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More Advice and Completion
Two Heavy-Duty Wheelbarrows Can Save The Day
Secure your tools a day ahead of time or at least contact the rental store to reserve them for the pour day to make sure they’re at the site when the truck comes. Rent each of these tools for $5 to $10 per day:
Contractor-grade wheelbarrows with leak-free tires. Even on small pours, you’ll be in big trouble if your sole wheelbarrow gets a flat tire or a broken handle, so get two! It’ll also speed up the pour. A full ready-mix truck at the curb with no way to unload it is expensive. Concrete is heavy. The neighbor’s garden-grade petunia hauler will collapse under a load of concrete, and the hard, narrow tires make for tough wheeling in soft ground or gravel.
TIP: For smooth sides, tap the sides of the form every couple of feet with a hammer to work out air bubbles. Wear safety glasses; concrete will splash.Bull float with an extension handle.
Concrete broom (Use the handle from the bull float).
A groover that cuts control joints 1 in. deep. If the rental store only has groovers for shallow cuts, use it to shape the joints and deepen them with the corner of a trowel or a stiff putty knife. Unless the grooves are at least one-fourth the thickness of the concrete, they’re of little value.
Two magnesium hand floats.
Two edgers.
Iron rake to move around wet concrete.
In addition to the earth-moving equipment for the excavation work, you’ll need:
Hand maul for pounding in stakes.
Bolt cutters for cutting mesh.
Sod cutter if you have lots of grass to cut through.
TIP: Fill a wheelbarrow with water, and brush and rinse off your toolsevery time you use them.Screw gun for anchoring forms to stakes.
Circular saw for cutting forms.
Marking paint for outlining the walkway.
If You Can’t Pour It All At Once, Separate The Pours With Bulkheads
To make sure we had enough time to work the concrete, we had half the load of concrete delivered in the morning for the first 30 ft., and the other half in the afternoon. That way, we knew exactly how much to order for the second load. After the truck emptied, we installed a temporary bulkhead while we finished the first half. With two helpers, don’t be afraid to pour 30 ft. of sidewalk a day. After that, you’ll know exactly what you can handle. A bulkhead is also a way to end a pour if you come up short on the order. You can throw in a bulkhead and order the rest later.
TIP: If you need a little stoop or pad somewhere out in the yard, having it formed up ahead of time gives you a place to put excess concrete to good use!
After Finishing, Cover the Sidewalk With 4-Mil Plastic to Get Maximum Strength
Although you can walk on concrete the day after finishing, it takes about a month for it to reach most of its full strength. Concrete needs water to cure (harden) properly. In order to have a strong sidewalk that won’t scale, spall or crack, cover the sidewalk with plastic sheeting after brooming. (Cover the concrete once your fingertip no longer leaves an impression.) Anchor the sides of the plastic with boards, bricks or stones to keep it from blowing off. Leave the plastic on for a day, then keep the
concrete wet for a few days by occasionally running a sprinkler or soaker hose to slow down the curing process.
After removing the plastic, you may see grayish-blue mottling on the concrete surface where the plastic contacted the concrete unevenly. These marks will eventually fade (ours took two months to disappear) and cause no lasting damage. To prevent them, pour on a cool, overcast day or plan your pour so it’s finished late in the day. That way, the plastic won’t have any direct sunlight baking the surface under it.
Resist The Temptation To Remove The Forms; Wait Until The Next Day
The day after you pour, pull the forms by jamming the tip of a shovel into the stakes and prying against the ground to lift the whole works out of the ground. You’ll crack sidewalk corners or edges if you pull the forms the same day as pouring.
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