonna have to cut it eight feet with an inch and a half all the way around would be 93 so if we can bend it put a two by four right here and then bend it and bend it all like that let's do it we can do it okay okay so now we got our mark you're strong and smart and one fart smeller I mean smartphone Finley is gonna be our oh shoot hang on Lydia's calling Lydia's calling oh that's okay all right so what we've found is that a 12 and a 13 year old can do this you don't need any special tools and if you bend it forward and then bend it back they just snap right off we're just dry fitting this in to make sure that the measurements are right [Music] I'm just doing it the wrong way [Laughter] there you go [Music] outside so you're still up you're off oh because I dug to the inside not the outside so you gotta basically that what you did but just further out okay so we kind of have the frame built but we've been dry kind of fitting it in there we want a nice slope away from the chicken coop it doesn't have to be drastic but any water that hits it we want it to run away from the chicken coop not back into it we're looking at about a bubble of angle and we're probably there now after Jenna just took care of that so it's such a pretty girl yeah I'm saying if we use that hole just around it should be fine right language mom I thought the same thing CJ okay next step we have the frame in the general area where we want it so Jen is just going to go around the perimeter and put a a chain wall or what we call it appears I'm going to say a mini footer don't go 2D how do you do when I come deep enough I guess okay so we uh finished up the framing it looks really good it really does so it's all framed up it's got a nice little pitch away from the chicken coop it's back filled by hand by Jenna and you don't have to use the stakes for this because you're going to pour the concrete in there dry it has no what's the out Force pressure it has no ability to kind of push it and blow it out as long as you pack it in around there and we backfilled it to prevent that from happening we got the little chain wall all the way around or a mini footer as like I call it and now we just need to start filling this thing with concrete what we're going to do fill it halfway with the concrete we're going to lay that remesh in there on top of that first layer and then we can start going up to the very top level and we can start screeding you are supposed to get it on your feet well well it happens you remember this I sure do my brother bought gave this to me because you saw the video of me struggling to get it in right [Applause] now push it in open it up close it push the button ready to go that's pretty nifty no fiddling around all right we've got a couple bags poured in there we're gonna pour a couple more and then start spreading it around to basically fill it in and just like with Cajun Country Living you can already see it's wicking up the moisture from the ground [Music] [Music] that reminds me of my fishing days when I go down on the river and level platform for my chair and my baseball coach came and dug a hole right in the middle of it isn't he the one that always gave you the nickname River Rat every time he'd come to your house to get you to come play baseball your mom would be like no he's down at the River Spirit suckers and now you've got the nickname River Rat [Music] ings all right so we got the first little layer in then this is going to lay down the rematch in there we'll kind of get it centered again you want at least an inch all the way around that remesh so it's not sticking out of the concrete and that was a huge tip from our friends once again at cajun's country living okay we've got the rematch in so now it's just basically continue filling we're going to start on this end start putting some bags in and then we can start screeding no one may really ever know feel like I'm six feet underground trapped inside a dream and falling through the clouds [Music] okay so the thing about screening and when I say screening like I'm such a novice I thought it was called streeting with the teeth but the thing about screening is you want to almost have it like mounded when you start and just Jim said I think his words were the difference between 15 minutes and 30 minutes of screening is going to make all the difference in the world and we're pretty meticulous that we're gonna follow their advice to a tea screed continue to work that powder up to the surface [Music] and falling through the clouds oh the other thing too is get the straightest two by four that you can find because that's really going to help make your finish nice and smooth as well you want like literally no Crown whatsoever that's what you meant right oh straight I mean you don't want some wonky 2x4 foreign so step seven done we screeded the entire slab you can see there's still some lines in it from us screeding back and forth but when we go to finish it with the paint roller we're hoping that that just completely disappear so Next Step we're gonna Edge and put a nice soft Edge all the way around this whole thing don't have to bang it make sure all this stuff goes down it might be a little finesse when it comes to doing this and give make the edger do a little wheelie okay the edging is done it looks so nice but here comes the creme de La Creme of what makes this look so perfect I sure love the dirt bags roll their Hooters concrete roller Hooters concrete smoothing roller Hooters I am putting zero pressure on this I'm just letting the weight of it oh my gosh that is so satisfying so how long you been uh finishing concrete well you're doing a phenomenal job [Music] the slab is ready ready for water just like the bag says just Add