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Well, we don't have an underground sprinkler system.
There's no gas line running into a barbecue.
So I think we're pretty well all set.
Now we're digging out this area right here so we can install a patio out of interlocking
concrete pavers.
So do you know where the samples are?
Yeah, I'll go get them.
Okay.
All right.
Thanks.
Now before we do any digging, we located all the underground lines and wires.
On most states, you can just call up one number, many times it's on the front of the phone
book.
And that's for all the utilities.
Okay.
This color we're going to use in the patio, and this color we're going to use in the soldier
course as a border, and also in the design work in the middle.
Well, it should be a fun project, so stick around.
I said, did you grab that retaining wall unit?
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Concrete pavers have been popular in Europe since the mid-1940s.
They're still pretty new here.
They just appeared in Canada in the 1960s and in the United States in the 1970s.
They make a great surface for patios, sidewalks, and driveways.
This patio is going to be about 400 square feet.
So it's a nice-sized patio to do either some of the work or all of the work yourself.
Now most home centers are just now starting to carry pavers and paver installation products.
Many home and garden centers stock pavers.
But now there are also stores where you can get the pavers themselves.
And most of the other materials and tools you need for your project.
Some tools are specifically designed for paver jobs, and you should be able to rent these.
They include special tools for cutting pavers, for aligning the pavers as you're setting
them, for removing pavers, and for carrying them.
You'll also need to purchase the edge restraint, and you may need paver adhesives, cleaners,
and sealers.
It's kind of interesting to see how pavers are made.
At this plant, the ingredients, cement, sand, aggregate pigments, and other chemicals are
dispensed from large bins.
Everything gets moved to a mixer by a series of conveyor belts and a large bucket.
A relatively small amount of water is added, and the concrete is mixed for a few minutes.
After mixing, it's dumped into the paver molds, where it's vibrated and compressed for a few
seconds.
This is called a no-slump process.
The concrete isn't very wet, and when the pavers come out of the molds, they hold their
shape.
They don't slump.
A vacuum machine lifts the layers of pavers up and stacks them on top of each other.
Then they're allowed to cure overnight.
The machinery is all computer-controlled and costs several million dollars.
Perhaps the neatest thing about interlocking concrete pavers are the design options.
They come in lots of different shapes and a good variety of colors, so you can mix and
match to create your own unique design.
On this job, the two shapes are actually one paver, a popular keystone shape.
This long winding driveway uses three or four different widths of pavers.
It gives it kind of a soft, random look.
Well, just about like cobblestone, and it really fits in perfectly with the character
of the older house and the whole area.
This pattern was created out of just two shapes.
One piece with the groove in it gives the illusion that it's two pieces, and the square
piece is designed to fit inside.
Paver projects don't have to be big.
A small patio like this one can be a great do-it-yourself project.
Pavers tend to come in earth-tone colors, blacks, browns, reds, tans, and puters.
If you want to bring out the colors in pavers, you can seal them, like they've done here.
But you can see the difference between the unsealed pavers that were left over after
the installation and the sealed pavers.
To seal the pavers, you first have to wash the pavers with a special acid cleaner, and
then you have to reseal them every two to five years, depending on your climate.
Unsealed pavers not only brings out the color, but it will also help protect them from stains.
Boy, you were right.
This really has settled.
It has a little bit.
Well, I have to admit, this is a project we did on home time about six years ago.
When we did this patio, we used some of the best advice that was available.
Unfortunately, as you can see, it probably wasn't quite good enough and has settled in
a few spots.
Also, the edging has come up a little bit each winter.
When we did this, there wasn't a real good consensus on exactly how these concrete pavers
should be installed.
Then in 1989, the manufacturers banded together to form an association called the Concrete
Paver Institute.
This association came up with standards for installation and manufacturing techniques
for the industry.
The big difference is the base, right?
Oh, exactly.
Yeah.
What we did here is we dug out deep enough to allow for the pavers and two inches of
sand.
Now, we were real careful to level out the sand, then we put the pavers on top, and then
compacted the whole thing.
But we didn't use a foundation of base, and that's where we made our big mistake.
Right.
The CDI recommends only one inch of sand with four inches of base for patios and sidewalks,
and six to eight inches of base for driveways.
We've already worked out our design, so our first step is to stake the area out in our
yard.
