It depends on how young and fit you are. A healthy young lad will have no problem in mixing the concrete etc by hand, build up some muscles! An older or less fit person would be advised to hire the equipment.

Cheers, we like to think we are young and fit so will take your advice. Thanks for your help

Hi
With a mixer you will save time and hard work but also you will get a better mix as we found out when we did my uncles drive a few years ago.
Steve

Just a thought here Scott, assuming you're making the concrete patios 75 mm thick, and that you're using a 1:2:4 mix, have you considered just how much dry materials this requires ? I've just worked it out and it appears a frightening amount.
Have you considered ready-mixed ? Just laying the concrete will give you a really good workout !

You think that Scotty is building a solid concrete patio, Hank? I was assuming just a skin beneath some slabs. Even in my younger days I would have baulked at the thought of 'that' amount of mixing :-))))

Wasn't quite sure, B, but I thought I'd warn him just in case. Even if it's only 50mm thick it'll still be "interesting" !

Thanks for the input guys, yeah its just a 50mm skin under the slabs, and obviously the grout between the slabs.
I read last night that you actually mix a lean mix of about 10:1 Sand:Cement dry for the base becasue the water content in the sand and the water from the ground mix up to make it wet if that makes sense. If that is the case then i will only need to actually "mix" the grout for the joints so it shouldnt be too hard?

10 to 1 is fine if you're putting slabs on top and while they weren't mentioned at first I thought this was likely. Still a lot of concrete though if 2 inches thick. Best of luck Buddy.