Water first watering find yourself a hose hose nozzle with the Mist setting on it has to have the Mist you want to just barely get this thing wet you dark darken it so I'm going to give Jenna that job as well I'm a little Ramy so I would probably be one of those people that would not do this first step the right way so all we had to do is we got to hose it down real quick one good misting and then we will walk away for one hour hey Siri set a timer for one hour oh boy okay it hasn't even been five minutes of the first watering I tell you what though they're in no way that we would have got to look like that part it went I mean I I would have doubt there's no way how do you think it turned out so good I just told Lydia I'm it looks so good that I'm gonna kick these chickens out and turn this thing into a she shed almost anybody could do this this is a definite DIY do not be intimidated by doing concrete you can do it dry and have it look amazing that can dry for a little area to park his truck next to the garage there you go there you go the possibilities are endless with this and we're going to show you guys that you don't have to live in a warm climate even though contrary to what it feels like right now you can do this even in a cold climate so so excited so another thing that we were Infamous for with wet pores was never getting enough concrete today we use that concrete calculator that Jim and Lydia mentioned in their video and we didn't run out of concrete we didn't and even if we would have it would have been no big deal because we could have just Mosley gone to the store got another bag got a cup of coffee got here and poured the rest because it's not wet yet here we go what's the trick with the second mistine what just just change the color that is the trick with the yeah oh so I think what we should do is for all the naysayers out there we say anybody can do a dry pour in a cold climate when it's summer well you just have to stick around and find out hit that subscribe button turn the notifications on what's Up DJ foreign we've got our second misting done and those are some ominous looking clouds oh gosh well I don't think we're good okay we are past the misting phase and now we are showered I think I'm gonna go sweep but go far away from it okay here to here first if I'm like far away from this thing I'm you can pour concrete while drinking coffee as easy as that you would foreign I think we can get it wetter hey sorry we have come really close to some storms and some rain but it has held off and looks like it should hold off for another few hours so I'm not worried about it okay so we have 20 minutes left on the timer before we're supposed to start our next sprinkle and I don't know if you can see that but we're starting to get a little starting to get a little shower so thank you yeah you can kind of see the drops of rain and oh my gosh I can see the chickens Footprints right there that's so funny okay so mother nature kind of gave us a pre-shower shower and but we are on to what is this number this is the second watering okay so my Tamer just went off again I think this is the shoot I don't remember hang on okay I had to have teddy check my little checklist because I can't remember but the timer just went off for the third watering it just started raining again very light sprinkle don't let the Thunder deceive you it's just really not that bad and so I am not gonna water it because it's just giving like the perfect light sprinkle so I'm gonna go back in where I'm not getting wet I love Mother Nature finish this concrete for us hello hi we saw y'all slab needed a little bit of help so why don't we just go ahead and fly up and help you all out wait are you guys being serious yeah absolutely that sounds really fun to us we hardly ever get a chance to get away from here and they give us like a mini vacation we get to come up spend some time with you guys and and do a project with y'all okay so it is the next day we had a crazy pop-up storm that came in like a lion and it was like torrential downpour high winds and it definitely messed with our finish there was some wearing of the edge right here and is the Integrity of this concrete compromised I don't think so cosmetically it's not perfect I'm walking down to our garden right now to show you guys some more of the damage that we had with this crazy freak storm that blew through here last night this is our little trail that comes down to the lake and from up here all the way down I mow all of this and this is now a little pond oh my gosh look what it did to our dock just kidding we're in the process of fixing this too [Music] okay so what we were thinking was we could come up in the beginning of July and that'll give it that 28 day cure and we thought that we could just come up and help you all get everything finished get it all perfect and fix that cosmetic issue that y'all had and that can happen in days so that's a bit extreme step six done we screeded the entire thing you can see sorry that was step seven yeah anybody can do a dry pour in a client oh you walked right through it [Music]

Channel: The LiFe In Pines

Views: 13,590

Keywords: cajun country livin, cajun country living, concrete, quikrete, concrete projects, spring projects, backyard ideas, chicken coop, chicken coop ideas, diy chicken coop, diy concrete, diy dry pour, easy projects, pouring concrete, dry concrete, YouTube series, the life in pines, family channel, vlog, cement, dry pour, cold climate dry pour, Minnesota dry pour concrete, cheap slab, cheap diy, budget friendly, how to, northern climate dry pour, freezing dry pour concrete

Id: JfLQFPF8Ulk

Length: 25min 44sec (1544 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 03 2023