Pouring Concrete Steps (How To Pour Concrete Steps)

hey everybody mike here so in this video i'm going to show you how we pour a set of concrete steps and i'll have the the forming video and the finishing videos following this one in a set of series so part one this is part one we'll have part two and part three so make sure you subscribe to the channel so you can come back and be notified when i have those videos out i'll also have the full training videos on how to do these steps like this in the concrete underground which is uh in the link below that's my training academy so you can check that out also those will be coming up in the month of november so the the first thing we do when we pour concrete steps is you know we ask for a pretty low slump concrete this is probably about a four inch slump concrete and slump means how wet or how dry the concrete is when the concrete driver mixes it up in his truck so we like to keep the concrete fairly dry so it doesn't sag too much underneath the stairs or underneath the risers um this this set of steps is about eight feet wide and as you can see there's one two three there's four step ups from uh what's going to be in the parking lot here into that entryway which goes into the building so i did all the forming on this and i put the styrofoam in i put the rebar in so i i did everything on this job this i'm working i'm actually a subcontractor so i didn't do the design or the planning or anything like that i just had a set of blueprints i was going by and that's that's exactly what i did i formed everything right to those blueprints so i wasn't actually in on the design or anything like that so the key to pouring these steps number one is the low slump concrete and then you know getting the concrete in place filling filling up your stairs and then as you'll see here in a minute i'm gonna i'm gonna vibrate this and you know make sure i actually forgot to do something on these so and i remembered right at the end so make sure you watch the whole video to check that out it's it's kind of funny you know as long as i've been doing this even sometimes i still forget to do things so darren's kind of shoveling the concrete down the chute luke's putting it in place smoothing it out and if you can notice on those risers i kind of 45 the bottom of them to make them just to make it a little easier to pour that way you know i want to match the bottom of that riser on the top step and then obviously the top of the form on the one below it i actually made it i actually made that 45 where i cut that 45 on the bottom of the risers that's about a quarter of an inch higher than the form you know the next step down so these these steps will have a slight pitch out so water won't sit on them when it rains [Applause] we'd like to have the same slump concrete on all the risers so when we go to finish you know go we end up stripping these boards off the finish you'll see that in the finishing video um all the concrete's the same slump where the risers are you know we don't really need concrete this stiff to pour that patio back there that entryway or we got a wheelchair ramp way over there to the right you can kind of see those forms that slope down even on that wheelchair ramp we don't need the concrete quite this stiff so we're just putting the same slump concrete in front of all the risers that way when we finish it it'll make it a little bit easier so the next thing i do once we get the concrete in place is you know i take my little dewalt pencil vibrator and i'm going to vibrate that concrete really good it's going to take out that's going to take out most of the air pockets you know up against the forms but there'll still be a few when we go to strip these forms off but that takes care of a lot of work when it comes to finishing is vibrating that concrete you can see how it just wants to kind of sag down that's just perfectly normal there's not much you can do about it we just have to gonna have to dig that concrete back out that's high and just throw it back up tall you want to see it you want to see that when you vibrate the concrete you want to see it come out below the riser that's above it you know and make sure everything's filled up really really nice and there's no air pockets anywhere even on those side forms you know those are you'll see when we strip those off you know you want those looking really really nice when you finish because some of it may end up being exposed like these these will all be exposed after on the sides that pencil vibrator makes it really really easy i think it's really light and uh you know i have that down the link in the description we use that thing all the time for vibrating around our forms much much easier than carrying around a bigger one or even an electric one [Music] that's how we get the vibrating done right there so once we get them poured and vibrated the next step is to you know get your concrete roughed in and that's what i'm doing so i'm digging out that high and i'm going to get it roughed in pretty close to grade we get quite a bit of saggage on this because i really vibrated them really really good it's that's going to make the whole difference in the world when you go to start finishing so i mean just take your time if uh if it's not 90 or 100 degrees out you should have you should have