We stake out an area six inches larger than the patio in each direction.
This is the area we have to excavate in order to install the patio.
You always need to prepare a base area that's a little larger than the patio itself.
We need to be within an inch on all of our perimeter measurements for the excavation.
To check the corners for square, we measure diagonally across the space.
If the two diagonals are the same, the corners are square.
And before we do any digging, we have the utility companies mark the locations of any
underground pipes or wires.
Once everything is staked out, we begin to dig.
We're using a sod cutter to give a nice clean edge.
Now we need to go down at least seven inches.
This leaves a right amount of room for the four-inch base, a layer of sand, and the pavers
themselves.
The most important thing about the digging we're doing here is that we're trying not
to disturb the dirt at the bottom of the hole.
This is called skimming.
In other words, what we don't want to do is to have loose dirt at the bottom, because
after the patio is built up, it'll settle a little, and we might end up with a dip in
the patio.
With a patio this size, we could dig the whole thing out by hand, but we've decided to bring
in a contractor for the real heavy digging.
To get everything ready for him, I'm digging down a little on the side of the house to
make some benchmarks.
Okay, what have we got here?
Okay, this mark here is the top of the base material.
And this black mark down here is the bottom of the excavation.
Okay, so that's a four-inch layer of base material.
Now, we also want it level across the back of the house here.
We want it to slope away from the house one inch for every four feet.
Okay?
All right.
All right, well, if you want to grab your Bobcat, we'll load some plywood out here.
All right?
If your excavator doesn't deal much with paver installations, you'll want to be real specific
about what you want.
Probably the most important thing, just like when we were hand digging, is to scrape out
the dirt without disturbing the ground underneath.
If it goes too deep, don't let him try to fill it back in and smooth it out.
However, we're running into a typical problem here.
It's spring, and it's been kind of rainy here for the past couple of days.
So the soil is soft and spongy, and the bottom of the excavation is getting kind of messy.
To make up for this, we're going to start bringing some of the base material into the
area.
The base material will start to solidify the soft, wet soil.
This way, they'll be able to drive the Bobcat through the area without leaving big ruts.
Also, whenever you find any clumps of dirt that have fallen into the area, get rid of
them.
We don't want to mash them into the base.
The base material doesn't start being effective until it's been compacted, so we're running
the compactor over it now.
Hopefully, what this is doing is compacting the base material and helping the soil underneath
to settle.
You see, the house is only about four years old, and the dirt we're working on may not
have had enough time to settle.
Anytime you uncover dirt, you run the risk that suddenly may decide it's time to settle.
That's why we're compacting it now.
It's especially important to compact the soil along the side of the house.
What happens next to the house is that the overhang of the roof has kept the ground there
from getting wet and settling.
Also, in this part of the country, the ground right next to the house may never freeze up
during the winter.
That's because it's being kept warm by the heat from the basement, and it's the freezing
and thawing that helps settle the ground.
We rented the compactor for three days, and it's costing us about $130.
We'll use this to compact the base material and to set the pavers, the very last step.
Make sure you get a four to five horsepower compactor.
Anything smaller just isn't going to cut it.
This compactor vibrates at two frequencies.
The low frequency, high force setting is for compacting the base material.
Later, we'll switch it over to the high frequency, low force setting for compacting the pavers
into the sand.
Now we check the area for two things, flatness and slope.
We've got a long, straight two by six, and we slide this around to find any humps or
dips.
If we scrape up or fill any areas, we make sure to compact them before we move on to
the next step.
To check for the right slope or grade, we put a two-inch leg on the end of an eight-foot
two by six.
This is the grade we want at the bottom, a one-inch drop for every four feet.
If the grade is right, then the top of the board will be level.
Well now that we've stabilized the excavation with some base, we can go ahead and add some
more base.
But before we do that, we're going to make some marks here so we know how much we should
add.
So we snapped a chalk line here along the foundation.
We're going to use a magic marker to make it a little bit more permanent.
So what are the V's for?
Well, this way when the base material covers the line, we can see how much we've got to
compact it or rake it.
Oh, OK.
That's not a bad idea.
Well, I'm going to grab some fabric.
OK.
There's one last thing we want to do before we spread out the main load of base material.
This is called geotextile fabric.
If there's any movement in the soil under the patio, the fabric will actually help hold
up the base and the patio.
