Summer weekends bring out the DIY ambition in all of us. The longer evenings, reliable weather, and general optimism of the season make it the perfect time to tackle those garden projects you’ve been planning since January. A new shed base, some garden steps, a few concrete planters—these manageable weekend projects deliver genuine satisfaction and lasting improvements to your outdoor space.
But here’s where many DIY enthusiasts hit a wall: sourcing concrete. You don’t need a lorry-load for a small shed pad, yet mixing bag after bag by hand sounds exhausting. The good news? Ready mix concrete London suppliers increasingly cater to smaller domestic projects, bringing professional-quality material to your driveway in quantities that match your actual needs.
Summer Projects Perfect for Ready Mix
The projects that suit ready mix delivery share common characteristics: they need enough concrete to make hand-mixing tedious, but not so much that you’re into major construction territory. Summer’s warm, dry conditions make these the ideal months to tackle them.
Shed and summerhouse bases top the list of popular summer projects. A solid concrete pad provides the stable, level foundation your garden building needs to last. Timber bases eventually rot, paving slabs shift and settle, but a properly laid concrete slab stays put for decades. Most domestic sheds need between 0.5 and 1.5 cubic metres depending on size—awkward to mix by hand but perfectly suited to a small ready mix delivery.
Garden steps transform sloping gardens from ankle-twisting hazards into accessible, attractive spaces. Whether you’re creating a few steps down to a patio or a longer flight connecting different garden levels, concrete provides structural stability that timber or loose materials can’t match. Steps typically require relatively modest volumes, but the multiple pours involved make consistent ready concrete particularly valuable.
Planter walls and raised beds have become increasingly popular as gardeners embrace productive growing and accessible planting heights. Concrete block planters need strip foundations, while poured concrete planters offer contemporary aesthetics. These projects suit the DIY approach—the volumes are manageable and the techniques achievable with basic preparation.
Fence post foundations might seem too small for ready mix, but consider how many posts a typical garden fence involves. Mixing individual batches for each post—doing so consistently enough to ensure uniform strength—becomes genuinely tedious. A single small delivery lets you concrete every post in one session, with identical mix quality throughout.
Hot tub and spa bases require careful attention to both strength and level. The filled weight of even a modest hot tub runs to well over a tonne, concentrated on a relatively small footprint. A reinforced concrete pad distributes this load safely and provides the solid, level surface the installation needs.
Barbecue and outdoor kitchen areas extend your summer entertaining options. A concrete base creates the stable foundation for built-in barbecues, pizza ovens, or full outdoor kitchen setups. Unlike decking, concrete won’t scorch, won’t rot, and provides a practical surface for food preparation areas.
Small-Load Delivery: How It Works
Traditional concrete delivery conjures images of massive mixer trucks squeezing down narrow residential streets—hardly practical for a shed base in a terraced house garden. The ready mix industry has adapted, and small-load services now make professional concrete accessible for domestic projects.
Express Concrete operates smaller vehicles specifically designed for residential access. These compact mixers navigate the streets that full-size trucks can’t reach, fitting down typical London side roads and into domestic driveways. You get the same professionally batched concrete ready mix, just delivered in equipment scaled to your project.
Minimum order quantities matter for smaller projects. While some suppliers set minimums that only suit larger jobs, services like ours accommodate the volumes DIY projects actually need. There’s no point ordering two cubic metres when your shed base needs 0.75—you’d pay for material you can’t use and face the problem of disposing of a significant excess.
Delivery scheduling offers flexibility around your weekend plans. Book your slot, prepare your formwork, and the concrete arrives when you’re ready to pour. No uncertainty about whether your hand-mixed batches will last the session, no emergency runs to buy more cement when you’ve underestimated quantities.
The concrete itself arrives properly mixed to the specification your project requires. For most DIY applications, a standard C20 or C25 mix provides adequate strength. The team can advise on appropriate specifications when you discuss your project—there’s no point over-engineering a shed base with commercial-grade concrete, and equally no sense under-specifying foundations that need proper structural capacity.
Calculating Your Concrete Requirements
Getting quantities right matters. Order too little and you’re stuck with an incomplete pour and potential cold joints where fresh concrete meets partially cured material. Order too much and you’ve paid for excess that either gets wasted or needs disposing of.
