Over the years I've mixed a lot of concrete. Ive been doing it all by hand in a wheelbarrow using pre-mixed bags of concrete. Ive gotten quite good at it, but it takes a lot of time and energy and can be a bit slow for those bigger jobs.
I've got a few concrete jobs coming up this year as I intend to replace a lot of old cracked paths, plus I've changed the layout of one part of my property and there are a number of steps I need to build. I've also decided to replace a few areas of paving to reduce the amount of maintenance they need. That's going to require a lot of concrete.
I had considered getting a big concrete truck to deliver it already mixed but that's expensive as the concrete would need to be pumped 50 odd meters from the road to where I need it. Besides it's not a job I could do all by myself in an afternoon, I'd need a team of guys to help me. So I decided I'd actually prefer to do it myself in more manageable stages.
So I started looking for an old concrete mixer on TradeMe. Thankfully, I found one for about $300.
It was an traditional old-school mixer like my grandfather and my uncles used to have. It had been sitting in someone's shed for the last 20 years and was covered in rust. But it's a good solid machine and still goes well.
I don't have a shed to store it in so I was bit concerned about leaving it out in the weather with just a cover over it. So, when I first got it home I started scraping all the surface rust off it and gave it a rust treatment.
Then I decided – why stop there. I might as well paint it.
I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I'm sure it will last another 20 years at least. When I'm finished with it I'll definitely get my money back, and then some. Now I just need a good supply of builders mix, sand and cement.
I can see I'm going to be busy.