So once this is in, we'll start putting in the base material on top of it.
The fabric should go up the side of the excavation.
You'll need to slice it to get it to lay flat at the corners.
Also, run it a little bit up the side of the house and tape it in place.
This will help protect the siding.
In places where you may need to make a seam, make sure you overlap the pieces by at least
a foot.
You may have to shop around a little bit to find geotextile fabric.
It's not a typical home center item.
You may end up at a big building material supplier.
Look under construction materials or contractor, equipment and supplies in the yellow pages.
There are a lot of types of fabric out there that won't work as a geotextile.
This is filter fabric.
No good.
Here's the real geotextile.
And don't use any of these, Petro mat, weed control fabric, or geogrid.
Now, to compact this material properly, it has to be just a little bit wet.
Sometimes it'll come off the truck just fine.
Other times it'll be a little bit too wet, other times a little bit too dry.
A good way to test this is to grab a clump of it and see if it'll hold together in your
hand.
Now, that's fine.
If it's too dry, it'll just fall apart.
If it's too wet, it'll ooze water as you squeeze it.
If it is too dry, you'll have to put a sprinkle on it for a while.
If it's too wet, just let it dry off for a while.
Well, why don't you give us about 15 or 20 minutes and we should be ready for the rest.
All right?
Unless you've got some really heavy equipment, it's hard to compact more than three or four
inches of loose material at a time.
So we're going to get all this raked out, leveled in, we'll compact it, and we'll be
ready for the next load.
First I run the compact around the edges of the area twice.
Then I start on the low side and work across the grade, moving uphill.
Once I've run it all the way to the house, I change direction 90 degrees and start going
up and down.
Next I do a diagonal pass.
Then I repeat the whole process again, same three passes, same directions.
We've been talking a lot about this base material, but haven't said exactly what it is.
Well, it's different in different parts of the country.
What we're using is 100% crushed limestone, as recommended by the National Stone Association.
It's got an even mix of sizes, a maximum size each piece of three-quarters of an inch all
the way down to very fine particles.
So sometimes it's called three-quarter minus.
Around here we call it class two.
The three-quarter minus crushed limestone is the best base material available in our
area.
Another base material that will work is class two crushed granite.
Recycled concrete asphalt base can work, and this material is too coarse.
It's class five crushed granite.
We're having our Bobcat operator bring in the rest of the base.
Now on Contractor Lingo, we're doing this in two lifts.
Each lift is three inches deep.
And we try to order just enough material so by the time everything's compacted, we have
a base that's four inches deep.
Okay, well it's all up to us.
Now we're using the same steps for the second lift of the base material.
I'm just evening it out, and then Dean's going to come through with a compactor and use the
same pattern and the same number of passes.
To start laying out our patio, we need to mark a line for the end of the patio and a
reference line.
To draw the end line, we measure out from the house the length of the patio and mark
the base in two spots.
Using spray paint and a paver, we can get a sharp line on the base.
Then we snap a chalk line between the two marks to give us the bottom of the patio.
Now we need to draw a line perpendicular to it.
And we'll use a simple technique that resembles an exercise from a high school geometry class.
First we mark the center point on the end line.
Then we measure and mark out an equal distance to either side of the center point.
We're measuring out six feet.
It's not crucial exactly how far you measure out, although the longer the better.
And you must measure out exactly the same dimension on each side of your center mark.
Now we use two tape measures to establish a perpendicular line.
We run the first tape from one of our outside marks up at a diagonal.
And we run a second tape measure from the other outside mark crossing the first tape.
We pivot the second tape until the tapes cross each other at the same measurement.
Now when we snap a chalk line from the center mark on the end line to the point where the
two tapes cross, we'll be perpendicular to the end line.
If we had needed to center the patio exactly on the house, we would have done this marking
before we built up the step area.
So exactly where and when you make the marks for your project will depend on the layout.
For any concrete paver project you need some type of edge restraint.
Now in the past we used wood, but wood is real difficult to secure in a way so it won't
move around a lot.
So for this project we're using a PVC edge restraint.
Now this has developed specifically for interlocking pavers like concrete pavers we're using in
this project.
The edging comes in 10 foot sections so it comes with this connector pipe to join the
pieces.
To install these we'll be using 10 inch spikes.
