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HomeBuildHow To Build Your Own Concrete Patio

How To Build Your Own Concrete Patio

Diy Stamped Concrete Patio

Make your own Patio Stones quickly and easily with this method

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Our home is what they consider to be a sprawling ranch. Over the years weve added on and added on, again and again, as needed for our family. We eventually built a garage and attached it to the house. Since it wasnt exactly planned, it created a rather unique shape along the backside of the house.

We decided to transform this area into a covered patio. I got estimates from various local companies, the least expensive one quoted me over $23K. Thats right, thats not a typo, they quoted me twenty-three thousand dollars.

So, like everything else in our house, we opted to do it ourselves and build our own patio. This project took the two of us, my husband and I, four full days to complete.


Excavate And Prepare The Ground

Once you have the patio area mapped out clearly, the next step is to excavate the space to remove the topsoil, sod, and debris that might get in your way.

Depending on the type of patio you want, a shovel will come in handy for a shallow patio and an excavator for a deep one.

A depth of four inches will do for a raised patio, but you can dig deeper if you intend to use heavy items on it.For a deep patio flashing with the ground level, excavate up to eight inches deep. The greater depth ensures the patio has a stable foundation. You should also opt for this depth if you plan to place heavy outdoor items like barbeque grills on the patio.

Its essential to maintain a slight slope or slant when excavating. You can use a level to check on the slope, but the strings can also guide you if you are working on perfectly level ground.

When excavating, take care not to damage the string layout. If the strings are too thin for you to see them well, consider using some string lights to foreground them for enhanced visibility.


Massive Concrete Cobblestone Patio

Raise the value of your property by installing this massive concrete cobblestone patio, will require much low maintenance. How to pour a concrete patio? You need a cobblestone walk maker form to get the cobblestone pattern. Further, you need concrete, cardboard, crushed stone dust, and concrete mixer for this project. diybarrelstove

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Build Concrete Patio In A Weekend

Willing to build a patio with a concrete walkway that will match your landscape patterns? Then just go with this concrete patio that will complete in a weekend. For this project, you need existing dirt, landscaping fabric, pavers, bags of polymeric sand, gray sand, and base rock. Tool list here medium

Rebars Set In Grid Pattern

Making Patio Slabs

Install the Rebar

Rebar makes concrete much stronger and keeps it from cracking over time especially important in large areas of concrete such as a patio. Lay out the rebar in a grid patter, with one pole about every two to three feet. Use pliers and metal rebar ties to tie the rebar pieces together where they cross.

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Diy Concrete Patio Extension

How to build a concrete patio? Extend your patio with this DIY concrete patio extension, will be the best outdoor landscaping project ever. First, clean out the area by removing grass and set up the forms. Add a gravel base and then pour the concrete and smoothen up all. Do screeding, add joints, and create traction, and thats it. threeclementines

Diy Concrete Patio Step Four: Pouring Concrete

Unless your patio is going to be the size of your driveway, you can pour concrete you mix yourself. Buy your favorite brand and follow the instructions on how to mix.

Once you have your concrete mixed, start pouring in the frame over the leveled and flattened ground. As you pour, have a partner move it and begin to level with a rake. Pour in different spots as you go, since it will be too heavy to rake and move more than a couple of feet.

With the concrete poured, take a 2×4 board and begin level and smoothing out the concrete while your friend continues to rake as you go.

Dont be tempted to pull too much concrete with each pull of the board. It is better to move and smooth a little at a time.


Finally, with a float, smooth away the lines made by the board until you have a level, smooth surface.

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Best Diy Concrete Patio Ideas That Beginners Can Do

Every time you wish to transform your patio, the concrete is an ideal choice. It is durable, affordable, and much doable. So, get the outstanding patios with these 12 best DIY Concrete Patio Ideas that involve using the concrete to make concrete patio pavers, concrete patio tiled walkways, and solid clean concrete pathways. You can use the custom forms, stamps, and patterns to give too many variations to your concrete patios like the cobblestone pattern. To check out all stunning patio transformation, just check out these 12 DIY concrete patio ideas that are adorable and will require much low maintenance. You can build a concrete patio around a pool around deck, and it will be great to feature in your outdoor landscaping. You will get the much-needed home outdoor improvements with these concrete patio ideas in a budget-friendly way.

The concrete patio ideas will not merely involve building the concrete patio floors and pavers, but they will also involve doing the decorative makeover of old, tired, and cracked concrete floors. Use the whitewood or 2x4s planks to set up the concrete pavers form and then pour the concrete in them. Smooth them down, float, towel, screed, and add joints if necessary. Finally, finish them off with decorative edging. Install the concrete patio with a gravel base and build the concrete patio pavers with gravel lining.

