How To Pour and Finish a DIY Concrete Sidewalk (Can You Do This on Your Own?) Part 2

[Applause] foreign [Music] everybody Mike here so in this video I want to talk about doing a DIY stamped concrete sidewalk or a walkway and what I really want to know from you guys if especially from you guys that don't do concrete that much is do you think stamping a small walkway like this is just too intimidating to try and if it is why you know let me know now in the comments why you think that might be so I mean I'm putting the video up here for you to watch and figure out you know you're going to be able to watch US stamp this and figure out if it's something you might want to tackle on your own or not or if you need to hire somebody like us to do it so I get a lot of questions about stamp and concrete and wanting to try it on my own and you know the key really with stamping concrete is the timing of when to get on it you know how do how do you know when's the right time to get on it not too early not too late and that's really the key to finishing any type of concrete I don't care what finish you're putting on it so I mean there's there's the this what we look for when we stamp concrete is it has to be firm enough to be able to put the rubber stamps on it you know and then us for us to step on them and support our weight so it's got to be quite firm in order to do that but not so firm that we can't get from one end to the other before it gets too hard so that that in itself is probably the most intimidating thing I would think for a new person to worry about is I don't want to get on it too early and I don't want to get on it too late so we're going to just go over a bunch of questions I get from people and the first one is can you do stamp concrete yourself well that's why I put the video up so you can kind of watch us do a pretty small section uh or a small sidewalk a concrete sidewalk and Stamp It and for you to decide can you do this yourself and then I want to know down in the comments if if you don't do concrete what you think give me a yes or no do you think you can do this yourself and if you say Yes um that's that's awesome if you say no let me know why so maybe I can try to help others answer those questions another question I get a lot is you know how do you pour a stamped concrete walkway well that's why I've got I've got part one of this video up I'll link at the end of this video so you can kind of watch how we poured this and then here's part two where you can see how we stamp it and then you know there's there's a little bit more to just doing like what we're doing today um to finish you gotta come back and you gotta clean this you gotta saw cut it off for joints to help keep it from cracking you gotta put a sealer on it so there's a couple of steps you've got to do after this but this right here what I'm what me and Luca doing right now is probably you know the hardest part of the whole process um another question I get is what is a cheaper alternative to stamp concrete um I don't know I guess broom finish concrete but if you want something decorative I mean I price up against guys that do pavers all the time and I'm always less money than the paver guys so that might help you but as far as something decorative goes I don't really know what's a cheaper alternative than stamped concrete maybe if you guys know you know if someone wants something other than just a regular broom-finished concrete walkway what would be cheaper than this if you found something you know let's let everybody know another question I guess can I put stamp concrete over existing concrete I and the answer to that is yes I've done that all the time the only thing you know you really got to take into consideration is I don't like going thinner than really two inches over existing concrete so you got to have that much height to be able to put regular pea Stone concrete over existing concrete and the existing concrete's got to be in really nice shape I mean it's it can't be all like busted up and settled or Frost heaved or you know a tree next to it with a roots are making it crack it's just going to be it's going to be sound concrete that's that's not moving um and then you know you can pour another concrete slab right over the top of it and stamp it so that would be the only scenario where I've where I've done that before a couple other questions is what goes under stamp concrete well in the case like this one here you know the existing topsoil was dug out probably 18 inches or so we live in Maine so we get a lot of freezing thaw cycle so depending on where you live the the base under it's going to be a little different we tend to go a little thicker with a gravel base here than in most places so you know the Topsoils dug out if there's any clay or anything like that we tend to dig it down a little deeper but there's probably about a foot of gravel under this pad this is about a I think this was around a five to a six inch thick concrete pad with 12 inches of gravel under it so if that tells you anything you know dug it out about 18 inches put in about six inches of gravel compacted it really good put in another six inches of gravel compacted it really