These are 3 eighths inch wide and we'll be nailing them in to every other hole.
For now we're only putting the edging in along the outside edge of the patio.
We'll be putting the edging in on the sides as soon as we get the pavers all laid out.
You'll see that sometimes it works best to put the edging in first, sometimes it works
best to put the pavers down first.
Before we bring in the sand we need to mark where the reference line falls on the edging
and on the steps.
This way we'll be able to re-snap the line after we've covered it with sand.
We're using 2 cubic yards of sand for a 1 inch bedding layer over the whole patio.
This much sand weighs about 3 tons depending on how wet it is.
That's too much weight for our truck to handle all at once so we're going to have to bring
in a few loads.
You're going to pull ahead a little bit?
Yeah.
Okay.
Well these pipes here will give the sand the correct 1 inch depth.
Now when you pull the sand off the top that's called screeding and the pipes are called
the screed rails.
Well the pipes need to be 1 inch in diameter, outside diameter, so be sure to check the
size before you borrow or rent them.
This pipe is 3 quarter inch inside diameter water pipe.
If I cover the pipes with sand now this will help keep them from rolling around.
Then I scrape it off the top of the pipe with a shovel.
As you go along you want to pick up any good sized particles of base material so they don't
get lodged under underneath the paver.
What I'm doing now is just trying to get the general overall level of the sand here before
I start to screed it.
You can't just use any sand for the bedding layer.
This is coarse washed concrete sand.
The coarse washed concrete sand will work for your bedding layer and for your joint
sand.
Don't ever use fine mason sand like this.
If you use it for the bedding layer it won't let water travel through it.
If you use it as joint sand it won't lock up the pavers and it will wash away.
Now we're ready to level it out here.
We cut it 2 by 6 so it's 6 inches longer than each side of our screed rails.
To level this out we just pull our screed right across our rails.
We set up 4 screed rails but there are some places that you can't get to with the screed
so we're going to use a trowel to flatten it out.
So with the trowel I'll just level off the area that I've already established here the
screed board and I want to just kind of scrape across the top, maintain the same level.
I don't want to compact this, sand it off, a little short, add some sand if you add too
much, pull it out, maintain the same exact area.
Alright now we just keep on leveling.
It's important to keep the screed perpendicular to the rails otherwise you could mess up the
slump of the sand.
We're creating what's called a bedding course of sand, not a leveling course.
In other words we're not using the sand to level out any unevenness in the base.
It's a one inch layer of sand for bedding the pavers only.
If the sand layer is uneven because it's been used for leveling it will compact differently
in different areas and will expand and contract with weather conditions differently.
You'll end up with an uneven patio.
Okay well here's our reference line again on top of the sand which means we're ready
to set our pavers on the main part of the patio.
We're going to start at the end and work our way toward the house.
We have a row of red pavers going in along the outside edge here.
We call those a soldier course and those are the first ones to go in.
I've thrown a few pavers on either side of the line here.
One thing about these pavers is they have these spacers and when you put these against
a flat surface they have a tendency to rock to one side.
So after you land five or six just kind of look down and make sure everything's all
in a line.
We started using the red blend paver and we're also starting to go with the herringbone pattern.
Basically to do a herringbone pattern you start with a vertical, you go with a horizontal
and then you take half a paver.
Now we end up cutting these in half but there are areas in the country where you can order
factory pieces.
They're referred to as factory halves or factory edgers.
But in our case like I say we cut them in half.
When you do cut it in half I always put the cut half against either the change in pattern
or the change in color.
So I'll pop that one in there and then we're back to vertical, horizontal and again another
half paver.
Okay that should be enough for now don't you think?
Oh I think so yeah.
Okay so we're ready to start cooking.
Yeah let's just go off the reference point here and just work off on either side okay.
You just set the pavers gently into the sand.
Don't slide them in from the side, don't twist them, don't push them down.
Our general pattern is to set the pavers in sort of a pyramid centered on a reference
chalk line and it works best if only one person sets pavers at a time.
The other person can bring the pavers into the work area.
And try not to walk near the unrestrained edges.
It'll tend to push the pavers out and mess up the alignment.
These pavers are a colored blend.
You can see that they go from a light red on the top of the pallet to almost a black
down on the bottom.
You want your patio to be a random blend throughout so don't just pull from the top of the pallet.
