Beginner Concrete Side Walk Slab DIY

[Music] hi this is david o'dell with odell complete concrete today we're going to be showing a really nice diy concrete sidewalk it's a real simple job because it's only going to be three foot wide it's a form on both sides so it's easy access from both sides of it it's easy to rod because you can rest a 2x4 from the top of both outside and inside forms and drag it across to get your concrete level and then just work it from there but to start with is what we did was we pulled the string line down where we wanted to lay the sidewalk out at we measured off of the house to keep it parallel with the house so let's say we went 15 feet off of the house at both ends to the outside of the new sidewalk location then we painted on that dry line right on the grass and then we went through there and we just kind of cut along that painted orange line then we're going to remove all the dirt and roots whatever we run into anything organic anything that can decompose has to come out otherwise it's gonna decompose underneath the concrete and it may settle on you or a worst it may even float up during the pour it just makes a mess so we're gonna get it all out of there also you have to pay attention to sprinklers existing sprinkler lines you may have to reroute them or change your nozzle spray like if you were to have a full spray out here in the middle now you wouldn't want one you'd want to have spray on both sides of the walkway things like that you have to consider so now that we've got all this out of here and we're looking like we're pretty close to grade which is probably three to four inches below the top of existing patio that we're going to be adjoining to now it's time to pull a line for exact elevation and then start setting forms and then we can just do some fine-tuning on the elevation the dirt work what we're using is a two by four we got two and a half inch wide by three quarter inch wood stakes and they're 18 inch long you could get away with 12 inch stakes but i like the 18s because there's something sticking up above the form so when you go to remove it it's much easier than having a steak that's flushed to the 2x4 you almost lose them when they're flush because you can't get them out in this case when they're sticking out above you can actually put your hand around them and pull them out and reuse them so we have another fixed elevation over here on the side yard sidewalk that we have to match so we had two fixed elevations now the other important thing to do on something like this is just have cross slope on your sidewalk in other words have one form about half inch to three quarters of an inch higher than the other form in this particular width i think we went about three quarters of an inch in three feet now here's your new sidewalk we're using the fiberglass rods in here also we have fiber mesh additive in the concrete mix and if you notice the way we did the uh fiberglass reinforcement there's not a lot of crossbars you don't really need them because when you have a narrow walkway the kong is not going to crack lengthwise it's always going to crack the shortest distance so it's going to want to crack across it so the main thing you're thinking is you want rebar you know running down the long way cross bars aren't going to do you any good at all other than to kind of hold it in place but if you can if you got the manpower you can hold it as you're placing the concrete you can go that route too we got a lot of guys here right now because we're also pouring the driveway in the front the same time and we start in the back and work our way out now this particular ball float has been modified to fit inside a three foot sidewalk because it typically they sell both let's three foot you can get a two foot three foot or four foot but if you get a three foot it really doesn't fit in a three-foot form because it's it's you know hitting the forms so it's bouncing around and it's not going to get real flat so i cut this thing down about six inches three inches off of each end of a three foot bowl float now it's two and a half feet so it fits real nicely on the inside edges of the forms now we wet cut a few joints in here we did them about every six foot because we have such good access it's really easy to joint this and the layout is easy because it's just straight straight across we notice the holes in the existing patio it's a salt rock finish holds a lot of dirt algae grows in it it's tough to keep clean so they elected to do something nice and simple easy maintenance and it's gonna be just a broom finish here oh we got a half inch hand edger we have a 5 by 20 trowel and we have a joiner that's three quarters inch deep and has a half inch radius and the key component 50 percent nylon 50 horsehair broom gives you the perfect finish non-slip every time and here's strip day we use the duplex nails on there so they're easy to grab with the claw hammer and pull the nails right out and you can see how easy those stakes came out because they were easy to grab they weren't down flush to the top of the board and they came out in one piece and reusable we oiled all these forms just be before the pour i use the mobile one synthetic right out of my truck use motor oil and i diluted it with a little bit of diesel fuel so it will blow out of my garden sprayer really nicely right onto the wood preserves the wood releases from the concrete nicely and i get a lot extra uses out of that lumber so basically i'm saving a tree here it is three days later a beautiful walkway now you can walk all the way around the house on a rainy day and not get stuck in the mud and there's the date carved into the concrete well thank you for watching my video make sure you like subscribe share if possible and uh hit the notification bell so that you know when i upload the next video thanks have a good one

Channel: Odell Complete Concrete

Views: 454,791

Keywords: odell, odell concrete, odell complete concrete, how to pour a concrete slab, concrete, how to pour a concrete shed slab, how to pour concrete, pouring a concrete slab, how to finish a concrete slab, how to pour a concrete patio, diy how to pour a concrete slab for your shed, concrete slab for shed, diy concrete, diy concrete slab, how to pour a concrete driveway, how to concrete, concrete shed slab, how to pour a slab, how to form concrete, how to finish concrete, slab

Id: lUTkrI8FFuM

Length: 10min 26sec (626 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 02 2021