How To Form, Pour, And Stamp A Concrete Patio Slab

everyone Mike here with everythingabout

concrete

.com in this video I'm going to show you a complete

stamp

ed

concrete

patio

how I

pour

it how I finish it how I seal it all so if you watch the full video you'll be able to see it in full packing now what I'm doing here is placing the

form

s. This is a four inch thick yard, it's 18 feet by 12 feet and I'm only using two by fours here for my

form

s, so I'll get my two by fours all screwed right where they need to go, using my Dewalt drill driver with the deck screws to screw everything together, now I'm finding the center.

They want this

patio

to be centered right on that back door, so I'm going to measure down the center and then I'm going to go nine feet each way, so I'm going to be exactly in the center and I'm going to be 18 feet wide and 12 and 12 feet away from the building so once I have my two nine foot sides there, fix them right where they need to go so they don't move and now I'm checking my square to get my diagonal and I want to make sure my diagonal is exactly the same both ways and then I'll know my my pad is square, so I can pin those two outside corners, so I'll have two pins on each corner to hold it down so it doesn't move and now I'm running my rope and what my rope does is give me something. to move on to attaching the middle of the forms to make sure the middle of the forms is perfectly straight so I just put a screw on the top of the board and I tie the string to the screw and I like to run the string through. in the center of the board, some people put it on the front edge, which is fine.

I prefer to put it in the center. Now I can put those metal pins in there. Those metal pins go into good, hard gravel. You know, it's pretty easy. It's much easier than a wooden pin would work if you don't use those metal pins with holes. I highly recommend getting some of them. They cost about two dollars and fifty cents each, but you'll have them for years. and you can use them over and over again and I was just checking my level from that side and to make sure it was almost the same in every way, eventually I'll end up setting my laser to set these forms correctly to grade, but I wanted to be some distance away from that door, so when they put their steps in, you'll know that all the steps are the same, so I'm using rebar on this one as reinforcement.

I'm going to tie a rebar two feet away. center, I always put fiber mesh in the concrete too. I'm using my Husqvarna quick cut saw, which is probably the easiest way to cut rebar. I'll have a link for that in the description there if you want to check it out. That thing works great for cutting. I'm just going to straighten out my bars, then I'm going to put in my cross bars and we're going to put this whole mat together. I use what I want to call cable ties on the yoyo to tie down the rebar.

Together, the cable ties have little loops on each end, so you can just slide them under the rebar and bend them up, then put the yoyo through them and twist the yoyo and it binds the rebar together. nice and tight. You can see those cable ties coming in. a small roll, they come in different lengths. I'm using six inch zip ties. I could probably use four inches on this, but that's all I had, so I tied the entire mat together. Now I'm checking my level with my laser there. I use that topcon rlh5b. I'll have it down in the description too, guys.

If you have seen any of my other videos, you know that it is the laser that I recommend for doing specific jobs. We're leaning this away from the house about an inch and a half, so when it rains, obviously the rain will move away from the house, but the roof line also drips onto this, so we'll see a lot of water, we just want to make sure the water no I don't mess it up, I'm very picky about my grades and my pitches. I want to make sure everything is perfect, so I usually check everything. I'm screwing it all into place so it doesn't move and now we're

pour

ing the concrete we're using a 000 psi concrete with a 3 8 stone it's called a p stone so it's a little bit smaller stone than a mix for normal floor and I like the 3 8 stone because it

stamp

s a little easier, leaves a little better impression now it's about 90 degrees here today and it's about noon when we're pouring this so the sun is hitting us directly, it's a long time ago , very hot here and the concrete took about a 45 minute trip in the truck to get here.

So even the concrete was pretty hot, so we're trying really hard to get these things down. It's settling on us as we pour it and it may be a little hard to tell in the video, but it was setting. above us, we really needed to hurry to get this down or we weren't going to get this down, so I'm putting the magnet on my edges, I'm pointing them at that chalk line and then I'm going to point them to the right. to the top of the board and then we'll re-screw this. This will be a stamped concrete patio.

You'll be able to see how we stamped this as well. It will be an Ashler board pattern, so stick around. I'm sure you watch the full video to see how we stamped it and then I'll also show you how we washed it, how we saw cuts and how we applied the concrete sealer and then what type of sealer I prefer for stamped concrete. So that all comes up at the end of the video so make sure you stay tuned to see it so I'm examining the concrete with my daughter there who is tia tia she's in college and so is the other girl Abby so this It's your summer. jobs, but they're very good workers, you know, they could really pull their weight, they could do, you know, anything that one of us could do, other than not having experience in some of the things, I mean, they.

It could do the job just fine, so I'm rushing to screed the rest of this thing because I know I can tell by the feel of the concrete how quickly it's setting up as soon as I get this. down and both loaded. I'm going to have to do it again and start stamping. I'm not going to have time to wait and take a break, so it's leaking right at the top of the board. I am wet. over there with my aluminum magnesium ruler, the ruler we're using is a 14 foot ruler, it's very light, I mean, it's easy to use, nice and straight.

