How to Make a Concrete Sidewalk - Do It Yourself

[Music] you know my family and I spend a lot of time out here in the backyard kids are always chasing each other through here this is a really high traffic area and as a result of that my grass is really getting beaten down through here not only does it look bad when it rains this area pretty much turns into a muddy mess and then my house turns into a disaster to solve that problem though today I'm going to be installing a sidewalk through here and you know it's really not that hard before you begin your sidewalk you need a reference point now I'm placing this stake right here by the patio as my reference point because I want the sidewalk to come up and join the patio everything that I do from now on will be measured from this point so I need to make sure that the stake is flush with the patio okay I've got my reference point in place now I need to do is place this stake right here then I'm going to use this line level to make sure that I don't have any water problems I've put this screw in the top of the stake so that I can attach the line level here and take it down to the other point okay now I need to attach my level to this stake and tie it off you want to make sure that you give it a good tight pull before you actually tie it now what I'm doing here is I'm making sure that my sidewalk is going to slope away from the patio you don't want any water to backwash onto your patio and possibly cause foundation problems let's check the level okay now that looks good I've got a good half of an inch slope going away from the patio and that's what I want okay what we need to do now is measure the width of our sidewalk I want mine to be thirty inches and then I'll be placing a stake about every three feet down to the end but first let me show you this we have a sprinkler system and since we're going to be working with concrete and walking through here a lot I sure don't want to take a chance of messing up my sprinkler system so what I've done is taken some cans and cut them in half and all I need to do is put them over my sprinkler heads and then they're safe okay what you'll need to do now is mark your stake so that you know how far down to dig to lay your form before you pour your concrete I'm using the level you want to pay attention to your string make sure that you don't let the level rest on the string and push it down because if you do that throws the angle of your sidewalk off so I'm just barely gonna rested on top and I'm actually putting pressure of the level against the backboard that's helping me to hold the level in place pay attention to your bubble you don't want this to be perfectly centered because again you need your water to run away from the house so make sure the bubble is slightly off about right there and then make your mark it's a good idea to wear a back support when you know you'll be lifting heavy materials you can find this anywhere they have them at drugstores or any of the local home centers and they do make them for men or women this way I can tell I've got good support in my lower back and I won't be injuring myself now let's dig now what I have here is an electric jackhammer it comes with several different attachments I've put the shovel attachment on there and I've got an electric shovel now just finished digging out my first segment and if you'll notice I've already put in an expansion board there in the back that's level with my string what I want to do now is go back with my level and make sure that my form is where it needs to be remember again you need that slight slope in the sidewalk so that the water runs away from the house so I'm going to get that right where it needs to be mark the stake now all I need to do is attach the form to the stake okay before I pour the concrete I want to put this stake right here to give my form extra support so that the weight of the concrete doesn't bow out my form and give me an uneven edge expansion joints are great because they allow your concrete to either expand or contract during different types of weather but another good thing about them is it gives you a stopping point in case you're not able to finish the job all in one day you can either come back to it today tomorrow next week and you'll be fine what I need to do is just add a couple of more stakes to reinforce this and then I'll be able to mix my concrete now the product I'm using today is from quikrete it's a fairly new product but what I like about this concrete is it has special reinforcing fibers in it which simply means all I need to do is mix it up with water and pour it right in over my dirt I don't have to go to the extra expense of laying down a meadow rebar and it saves me time which I like but once it dries I know that it's as strong as if I did have the metal rebar and it will last me a long time okay I've got this mixed up good now I'm ready to pour it what i'm doing here is i'm using a 2x4 to work the concrete down this will eliminate any bubbles or stones that may be on the top all you need to do is place the 2x4 on top of the forms and then just slowly work it back and forth all the way to the end what I'm doing now is using this tool to give my sidewalk a nice corner finish also what it's doing it's separating the sidewalk from the forms so that after its dried and I remove the form I don't have any damage to my sidewalk now I'm almost finished my last step is using the trowel to smooth the finish of the concrete but you know sometimes it can be difficult to get a really smooth finish using the trowel and besides all that if it is really smooth when it rains it can be slippery so to offset that problem I'm going to broom it see what I meant by brooming what I've done is gently rake the broom over the wet concrete this is giving it just enough of a texture so that it won't ever be slippery as soon as I'm finished all I have to do is let it dry since my sidewalk is about 30 feet long this was a big project so it took me just a couple of days to finish digging out the area and pouring the concrete then I'll let it cure for a week so it'd be nice and hard now the last thing that I need to do is take out these forms luckily that's the easy part I'm using a pry bar and a hammer let me show you how to do it just put the pry bar right in between the sidewalk in the form and give it a couple of taps with a hammer to loosen it and then just work the form just like this so you can get underneath it and then it comes right up like that and now I'm just going to do this all the way around and then we're finished this was a pretty labor-intensive job but even with the tool rental it only costs $300 and now we have a great new pathway in the backyard [Music] you

Channel: Your New House

Views: 1,648,481

Rating: 4.781939 out of 5

Keywords: Your New House, yournewhouse, Michael Holigan, Home improvement, remodeling, home builder, home building, homebuilding, home buying, YNH, Teresa Garrett, handywoman, do it yourself, diy, how to, tools, home improvement, pro tips, pro secrets, tips of the pros, women with tools, construction women, how to make a sidewalk, diy sidewalk, how to pour concrete, how to pour a concrete sidewalk, lay concrete sidewalk, cement pour, mixing cement, make your own walkway

Id: h7tIjBEPiPU

Length: 8min 30sec (510 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 18 2020