As a matter of fact don't just pull from one pallet.
Twist them up and it's a good idea even if you've got a uniform color.
So we should stop here right?
Yeah that sounds good.
We could get this stuff straightened out here.
I suppose we could sand and compact this whole area.
Measure and cut up against the step here.
Now once you get the sand down, putting down the pavers goes pretty fast.
What do you figure this took us three hours?
Yeah it's the edges and patterns where there's cutting that really slow you down.
So do you want to do the corners first?
Sure that sounds like a good idea.
You should check your bond lines before you insert any designs or compact the pavers.
Use a string tied to a couple of loose pavers to see if the lines are straight but keep
it a tiny bit off the patio.
Use a pry bar to line the joints up.
Use the pattern in both directions checking and correcting every couple of feet or so.
We could have laid edging around the patio before we put down the sand and the pavers
but no matter how carefully we'd measure from side to side we'd probably still end up cutting
off part of the pavers.
It looks a lot nicer having whole pavers all the way around.
So what I'm going to do is just pull the sand here away from the pavers because we want
to go right down to the base.
I cut right down along the edge of the pavers like that and every now and again you may
rip up some of the stones.
I'll just throw in some sand and smooth all that over and we just keep moving right on
down the line.
All set there?
Yeah all ready for you.
We just slide this edging right underneath the sand, very careful to keep it in contact
with the base.
We start at one end and just kind of work our way down a little sling chamber here to
help us get this right up against the pavers.
Then we put our spikes in and we do those at a slight angle.
That helps draw the edging right up against the pavers.
We want to mechanically tie this edging in with the patio so when the ground swells from
freezing your moisture then this edging will just move as part of the patio.
It comes with a frost heave lip that you need to slide underneath the sand.
You might have heard that it's okay to put the edge restraint right on top of the sand
but you don't want to do that.
The sand just doesn't make for as good of support and it will eventually work its way
up from underneath the edging.
Okay, we've got enough edge restraint in now so that we can compact the pavers we've
already laid.
So first we sweep any loose material off the patio.
Then we pull a little sand into the gap between the edging and the outside pavers.
Now we run the compactor over the pavers while we're just starting the process of locking
everything in place.
The compactor is pressing the pavers down into the bedding sand evening out the tops
of the pavers and forcing some of the sand up into the joints from underneath.
We still have some unrestrained areas so we have to keep the compactor at least three
feet away from those.
Once you've run the compactor you may notice some pavers that have cracked or are flawed
in other ways.
Now is the time to pull them out and replace them.
It's possible to use a pair of screwdrivers to remove pavers.
However, you may also be able to rent a specialty tool like this for pulling pavers out of an
installation.
Okay, I should probably go over these lines with a marker so it doesn't blow off when
I cut them.
Okay, I'll tell you what, you mark them, I'll pull them.
Now what we're doing here is running diagonal borders across each one of our corners.
Basically, how you do this is you lay out your design, mark it on top of each one of
the pavers, you pull the pavers and then you cut them and put everything back together
again.
Well, now is when it all comes together.
What makes a patio like this so incredibly strong is that the joints in between the pavers
are filled with coarse sand.
That helps lock the pavers together and after this they're not going anywhere.
So we fill the patio with sand like this and then we compact it and then sand it and compact
it and so on and so forth until the joints are filled.
What's happening is that the bedding layer is being compacted down probably about a quarter
of an inch or so and then that bedding sand is being forced up into the joints.
This joint sand that we spread over the top is then being vibrated down into the joints.
You should be able to use the same type of coarse washed concrete sand as you did for
the bedding layer.
However, you need the sand to be pretty dry so cover it until you use it or get separate
sand in bags.
As you're compacting, always be sure to stay three feet away from any unrestrained edges.
The sidewalk leading to our garage door has a couple of curved sections so we're incorporating
a special flexible edge restraint.
We determine the straight sections first and those are set by the bond lines in the main
part of the patio.
Now we attach the flexible edging at one end and move it around until we have a curve that
we like.
Then we secure the loose end in the middle sections.
Finally, we attach the next piece of straight edging.
There are other types of edge restraints available.
This is a concrete edge restraint.
You put a thin layer of sand under it to smooth out the base and it gets secured to the base
with spikes.
It comes in curves and straight sections.
