Pouring Concrete

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Pouring is the fun part. Start by dumping wheelbarrow loads of concrete into the form, starting at one side and working across. Use a garden rake to work the concrete into every corner, half way up the sides of the form. Now lay metal reinforcing mesh onto the concrete, before covering it up with more concrete to a level slightly higher than the form sides. Concrete mesh is available at any building supply store. It'll increase pad strength and resistance to cracking.

If your form is narrower than 3 or 4 feet, use a hammer to tap the sides to introduce vibration that'll compact and strengthen the concrete before it hardens. Pads wider than 36 inches should be compacted with an electric concrete vibrator. Some ready-mix companies offer the use of these as a customer courtesy, otherwise get one for the day at a rent-all.

You'll also need some help dragging a straight 2-by-6 across the top of the forms on edge (an operation called screeding), to level the concrete. The surface will start drying out in an hour or so, and that's when you should screed the surface again, giving it the final finish.

Hardware stores everywhere sell something called an edger — the hand tool you'll need if you want the kind of rounded edges you can see on sidewalks. A few weeks after the pour, rent a gas-powered masonry saw and cut 2-inch-deep, crack-control grooves in the top of the pad, every 10 or 12 feet. If the pad does fall victim to frost heaving, it'll crack along these lines in a controlled and harmless way.

Making Concrete Look Like Stone

Textured concrete is one outdoor surface option that deserves more attention than it gets. It goes down quickly, is reasonably priced and offers more visual choices than interlocking brick. There are trades people who specialize in textured concrete installations that look like cobblestone, bricks and random flagstone, but the process is practical for any ambitious do-it-yourselfer. In fact, it's one of the best outdoor-surface options around.

Besides concrete and wooden forms, you'll need three things to get going: a textured rubber mat, something to pound the mat down into the concrete with (you can make your own pounder out of a 12-by-12-inch piece of 3/4-inch plywood with a 2-by-2 handle) and a powdered release agent to prevent the concrete from sticking to the mat. You may not find any of these at your local building center, but that's OK. L.M. Scofield Co. is one company that supplies textured concrete products continentwide. Look in the phone book or do an Internet search for more options.

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