The basic calculation is straightforward: length × width × depth, all measured in metres, gives you cubic metres. A shed base measuring 3m × 2.5m with a 100mm (0.1m) depth needs 3 × 2.5 × 0.1 = 0.75 cubic metres.
Real projects introduce complications. Here’s how to handle common scenarios:
Rectangular slabs use the simple formula above. Measure carefully—it’s worth checking dimensions at multiple points since gardens are rarely perfectly square. Use the largest measurements to avoid falling short.
Irregular shapes need breaking down into rectangles and triangles. Calculate each section separately and add them together. For circles (hot tub bases, for instance), the formula is π × radius² × depth. A circular pad 2m in diameter and 100mm deep needs 3.14159 × 1 × 1 × 0.1 = approximately 0.31 cubic metres.
Steps require calculating each tread individually then summing the total. A step typically needs concrete beneath the tread surface plus the riser height, so a flight of four steps involves progressively larger volumes as you work down the slope.
Post holes are calculated as cylinders: π × radius² × depth. A 300mm diameter hole, 600mm deep, needs 3.14159 × 0.15 × 0.15 × 0.6 = approximately 0.04 cubic metres. Multiply by the number of posts for your total.
Always add a contingency—10% covers minor calculation errors, ground irregularities, and the inevitable small spillages during placement. Slightly over-ordering beats the problems of running short mid-pour.
If maths isn’t your strong suit, don’t worry. Most ready mix concrete London suppliers provide online calculators or can work through the quantities with you over the phone. Describe your project, provide the basic dimensions, and let experience guide the estimate.
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Preparing for Your Delivery
A little preparation ensures your delivery goes smoothly and your concrete ends up where it belongs.
Access assessment prevents unpleasant surprises on delivery day. Measure your gateway, check for overhanging branches or cables, and confirm the route from road to pour site. Small mixer trucks still need reasonable access—if you’re uncertain whether a vehicle can reach your property, discuss it when booking. Photos help the team assess tricky situations.
Formwork preparation should be complete before the concrete arrives. Build your timber forms, check they’re level and secure, and ensure they’ll contain the volume you’ve ordered. Brace the forms adequately—concrete is heavy, and improperly supported formwork can bow or collapse during pouring.
Ground preparation varies by project but typically involves excavating to the required depth, compacting the subbase, and dampening the ground before pouring. In summer, dry soil can absorb moisture from fresh concrete, so wetting the base helps prevent premature drying.
Tool readiness means having everything on hand before the mixer arrives. Shovel, rake, tamper, screed board, float, trowel—gather what you need and keep it accessible. You won’t have time to hunt for equipment once concrete starts flowing.
Helping hands make light work of concrete placement. Even small pours benefit from an extra person to rake while you screed, or to fetch tools while you keep working the surface. Concrete waits for no one—once it’s in the formwork, you need to keep moving until finishing is complete.
Making the Most of Summer Conditions
London’s summer weather generally favours concrete work, but a few considerations help ensure the best results.
Warm temperatures accelerate curing, which is mostly advantageous but means you’ll have less working time than in cooler months. Work efficiently once the ready concrete is placed—standing around admiring your progress eats into the time available for finishing.
Hot, sunny days increase evaporation from the concrete surface. Cover fresh concrete with damp hessian or polythene once finishing is complete, and keep it moist for several days. This prevents surface cracking and ensures proper strength development.
Morning pours often work better than afternoon slots during hot spells. The concrete cures through the moderate temperatures of late morning and early afternoon rather than facing peak heat immediately after placement.
Light rain isn’t the disaster many assume—a gentle shower on curing concrete actually helps maintain surface moisture. Heavy rain is another matter; have tarpaulins ready to protect fresh pours from downpours that could damage the unset surface.
Your Summer Project Starts Here
Those garden improvements you’ve been imagining don’t need to stay imaginary. A solid shed base, elegant garden steps, or smart raised planters all start with quality concrete placed properly. Ready mix delivery brings professional materials within reach of weekend DIY projects, without the tedium of endless hand-mixing or the inconsistency of batch-to-batch variation.
Small-load services exist precisely because not every project needs a full-size delivery. Your shed base matters as much to you as any commercial pour—and deserves the same quality materials.
Ready to turn your summer DIY plans into reality? Express Concrete delivers ready mix concrete across London in quantities suited to domestic projects. Contact our team to discuss your requirements, get help calculating volumes, and book your delivery slot. Request a quote online or call us to get your project started.