S For A Diy Concrete Patio

How to Pour a Concrete backyard Patio Slab [Beginner Guide]

Step #1


Prepare the ground – Determine if the ground is stable. If not, remove impediments and place fill in the ground. For considerations and steps, click Cutting Sod and Preparing the Ground.

Step #2

Concrete Forms – Set-up forms in the shape you want. For a basic, square concrete patio, obtain lumber , nail screws, and steel or wood stakes. You may also use metal or plastic forms if you’re planning on doing many concrete projects, but these are expensive and typically used by professionals. Wood forms will warp over time, but will be fine for this project. Click concrete forms for diy steps to set up your patio.

Step #3

Compacting the fill and Final Grade – Make sure you have the ground prepared at the proper height for a pour. You’ll need to add fill and make sure it’s compacted to create a nice base upon which to pour your patio.


Step #4

DIY Concrete Reinforcement – High quality and durable patios usually have some type of reinforcement. Reinforcements are typically used on exterior projects in cold regions like Minnesota because of the freeze/thaw cycle. This cycle causes the ground to move. Typical reinforcements are fiber mesh, rebar and wire mesh. Learn how to install reinforcements here.

Step #5

Install Concrete Expansion Joints – This is an essential step in any area that undergoes the freeze/thaw weather cycle. It’s especially important in Minnesota. Learn how to install expansion joints here.

Step #6


In addition…..

Step #7Step #8Step #9Step #10Step #11

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Set Up The Guide Strings

Set up guide strings to represent the edges of the patio, using stakes and mason’s lines. Start by driving two stakes at each corner of the patio area, placing the stakes about 1 foot beyond the edges of the patio. Tie mason’s lines between pairs of opposing stakes to create a square or rectangular layout. The points where the strings intersect mark the patio corners. The strings should be at least 6 inches above the ground.

Prep The Patio Paver Area

The prep involved will depend on your area, but basically, you will need to use a shovel to dig down at least 6 into the soil.

If you find a lot of larger rocks as youre digging, I recommend digging several inches deeper in order to remove them.

Youll also want to make sure you get rid of any tree roots that are impeding into the space you have planned for your patio.

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Tips For Building A Concrete Patio

Buying concrete in dry, premixed bags makes sense for relatively small patio slabs. To get an idea of how many bags you would need, a 50-square-foot slab at 4 inches thick needs about 28 80-pound bags or 38 60-pound bags. You can buy bagged concrete a local home center or lumberyard, and you can rent a concrete mixer at any large rental outlet.

For large slabs, consider ordering ready-mix concrete delivered by a concrete truck. Ready-mix is more expensive than bagged concrete, but it’s far more convenient, and you don’t have the labor of mixing the concrete or the concern of getting the mix just right. Discuss your plans with local concrete companies to compare costs and to make sure your site is suitable for ready-mix delivery.

Digging Out The Patio

DIY Concrete Patio in 8 Easy Steps

Once the patio was painted on the ground and the utilities were Blue Staked, we were ready to dig. We used most of the sod in the area, to patch some bald spots throughout the yard, then we filled in the garden boxes will all the extra soil.

Here is my brother building a small wall to hold our extra soil for the other garden area. We used the free wood that we got from my uncle when we built the garden boxes.

There was a weird existing footing, from who knows what, that we had to break up and move. We saved all the pieces to use for walkway of stepping stones some where else in the yard. Breaking up concrete is a great way to smash out any frustrations.

Here is the garden starting to be filled in and leveled out.

We used a long straight board with a level on top, to level the grade from the side form with the garden boxes. We didnt have to do any calculations because it was already done when we set the form. All we had to do was keep the grade level perpendicular from the form and everything would drain properly.

We did run into the sprinkler lines and had to redirect them under the patio in a 4 sleeve.

Here is the trench that we dug out for a 4 sleeve. It was pretty easy digging other than the small planet that I found right in my way. We decided to keep the boulder so we can do something fun with it in our flower garden.

This is the sleeve being buried and ready for the new sprinkler lines to slide into.

No we were done with the prep work and ready for concrete!

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How To Prepare The Patio Site

1. Measure the slope of the patio to determine if you need to do grading work before you start your project. First, drive stakes at each end of the project area. Attach a masonâs string between the stakes and use a line level to set it at level. At each stake, measure from the string to the ground. The difference between the measurements divided by the distance between stakes will give you the slope . If the slope is greater than 1″ per foot, you may need to regrade the site.

2. Dig a test hole to the planned depth so you can evaluate the soil conditions and get a better idea of how easy the excavation will be. Sandy or loose soil may require amending consult a landscape engineer.

3. Add a compactible gravel subbase to provide a level, stable foundation for the concrete. The compactible gravel also improves drainageâan important consideration if you are building on soil that is high in clay content. For most building projects, pour a layer of compactible gravel about 5″ thick, and use a tamper to compress it to 4″.

