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If you are putting in a new patio, driveway or sidewalk, you might be considering doing the concrete work yourself. For some reason, many people underestimate the difficulty of working with concrete, and think that it is something that will make a good do-it-yourself project. However, concrete is very difficult to work with, which is why you should hire Seattle concrete contractors to do the work for you. Here are a few of the difficulties you may experience if you decide to do the work yourself, and how Seattle concrete contractors can help. Mixing the Concrete: One of the most difficult steps when working with concrete is mixing the concrete. It may sound simple enough to add water to concrete and then mix it. But the difficulty is determining how much water. To begin with, there are different mixtures of concrete. The concrete mixture that is used for a driveway is more dense than that used for a sidewalk. So the density of the mixture plays a huge role in how much water is added. But aside from that, you have to take weather conditions into consideration, the thickness of the surface you are laying and how quickly you plan on smoothing the surface. If the mixture is too watery, it will take a long time to set. If it is too thick, it can set before you have a chance to finish spreading and smoothing it. Seattle concrete contractors know how to mix the concrete, ensuring it is smoothed and sets perfectly. Setting Up the Form Work: Another challenging part to concrete work is setting up the form work for laying the concrete. The form work is the stakes and barriers that are set up to hold the concrete in place while it is drying. There are many issues that can happen as the result of poor form work. If your forms are not even or level, your surface will not be even or level. If your barriers are not thick enough, the concrete can flow over them or knock them over, resulting in a huge mess. And lastly, if your form work is improperly set up, it can leave impressions in your concrete work. This won't give you the perfect shape or form that you wanted in your concrete work. And form work is even more complicated if you are are not using a basic square or rectangle shape. It is more difficult to create uneven lines in a walkway or an wavy patio design. Seattle concrete contractors know how to set up form work so that everything is perfect and that is reflected in the perfect, even surfaces when they are done with the job. Smoothing Concrete: After you have set up the form work and mixed the concrete contractors, you will have to lay it. Once it is laid, you will need to begin smoothing the concrete. The difficulty here is that you have to move quickly to smooth and level the entire surface. If the concrete begins to dry while you are still working, it becomes harder to work with and may not smooth correctly. And worse, if the surface dries and then you discover that it isn't flat or smooth, you are pretty much stuck with it. There is not a way to correct that problem. Your options would be to live with it or jackhammer it out and start from scratch. Concrete contractors use a crew of multiple people, ensuring that they are able to smooth and level a surface before the concrete begins to set and dry. This means that you will end up with a perfect and level surface.
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