I've had that thing for years. He probably had it. For 10 years, we had too much concrete there, about half a wheelbarrow too much, so we had to take it over the edge. I had to pick it up later, so I'm going to make this bowl float nice and fast, as fast as I can. I said the concrete is setting quickly, a little faster than normal because of the temperature and because the concrete was a little hot when it showed a good concrete temperature, I mean normal concrete temperature is 60 degrees. like 65 degrees when you can feel the concrete when the concrete goes down the chute and you touch it and you can really feel that it's hot, so you know you want to rush to go down those things, it must feel cold to the touch on the on the slide when you go down the concrete slide, but it's hard to keep it cool when it's inside that mixing drum, you know it's 90 degrees outside and the sun is hitting it, so it's very important that you know what you're doing on days like today, that's why that it's best to pour the concrete first thing in the morning, but this is our second pour today, so we poured the floor of a big house and I left Luke and Darren on that to finish it and you know, because we've been fighting the rain like everyone else we had to come and do this so this was our second rain of the day so I had Abby and Tia put the border right around the outside edge.

I'm going to go out to the front of the house and get my truck with the stamps and back my truck out the back so we don't have to carry the stamps too far. We had enough time to get out, take the truck and come back here. Now I'm playing there. edge mark, but I'm leaving the rounded part, you know, right next to the board and I'm coming back to this now that it's ready to go. The good thing about having the house there was. I had a starting point, an easy starting point for Wow, what I mean by that is I have basically square stamps and I have a smooth edge with that foundation wall, so I could put the stamp right against the foundation wall.

I'm using my roller there to get some texture. against the wall and that makes stamping against that wall a little bit easier. You can see I have that little space, so I'm using it. I have to use that really flexible stamp to put the slots in there and if I already have it. a little bit of texture there, it just makes doing it a little bit easier. It is to surround the outer edge with the roller, putting a little texture on that outer edge. I'm putting up all my stamps I have about 10 or 11 of these so I'm putting them all up, the different colors have a little bit of a different pattern.

I'm using an Ashler board pattern here so the pattern isn't repeated over and over again, you get different ones. rock patterns or slate patterns for each seal color that release agent I'm pulling is a charcoal release agent the concrete was a darker gray color when it came off the truck and we're using it as a black release agent, that release agent release does a couple of things: it helps prevent the stamps from sticking to the surface of the concrete number one and then it also adds a little bit of secondary color to the surface, so as you can see, I'm touching those stamps.

I'm tamping the seal impression into the concrete, which also tamps some of that release color into the surface of the concrete, so when I go back and wash this I'm not rinsing away all of that release from the surface. part will be pressed directly into the surface which will give you an antique type two tone color effect when finished and sealed, so these stamps go together only one way, they have a notch if you can see that notch so that Just go in one direction. You have to make sure you are going in the same direction with the stamp each time you place it.

I get my Marshalltown stamps now if you want. Get some specific stamps or if you want to get into Stampin, you know I have a link in the description that goes directly to the Marshalltown website and it has all of their tools so you can check it out and Marshalltown gave me a special discount for you. Guys, if you use the discount coupon code eac, if you go to the Marshalltown website and visit, use that eac in the discount code, you know you're going to get 10 off all of their tools and they're also going to ship them to you for free.

You can see the pattern. deep down, how an Ashler board comes out, this is a really cool pattern, it's one of our favorites, we make it a lot. You can also see how that flexible seal works, which is a little thinner than the other seals. pretty rigid, they don't flex like that, so I have a couple of those flexible ones, one is blue and one is black and we use them when we face a building like that or against a pole or anything that is attached. Please note that we cannot place the rigid ones horizontally. You have to use that really flexible one.

I'm tamping as fast as I can, as fast as a person can do it. I wouldn't have wanted to do anything. something bigger than this with the heat it is today this thing is a little over 200 square feet and it was all I could do to get it down myself with all the experience I have like I said it's about 90 degrees here today . It felt like a sauna behind this house. We'll stamp it, tamp it down, making sure the impression sits really well on the concrete. Sometimes I'll lift that seal up a little and look underneath to make sure I get a good impression before I fully learn it.

You really have to know what you are doing when sealing concrete. I mean, you really need some experience. I wouldn't recommend just going out and renting some stamps and trying it out. to stamp the first one on your own without a little experience, I mean, watching these videos is good and you can learn that way, but if you are going to try something on your own, I would surely try something smaller than this, maybe even the half the size before trying something with any size, okay, so we stamp everything now, this is the next day. I would like to come back early the next day if I can, as the sooner the better and the saw joints will be cut.

In this, I'm going to cut one, as you can see, in half lengthwise and then two the other way, if I can. I'd like to try to follow as many seams and seals as possible as I saw that the saw cuts don't really stick out too much, that's pretty easy to do in a pattern like this. Today I'm using my soft cut electric saw, that's the 390. I have two of these, I also have the x-150 soft cut. that's the one that runs on gas, it's a little bigger than these, oh, I mean, if you're doing concrete work, you should have one of these saws, whether it's the electric one or the 150, it just makes sarin concrete much easier, you know if you are doingOther types of flat work, if you're doing concrete floors you can cut the floors the same day, you don't have to come back the next day, but with stamped concrete we like to come back the next day, that way it leaves a really real feel.

