How to move up to 400 pound slabs of concrete

After cutting the concrete in the fall, Tim and I tried to remove some of the larger pieces by dragging them with ropes. A few pieces into the move, the straps broke due to friction so we had to figure out a better plan. I bought some chains to try and drag the pieces, but was still not satisfied with that idea.

Maybe a winch? Cables? No, there must be something better. Princess Auto to the rescue! Chatting with one of the sales clerks about my idea to move the concrete pieces, he immediately thought of an idea. He said " you are going to laugh when I show you what will work the best because they look like straightened out coat hangers, but they can lift 100 pounds each!" I told him that I would try anything to make the job easier, especially if it was cheep. They are called Concrete Slab Setters and boy did they work GREAT!

Since we were now able to move the pieces quite easily we decided to save the $1500 that contractors quoted me on to pour 2 stairs out of our patio door and try to make them ourselves. Here is what we started with:

The largest of the pieces that we had to work with:

The Concrete Setter worked like a charm! The difference in using the Setters over lifting the pieces is that we only needed to lift the pieces enough to clear our toes and the ground instead of 2 feet to be able to walk with them.

First layer done with a mixture of sand an small gravel to help level the second layer.

Layer 2 done!

Top layer done until we can cut one more piece free when we rent the concrete saw again.

The reason that one side looks lopsided is that there was a concrete pillar from the deck and our shed is quite close on that side as well. We may fix them during the fall when we make some other changes to that area. Five hours of work and sore muscles was certainly worth saving $1500!

Now, what to do with the rest of the RV pad??