plenty of time to get these get these magged in you can see darren and luke out there over there starting to pour that concrete ramp so i'll just i'll just end up rough magging these steps myself getting them getting them in place all them guys do the ramp i decided to go get a shovel because there was quite a bit of quite a bit of saggage after i got done vibrating this thing just to speed things up a little bit there's definitely no hurrying when you do these you know you want to make sure you get them keep them magged really really as close as possible the first time you can see how i've got that 45 under there i'm going by i want to go right at the bottom of that 45 on those risers as close to the bottom as i can i definitely don't want to be low on it if i'm a tiny bit high on that's okay i'll fix that when i finish but i want to match that that form on the front you know the front riser and get as close to i can as the 45 on the back riser save me a lot of work later on and i'm just you know like i said i'm just roughing these in right now i'm just magging them i don't have to get them perfect i know that i'm gonna have time i gotta let the concrete set up afterwards let it harden up some before i try to really get it perfect but the closer you can get them now at this stage you know the better off you are i'm throwing some concrete on the ground there for a reason and i'll tell you why i'll tell you why later on in the video but i'm not just throwing it on the ground to waste it now if i didn't have a 45 underneath those risers and i don't need one but it just makes the finishing go a little easier if i didn't have that 45 i'd have the full inch and a half width of the two by to go by but the that just makes it a little harder to finish you know the inch and a half of that two by when you go strip it off if that's dug into the concrete at all if let's say you're an eight high in the back and you have to fill that whole eighth of an inch deep by inch and a half wide by the length of it eight feet of it that's a lot of work when it comes to finishing so that's the reason we 45 that we can get right under that as much as possible to start with see how the process goes it's not too bad you know as long as you're not you're not in a big hurry you can get them looking pretty good on this first rough float so that's how i get that's how i get the first rough float man and as you can see this is what i forgot to do when i before i started magging them i forgot to put that that rebar in the nose that's what it called for on the set of planes so i mean really i could have set that in first before i got this all nice and mag floated out but i forgot the guys reminded me after that rebound was sitting right there on that pillar so we'll just stick it in now it's a good thing it's a good thing we remembered while the concrete was still pretty green get it in place and then we're gonna just push it down a couple inches we want it about two inches below the surface and about you know two inches away from the form and that's just to help reinforce the nose of those stairs so i really i mean i had to go back and re-mag everything again um but hey i guess i could just chalk it up to old age right so once i got it pushed down in place i'll just get it mag back out it only only take a few minutes having that pushing that rebar in there means i probably have to dig out just a little extra concrete here and there but it wasn't too bad you can see darren and luke have already they're getting started on pouring that entryway up top so i really haven't helped them guys that much today so i'm just going to continue to to mag out remag out those those steps while them guys start pouring that entryway they got the ramp all done already and that's basically how we pour a set of concrete steps i mean it's just you get them poured out nice if your slump is good it makes the whole process a lot easier so get them poured out get them vibrated and then the forming comes into play you know if you did a good job forming them then and getting them magged out like i'm doing right now is going to be fairly easy and then it's a matter of just waiting for them to set up a little bit so you can finish so again if you haven't subscribed yet and you want to see how we form these how we finish these you know go ahead down there and hit subscribe now hit the little bell notification this is us starting to finish them so this will be one of the next videos you'll be able to see if you're a subscriber so make sure you come on back and we'll show you how we how we strip the forms how we finish these how we rub the faces out with a sponge that'll all be coming up guys thanks a lot we'll see you on the next one

Channel: Mike Day Concrete

Views: 986,753

Keywords: pouring concrete steps, pouring concrete stairs, pouring a concrete patio, laying concrete stairs, concrete, diy concrete stairs, how to pour concrete steps, diy concrete steps, how to concrete, diy concrete, how to pour concrete, how to form concrete, concrete finishing techniques, concrete skills, concrete floor, concrete slab, how to, concrete tools, how to pour a concrete slab, how to pour a concrete patio, how to build concrete steps, how to form concrete stairs

Id: OqSqjh7RJmg

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 12 2020