It's three quarters of an inch taller than a regular paver so that when the pavers are
compacted they will end up flush with the edging.
We're using the screed board in a slightly different way here.
We made a three quarter inch notch in one side and we're letting it ride along the edge.
The other end is riding on a regular screed rail.
For the soldier course along our curved outside corner, we mark every other paver for a slight
taper cut on both sides.
This makes sure that we don't end up with large gaps between pavers along the outside
edge of the patio.
There are several different tools you can rent to cut pavers.
The simplest is a mechanical splitter.
However, a splitter leaves a slightly uneven cut.
You can minimize the effect of this by holding the paver at an angle.
This way, the part of the paver that shows, the top edge, will be fairly straight even
if the cut underneath is uneven.
To get a cleaner cut, you need to use some type of saw.
This is a dry diamond blade mounted in a heavy duty chop saw.
It's noisy and dusty, but you get a very clean edge.
You can also rent a masonry saw.
This has a diamond blade that's washed with water to keep the heat and dust down.
It gives a clean, accurate cut and is significantly faster than the dry saw.
When you've got a soldier course making a curve, you might end up with some pretty wide
gaps.
If you filled these with sand, it might wash away.
So we fill them with some of the base material.
We're doing our last bit of sanding and compacting.
For areas that you can't reach with a plate compactor, you can use a two-by and a sledge
hammer to settle the pavers and vibrate down the sand.
There's one project using interlocking concrete pavers.
As you can see, a paver patio is a really good do-it-yourself project.
Under this deck, we're going to be constructing a series of permanent forms made out of redwood
boards to divide the walkway into easy to construct squares.
Done this way, we can work one square at a time, pouring and finishing the concrete at
our own pace, and still end up with a sturdy and interesting design.
The walkway will have two sections, one leading from the patio door up to the yard, and the
other from that to the stairway on the deck.
First, we remove the stone mulch covering much of the walkway site.
You'll need lots of stakes, mason's twine, and measuring tape.
The forms we're building consist of squares three feet to a side, plus a few odd shapes
necessary to fit the walk in with the landscaping touches we've planned.
We also place the lines roughly on grade.
Once all the stakes are in place and all the corners squared, then we can outline the excavation
with spray paint.
We skim the soil off the top, going down only as deep as we need.
In this case, since our sidewalk is going to sit mostly above ground level, there are
some sections we don't have to skim at all.
We just dig out for areas for the edging.
Since this will be supported to grade by stakes, if we dig a little too deep, it won't matter.
We leave a line in to give us a rough guide for depth, and measure to leave room for the
two by four form.
Now we establish our final grade using the same techniques as we used on the brick patio.
We set a level line out from the high point of the walk, the end closest to the house.
We calculate the drop, here it's an inch and three quarters, and move the line down to
that level.
For the side of the walk closer to the house, we drop down only an inch and a quarter.
This way, the walk slopes away from the house in two directions.
This section from the stairs leading over to the main path is going to have an interesting
twist to it.
We want it to be level over at the stairs, but we want it to match up with the slope
section when it joins over here.
So it's going to change from being level over by the stairs, to being slightly sloped over
here.
We figure the grade here by starting at the stairs and working back toward the section
we already marked the grade for.
We know the height here at the stairs and we know that the bottom of the stairs are
level.
The grade strings give us the height for each side where the two walks meet.
The concrete will come to the top of the redwood and the stake will be nailed to it about an
inch from the top so it won't be visible.
We set this first 2x4 in place and drive a stake down next to it.
I want to get the stake about an inch below the grade mark.
Notice I'm putting the stakes on the inside of the form where the concrete will be.
Now I attach the redwood to the stake with a cordless drill and 2.5 inch galvanized screws.
We put at least two stakes in every piece of form.
The longer pieces require more stakes.
We use the additional stakes in this form to straighten out the high point in the middle,
the crown.
With the outside forms in place, we can complete the excavating, skimming out the inside of
the forms.
Then we can put in the internal pieces.
These include the cross pieces which divide the sidewalk into three foot squares.
We'll need to fill in some of our patio forms to bring them up to grade.
We'll use wash sand for this.
The last step with the forms is to backfill around the outside with dirt.
Now concrete doesn't bond permanently to wood, so if you're creating permanent forms, you'll
want to get the concrete something to grab onto.