4. When pouring concrete next to structures, glue a 1â2″-thick piece of asphalt-impregnated fiber board to the adjoining structure to keep the concrete from bonding with the structure. The board creates an isolation joint, allowing the structures to move independently, minimizing the risk of damage.

When To Build A Concrete Patio

You can pour concrete within a fairly wide temperature range, but for beginners it’s best to wait for dry, warm weather. Rain can ruin a concrete finish, and freezing temperatures can ruin an entire concrete slab. To slow the curing process in very hot, dry weather, use a shade to keep the concrete out of direct sunlight, and mist the concrete with water as needed to prevent premature curing, which weakens the finished product.

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Do I Need A Permit To Build A Concrete Patio

The short answer is, It depends. If the concrete patio youre building is on-grade or less than 30 inches from the ground, you will most likely not need a permit. There is a chance that you might need to pull an excavation permit in that case to make sure youre not digging in any utility pipes or cables.

However if the concrete patio youre building is above-grade, you will likely need a permit. Other cases where a permit might be required are if you are located in an area with development restrictions, if external structural changes that will be made to the house interfere with land zoning regulations, if you decide to cover a concrete patio, and if you decide to add lighting provisions.

Its always important to adhere to regulations when remodeling your outdoor space. With All Pro Decks, you dont have to worry about whether or not youre following all local regulations. Our team is fully trained and up-to-date on the safety regulations that must be followed in order to build a patio.

Lay The Concrete Pavers

Easy How to | Concrete Patio Pour with 2 guys! DIY

Cut your spacer down to the size you have planned for your joint width.

In the photo above, my metal bars are diagonal because I needed to slope my patio in two directions. I thought it would make it easier this way, but I ended up pulling them out and keeping them straight. It was easy enough to follow the slope lines with the strings.

Lay one the first spacer down, and use a squaring tool to lay down a crossing spacer. Then carefully place your first concrete paver against the two spacers.

Repeat, using the spacers to lay more concrete pavers. Remember, you can walk on these as you lay them.

My metal bars are lying diagonally in the photo above because I needed to slope my patio in two directions.

I thought it would make it easier this way, but I ended up pulling them out and keeping them straight. It was easy enough to follow the slope lines with the strings.

Lay one the first spacer down, and use a squaring tool to lay down a crossing spacer. Then go ahead and carefully place your first concrete paver against the two spacers.

Repeat using the spacers to lay more pavers. Remember, you can walk on these as you lay them.

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Build And Install The Concrete Form

If you have the right tools and know how to use them, concrete forms are easy to make. First, cut the lumber or form boards into sizes that fit the lengths and widths you mapped out in step one.

The wood forms all around the patio space should be placed on the inside of the stakes. To build a stronger form, consider nailing the lumber to short straight forms rather than the stakes.

However, keep the stakes in place at least until you drive all the vertical straight forms into the ground.

At this step, you also want to check that the concrete form maintains the slope you introduced in step two. Again, the levels will come in handy here, and the strings will also guide you.

Build A Concrete Patio

How to build a concrete patio step by step? Get here the step-by-step guides and visual diagrams about how to pour a concrete patio by making the concrete slabs. Use the wood slats to add the bordering and then fill the concrete that you can smooth down a towel, and float using the respective tools. It will be solid and durable and will be super affordable too. twinfallsconcr

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Stylish Patio With Large Poured Concrete Pavers

You will love the shiny, stylish appeal of this concrete and gravel patio. Just build first the frames for the slabs using whitewood studs. Pour concrete in the wooden frames and smooth and then fill gravel in the narrower lines among the slabs. Remove the frames and get a clean, sleek looking concrete patio. homedepot

Materials For Your Concrete Paver Patio

How to Pour Your Own Concrete Patio Slab

Project specific supplies:

*Some Important Notes About Your Project Materials

A 16 x16 paver is actually 15 ¾ x 15 ¾ and just over 1 ½ thick . This is important to know when it comes to sketching out your design so it fits the space well.

If you are using larger pavers and installing the patio yourself, you may want to take weight into consideration. I used 16×16 pavers, which weighed 36 lbs each! I could carry only one at a time, so this made the project more time consuming.

Instead, you can opt for the 12 x 12 pavers. Or if you have a little four-wheeled wagon and dont have a hill to go up to, that will make things much easier!

When it comes to base layer and top layer materials, a landscape supply company in your area will know the best base material for your patio pavers.

For instance, if you live in an area that has a high amount of clay in the soil, plan on using extra gravel in your base layer. Clay has draining issues and larger gravel will help with this.

In my area, the base layer material is known as crusher run. A crusher run has granite dust and coarse and fine angular aggregate and the gravel is about ½-4 in size.

For my top level, I used paver dust, but in your area, sand may be recommended. Again, trust the guidance of your local supplier.

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