We are in the middle of home renovation. We recently poured a concrete sidewalk to help keep down on the dirt that gets tracked through the house and reduce the worn paths through our yard. We are also landscaping our yard. It cost a lot to have someone pour concrete and it is quite a savings to do it yourself. We saved about $300.00 doing this ourselves. With a few tools and know how; it can be fairly easy to do. We are not professionals, we are just home owners trying to save money by doing it ourselves. You will need basic knowledge of construction, concrete, and experience on how to use tools and safety precautions to do this instructable. Follow through to see how we did it!
Disclaimer: If you use this instructable as a guide to pour concrete or anything else ; We are not professionals, you do so at your own risk. Please take the necessary precautions to keep tools, cement, boards, and everything mentioned here out of the reach of anyone who may injure themselves. Protect areas you are working in, mark them with red flags so no injuries will result from accidents. Read all instructions on cement packages to inform yourself of all risks and warnings. Tools can injure, hurt, and resulting in loss of life, accidents happen.Thanks.
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This instructable was hard for me to share because everything is in such a mess. I set aside my reservations because I wanted to share this information with this community. We are in the middle of many projects. We are pouring concrete, building a shop, landscaping, re-roofing, replacing windows, plumbing, and painting the exterior of the house to list a few.
Then there is the inside; kitchen and bath! I will be sharing as we finish each job here on instructables. Most people would start on the inside but we have a large yard and a small house so we needed a shop to store everything and a place to work and keep tools and materials protected.
The concrete is almost all finished except for the driveway. That will be the last thing we do. For this instructable I will be sharing how we poured a section of sidewalk to finish the concrete for the back yard. We hope to finish the shop and plant the lawn very soon. I mention this to you because if you will be doing any of these things, you might keep an eye open for my new instructables as I share them here.
Then there is the inside; kitchen and bath! I will be sharing as we finish each job here on instructables. Most people would start on the inside but we have a large yard and a small house so we needed a shop to store everything and a place to work and keep tools and materials protected.
The concrete is almost all finished except for the driveway. That will be the last thing we do. For this instructable I will be sharing how we poured a section of sidewalk to finish the concrete for the back yard. We hope to finish the shop and plant the lawn very soon. I mention this to you because if you will be doing any of these things, you might keep an eye open for my new instructables as I share them here.
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I live in Cleveland which is a colder climate and we get a lot of rainfall so freeze/thaw and drainage are major factors. Now I should also say that I'm an architect and by definition lazy. I put stuff on paper and have others do all the work :)
add a 4" layer of gravel below the sidewalk. this as a drainage plain so that subsurface water will drain away from the sidewalk and there it is less likely to heaving. if you are also incorporating paving like bricks then I will add a 4" layer of sand on the gravel.
instead of using 2x for formwork use siding boards and wooden stakes. siding boards are flexible and can be straight or easily bent to make nice smooth curves.
4" minimum depth and add reinforcing mesh, usually 6x6 w1.4/w1.4. as you pour hold the mesh in the middle of the slab.
add expansion strips whenever butting up against existing paving or foundation.
slope the sidewalk to one side for drainage. this is simply done by setting one side of the formwork a lower than the other side.
as a general rule i use 3'-6" minimum (preferably 4') for walks because unfortunately down the road someone may be in a wheel chair, so it's good to make things wheel chair width. a wheel chair can fit on a 3' wide walkway but it's good to give a little breathing room on either side to keep from rolling off the edge.
add 2" pvc pipes (1' wider than walk) under the sidewalk at logical locations for future sprinkler lines and wiring for outdoor lighting. cap the ends of the pipes but don't glue it so that the pvc won't get clogged with dirt. when you pour the walk, add marks in the concrete so you can easily locate the pipes down the road.
Sunshiine
sunshiine
To answer your question, the best time of year is summer. He also said:
I assume he will be buying a sack of asphalt patch or /mix at a local building supply center. If you are ordering it through a paving company it will come from the batch plant approximately 200 degrees F. Summer or winter should not matter but it should be done on a day when it is not raining. If you are buying it from a sack at a local building supply center, it should be poured on the hottest day of summer.
I hope this helps! Thanks for commenting and have a great day!
Sunshiine
Sunshiine
Sunshiine
Best of Luck, girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunshiine
Sunshiine
Sunshiine
sunshiine
(also, your pictures are fantastic)
Sunshiine
and in step 11 you'd better use a trowel than hands
Sunshiine
Sunshiine