Nice clean saw cut, it's hard to saw same day on stamped concrete without leaving some kind of saw mark so always do it the next day, the saw goes down about an inch and a quarter when I have a new blade so that's it that's all you need to do on a four inch

slab

like this right now, I'm cleaning my dust. Remove as much of the dust as you can before you start washing, we're going to use a pressure washer here and with a fan tip, get rid of the shapes first so the water drains off a little easier and I like to use the dish of dawn.

You can also use plain green detergent, but Dawn dish detergent really cuts through that release agent and makes it a little easier to rinse. If I don't remove those boards, the water beads on the edge a little. it makes it a little harder to rinse, so it's definitely easier to remove the forms, plus they'll get wet and mess up a little with the release agent they'll get really dirty they're only working today this was a Saturday, so it was a Saturday for Early morning I came here to do this. I just like to scratch my guys a little.

Get some of that excess concrete off the board so we can use it over and over again. You know, if you have a business of your own, you just want to do it. make sure you are trained keep your forms clean you can use them I don't know 10 20 30 times over and over again without having to buy new ones so you want to keep your costs down keep your profits up so there I am I bought that dawn detergent mixing it in five gallons of water. You can see I'm in the shadows, which is why I got here early this morning.

I didn't want to have to do this in the sun, it's definitely much cooler when it's in the sun. shadow, the water is not going to simply evaporate on the top of that thing, most pressure washers will work on this, just know that when you wash these things you don't want to get the tip too close to the surface of the concrete, so Otherwise you'll leave lines in the concrete, you might even damage the concrete, I mean you only have one day, 24 hours, so you know, just keep the tip about 16 to 18 inches above the surface and you'll be fine, I'm rinsing.

I removed the little bit of that release residue that I have around the house, it comes off pretty easy, if not you can just put Dawn detergent on it and it will come off right away so I'll get most of the release agent off first. before you start washing this, I mean, the broom will only remove a limited amount, so it's easier to wash this if you remove 90 percent of that release agent, then you can use your sunrise and scrub it off. remove the rest, some like I said, some will stay in the bottom grooves and the bottom parts of the board, some of that black release agent will stay there, you'll see. that when you see me sealing here very soon at the end of the video, most of the patio will be dark gray and then you'll see the black highlights will look really cool.

I'll put the I'll put the Pressure washer that I also use in the description, guys, if you know, if you're wondering what you should use, I'll have the exact same one that I use there, so I'll take my five gallons and just spread it out. everything and scrub it whatever you want, you just want to scrub this like you're washing a car, you know you don't want any release residue on the concrete when you go to seal it, otherwise you want to remove all the loose residue. your sealer will not adhere to the concrete and will fail, so this is a really very important step.

You can't just rinse it, you have to, you have to wash it, in fact I go both ways to make sure. I rub it really well, especially in those grooves, the release will build up in those grooves. I want to make sure I get it all out and now what I want to do is make sure I rinse off all that soap residue. So I'm going to go over this two or three times just to remove the soap residue and the loose release that I just removed, then I'll let it dry for 24 hours and I'll come back and seal it.

Hello everyone, Mike, here with everything. about concrete.com, we just installed this concrete patio seal yesterday, it is an Ashler slate pattern, it is the color smoke, which is u20 on the Butterfield color chart in the concrete and I used a storm gray release agent, It turned out very well, check it out. patio, this one here is 18 by 12. We're going to water it today, it's supposed to be about 100 degrees today, so I'm going to water it all day and then I'll take the sprinkler off tomorrow and come back and put the sealant on it , that's it guys, hey guys, Mike, here with everything concrete, so what we're going to do is put the sealer on this patio that we just did.

I cleaned and washed it yesterday, giving it 24 hours, now we are going to seal it. The first thing I always do is put the leaf blower on it and blow the dust off before sealing, make sure it's nice and clean. Hey guys, the sealant I like to use. on my stamped concrete it is from Foundation Armor, the ar350 is satin but gives it a wet look so it will darken the concrete and highlight the color but it resists any cracking and is really good for freeze thaw cycles. and salt damage, so this is the sealer that we're using, so we're all ready to put the sealer on.

This is the sprayer that I like to use, guys, this is a stainless steel sprayer. The stamps in it are really good for a Solvent Based Sealer, you can't just use a cheap spray because the solvent in this acrylic sealant will just eat away at the stamps, you know, ruin the spray, so this is what we're using here, This is the one I recommend using. We're going to put two very light coats on this thing, which will be all it needs from time to time, we'll be good to go, so here we're going to spray the sealer.

You can see how it darkens and highlights very well. the color we're going to put two coats on the first coat the first coat is going to sink in here pretty well see how that really makes the color pop on that so you