How to Frame and Pour a Small Concrete Slab | DIY

okay I am moving forward with my dust collection I want to house it outside of my shop in a like a little lean-to building so the first thing that I'm going to be doing is pouring a concrete small little foundation for it I've never done anything like this before but I have try to gather as much information on the subject as possible so now not the point where I'm just going to jump in and take it on so let's get going this is the area that I'll be working with so I started by cutting down the tree that was in my way and then removing the existing slab I made some steaks from scraps and then marked off the area that I wanted to slap to be I ended up making mine sixty by four feet I tried to excavate using a shovel quickly realized it wasn't going to work so then I moved to a grubbing hoe and what I would do is just rough up the surface a little bit then come back with the shovel and remove all of the dirt I loosened up then repeat the process soon a ledge is formed and then it's really easy to come back and just chip away with a grubbing hoe a buddy stopped by wanting to drink a beer and I asked him how he felt about digging a hole instead this definitely went a lot faster with two people overall I was aiming for six inches the next morning I grabbed some two by fours and cut them to size using my circular saw then I put them in place and screwed them together definitely making sure that they were level before moving forward now I didn't see the sense on buying stakes so I just made my own with subscripts and cutting a 45-degree angle I would set them about every two feet and then just hammer them in about two inches into the ground checking for level several times along the way I used a total of five bags of all purpose sand I would cut open all the bags and then pour them out and then just use my hands really to spread it all around trying to make it as level as possible next I grabbed a water hose and what the whole thing down before moving on to the rebar I chose to purchase links of rebar so that I wouldn't have to cut any so I'm using two pieces to overlap to make up the length needed then I just grabbed some baling wire and tied all six joints together I first formed a loop and then put that loop underneath the joint then I would feed the loosen through the loop grab it with my pliers at the very base and form a twist about two or three I cut the loose ends off with the side cutters and hammered the ends down I sent it the rebar where I wanted it and then use some rebar highchairs to elevate it these hold up the rebar so that it'll actually be in the center of the slab instead of that at the very bottom and now to add concrete I got a system down where I would add roughly two gallons of water then add two bags of concrete I'd let that mix just for a few seconds and I didn't a few more cups of water and then a third bag of concrete I would watch the mixture to make sure that the ratio was good while I was refilling my bucket for the next round now I'm not that strong and these bags are heavy so it split it down the middle on the top side of the bag then just hold it in place while it's slowly poured out the cement would kind of stick to the bottom of the mixer so I grabbed his scrap and just kind of scraped it off every once in a while after a few minutes of letting it mix I would just pour it into place it would have been easier if I would have put plywood around the perimeter so I could pour it from multiple points but I didn't so I always poured it from over here and then I just grabbed a hoe or rake and shoved it around I was close to the end when my husband and buddy showed up and they were pretty impressed it took 20 sacks of concrete total and I would be mixing three bags in each batch it's a very fast-moving process and once you get started it's just kind of a go-go-go sort of thing I should have done this earlier but I grabbed a sawzall and cut off all of those pegs flush so that we could come back and screed it which is moving a 2x4 across the top and a sawing motion and the still send all of the voids as well as smoothes out the surface he did either three or four passes total while this is drying I want to talk to you about this video sponsor lynda.com/diy nearing platform with over 3000 video courses if you go to lynda.com slash April then you'll receive a free 10-day trial there are courses not just classes but entire courses on subjects like business photography design just to name a few now I'm a youtuber and so of course I'm a big advocate of free information however sometimes when you want to learn something very specific it can be difficult to find a YouTube channel that covers the subject very thoroughly and accurately you don't have to worry about that with Lynda because all classes are taught by professionals at the end of the day you just never want to stop learning and lynda.com is a great resource where you pay one flat fee and get access to thousands of videos so again go to lynda.com slash April everything I read said wait until the surface lost its Sheen before you come back and trial however I waited a little bit too long and if there wasn't enough moisture to make the surface smooth any longer but I still did it and I also came back with a hand edger to round over the edges after letting it sit for a day I came back and removed the forms you can use a hammer to kind of loosen them up so I definitely waited too long to come back and trawl the surface so the surface of this is not nice and smooth like I wish it was but women learn for my first experience with concrete I think that it went alright and the slab is definitely going to do exactly what I needed to do now check out Welker news.com if you do want more details on the and also in the description of the video I have left you links to the different items that I use during this project so check that out as well and that's it I'm gonna rest up and hopefully in a few days go ahead and get started on my lean-to that will go on this on this slob so stay tuned and I will see you soon well how you doing dad everything's dead it hurts to just push this oh yeah

Channel: April Wilkerson

Views: 5,078,216

Keywords: How to pour a concrete slab, how to add rebar to slab, building a lean-to, slab for a lean-to, small concrete slab, how to mix concrete, how to tie rebar, how to set concrete forms, DIY, April Wilkerson, concrete, diy concrete slab, april wilkerson, triton tools, diy shop, shop project, wilker dos, wilkerdos, how to, concrete slab, april, how to pour concrete, how to pour a concrete shed slab, concrete diy, diy concrete slab for shed, diy concrete slab foundation

Id: aWtn-GyFuiU

Length: 7min 11sec (431 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 18 2015