That's why I'm driving these 16 penny galvanized nails into the side of the form boards about
midway up and at one foot intervals, leaving about half of the nail sticking out.
While Dean is making sure the concrete will stick to the inside of the forms, I'm applying
this masking tape to try to keep it from staining the top.
We've rented this electric concrete mixer.
Now you can mix all these bags by hand in a wheelbarrow, but it's an awful lot of work.
The mixer makes it a lot easier.
It takes four or five bags at a time.
I simply rip them open and dump them in.
Adding water is the only tricky part.
Use a bucket, not a garden hose.
You'll have more control that way, and use only enough water to get the concrete moist.
Too much water weakens the concrete.
When it's ready, pour it into a wheelbarrow and take it over to the walk.
All right, now this is the consistency that we're after.
You don't want it too soupy and you don't want it so stiff you can't work with it.
Always begin pouring the concrete at the most distant forms.
Since we don't want to wheel the concrete over the forms, we have to shovel it into
this first one.
Use a shovel or a small wood float to work the concrete into place.
We fill the form so that the concrete rises a little bit above the edge of the form.
We'll scrape it down to level in a second.
Once the form is full, use a straight two-by-four to screed the concrete level.
The edges of the form serve as a guide for the screed.
The screeding is just to get the concrete level.
You tilt the board towards you a little and pull it straight back.
The bottom acts as a cutting edge.
Use a sawing side-to-side motion.
This helps distribute the concrete laterally, but be careful not to mar the redwood forms.
Make as many passes with a screed as it takes to get the concrete distributed throughout
the form and level with the top.
This is a derby.
It's used to smooth and compact freshly poured concrete.
In particular, you want to make sure that you sink down any stone so that the very top
is a thin layer of concrete called the creme.
Use even, firm pressure and angle the derby just a little so that you're pressing down
with the back side.
There will be several more steps in putting the finish on the concrete, so you don't have
to make it perfect now.
Just eliminate any large bubbles and pockets.
The next step is to round the edges.
The corners on concrete will chip and break off.
To do this job, we'll use an edger.
It has a rounded edge that we run along the side of the concrete inside the form.
Push down just a little with the back.
You'll make a small mark on the inside, but don't worry about that.
The last steps in the finishing process will erase it.
These come with different size curves on the side.
We're using one with a three-eighths inch radius.
This is good for most general concrete work.
Work up to a corner and then pull back from it.
Go all the way around the form.
We put the finishing touches on concrete with these floats.
This one's made of magnesium, which is a lightweight but very rigid metal.
This finished trowel is made out of steel.
Start using the floats after the concrete has had a little time to set up, maybe about
half an hour after edging.
But this will vary a lot depending on the weather and the dampness of your concrete.
You should still be able to bring up just a little cream.
If you start too early, that's okay, you can just wait.
But if you wait too long, it'll be much harder to work the float.
The mag float begins to put a surface on the concrete.
You sweep back and forth with it.
You can press firmly, but don't dig the surface up.
Ah, thanks.
The last step is the finishing trowel.
It seals the concrete and gives it a smooth, hard surface.
You just move it back and forth over the concrete, pressing very lightly.
There you go.
We've spent all this time and effort trying to get the surface of the concrete hard and
smooth.
However, that's not really the best type of surface to have underfoot outside, especially
if it's wet.
So we're going to give the concrete a final broom finish.
We're using a broom that's specifically designed for concrete, but a regular push broom will
also work.
Lightly pull it over the concrete.
If the broom picks up clumps of concrete, you'll need to wait a little longer.
And always make the grooves perpendicular to the direction of travel on the walk.
Well we've completed all the steps in our first two squares.
Now all we need to do is the rest of them.
Depending on the design of your walk and how long it takes to do each step, you might want
to pour a few squares and then go back and finish them off as we did.
You might also consider wearing safety glasses and dust masks when you're mixing concrete
to protect yourself from the dust and splashes.
You also need to plan your work so that you can reach the concrete to do the finishing.
With the walkway complete, we'll let it sit for a while.
Because it's located under the deck, it doesn't get a lot of direct sunlight, so it shouldn't
dry out too fast.
To finish the project, we'll plant some shrubs around the outside of the walkway.
And in the process, turn a problem area underneath this deck into one of the more attractive
areas in the yard.
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