good and then about six inches of concrete right over the top you can see the driveway in the background that's got gravel in it so we're trying to match you know if he ever does end up Paving the driveway he'll want it to come right out of his door slope down all the way from his door match the walkway and keep sloping down away from the house uh stamp concrete slippery to walk on well it can be yeah I mean this one's got really good texture um if you put a penetrating type of sealer on it that penetrates down into the concrete and it doesn't leave a film on the surface then it's not necessarily going to be slippery if you put a a topical kind of sealer on it that kind of forms a film over the surface then that's when stamped concrete can get a little bit slippery because it's like putting a really thin thin coat of plastic over the surface so water is going to kind of beat up on it and build up on it and that's going to make it slippery when it gets wet another question what lasts longer stamp concrete or pavers well I guess that all depends where you are what climate you're in I know in Maine stamped concrete lasts a lot longer than pavers people that usually have pavers down for a year or two will call us to get an estimate on redoing it with stamped concrete because the pavers have moved they got grass or weeds growing up through the the seams or they have a bunch of ants coming up living in the sand in between the pavers so I know in Maine it's stamped concrete is going to last a lot longer than pavers if you live down south where you don't get the movement or the the winters that we get maybe maybe it's about the same is stamped concrete outdated I don't get that question a lot but you get a little bit I don't know we still do a ton of it we get calls for it every week to do stamp concrete so I would say no there's still a lot of call for stamped concrete it just depends on you know who you hire and how good it looks uh and your what your preference is if you want your stamp concrete done or not so I don't think it's outdated can you pressure wash stamped concrete well yeah you can pressure wash it just don't want to get the tip too close to it you're going to want to put a fan tip on it you're not going to want to use one of those turbo rotating tips uh keep the keep the tip about 18 inches to two feet away from it just lightly pressure wash it and it's going to be fine and then you know what other questions do you guys have about stamping concrete let me know down in the comments you know we do what you know the cost to stamp concrete that's going to vary depending on where you are the type of contractor you hire typically stamped concrete can run you know 15 to 25 a square foot I guess right in that ballpark we're kind of right in the middle when we just price out stamp we're around 20 to 22 dollars a square foot and that that doesn't include the dirt work you know up here where we're from uh the Dirt Works done separately there's excavators that do that type of stuff we just specialize in doing concrete work so we'll come in we'll put up the forms after the gravel's all been done uh you know this one had styrofoam under it put a rebar mat in it we we get we call the concrete company we get the color and you know that's basically what it is up here in Maine so roughly 20-ish bucks a square foot to get stamped concrete installed so that's how we do that now I didn't have a picture of a ceiling that walkway but this is the same color same stamp this is kind of what it looks like after it's sealed we'll put about three coats of this sealer on real light coach you can see I'm just spraying it really really light not worrying really about if I if I get it a hundred percent because I know I'm going over it two more times I don't want to get it on too thick you can see how that really pops the colors now that one that first coat will evaporate in a little bit and then as you put the second and third coat on see that's got pretty good texture to it that's not really going to be that slippery this is kind of a semi penetrating and semi-topical sealer it's kind of a little bit of both so really helps pop the colors on that but let me know what you guys think do you like that stamp that's an Ashley or slate stamp so what we got coming up next on this job is we went right from the the front yard to the backyard and I'll show you on the next video so make sure you come on back part three is how we're going to stamp the back sidewalk we put a little bit different stamp on that so thanks for watching guys come on back we'll see on the next one

Channel: Mike Day Concrete

Views: 6,030

Keywords: how to pour a concrete sidewalk, concrete sidewalk diy, concrete sidewalk, concrete, diy concrete, concrete sidewalk for beginners, how to pour concrete, concrete for beginners, how to lay a concrete sidewalk, how to make a sidewalk, diy sidewalk, how to form concrete, concrete finishing techniques, make your own walkway, how to, how to pour a concrete slab, how to pour a concrete floor, how to pour a concrete driveway, how to pour a concrete patio, finishing concrete

Id: q77NjcandBs

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023