LESLIE: Now we’ve got Rob in Maryland on the line with a building with a dirt floor and he needs some help with it. How can we help you?
ROB: Yeah. Hi. I have an 18-foot-diameter round space outside. It’s a little hut and I have dirt floor. And just want to see if there’s some type of concrete that I can just pour down there or pour on it and it’ll just find its own level.
TOM: Well, I mean concrete, to some extent, find its own level. You have access to this space, right? Is there any reason you can’t float it out?
ROB: Yeah. It’s easy to do.
TOM: Yeah. So then what you’re going to want to do is a couple of things. First of all – this is an unheated space?
ROB: Correct.
TOM: Alright. So what you want to do is you would want to make sure that the dirt is solidly tamped down, right? And then you’re going to add concrete to that to a thickness of at least 4 inches but maybe even 6. And then float the concrete.
It takes a little skill. You’re going to have to do some research on how to do this. But essentially, when the concrete comes off the truck, there’s stone that’s embedded in it. And as you spread it out with a shovel and a rake, you sort of float it. You shake it with a float – a trowel. It’s like a big trowel. And then the stones sink to the bottom of the concrete and sort of the cream comes to the top and that’s what gives you that nice finish. And you’ll sort of work the concrete smooth and then work your way out the door. So I think it’s as simple as putting in a concrete slab floor.
ROB: Is there anything like a dust cover?
TOM: Yeah. You can – there’s plastic dust covers and things like that. But you want a floor that you could actually use, so the concrete is the best way to go.
ROB: OK. Alright.
TOM: You could probably also lay brick pavers on a dirt floor. But it’d be a lot of work because you’d have to cut all those round edges.
ROB: Alright. Well, thanks a lot.
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