How Do I Pour a Small Slab of Concrete for a Parking Spot?
As the number of vehicles that your family owns grows, you'll need a place to park them. If you don't have the option of fully expanding your driveway, building a garage or parking in the street, you can build a concrete slab to park on. This can allow you to park on your property without damaging your lawn. This is a fairly simple do-it-yourself project that you can complete with a little help. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Tape measure
- Wooden stakes
- Hammer
- String
- 1 1/2-ton excavator
- 2-by-4-inch boards
- Nails
- Vapor barrier
- Sand or gravel
- Rebar or wire mesh
- Concrete
- Water
- Concrete mixer
- Shovels
- Screed board
- Bull float
- Plastic sheathing
Instructions
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Contact your local zoning board to acquire any permits that you'll need and to learn the building codes for your municipality. Failure to do so can lead to fines or possibly having to tear up the concrete.
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Mark off the area where the parking spot will go by driving stakes into the perimeter.
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Dig up the area inside the stakes with a 1 1/2-ton excavator, making sure that you go beneath the frost line. You can find out the depth of the frost line from your zoning board.
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Build a frame around the pit by driving wooden stakes into the ground every 3 feet around the perimeter and nailing 2-by-4-inch boards to them.
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Cover the ground in the pit with a vapor barrier. This is a plastic sheet that prevents moisture from seeping up from the ground and damaging the concrete.
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Add a layer of sand or gravel on top of the vapor barrier. Your local building codes will tell you which material you need to use and how deep the layer needs to be.
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Place rebar or wire mesh on top of the layer of sand or gravel. Follow your local building codes regarding which material to use.
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Mix a batch of concrete in a concrete mixer, following the instructions on the packaging.
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Pour the concrete into the pit, filling it until the concrete goes slightly higher than the wood frame around the perimeter of the pit.
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Screed the slab with a partner's help. Start at one end of the slab and put a 2-by-4 on top of the frame. Pull the board across the concrete, using a side-to-side motion. Screeding will smooth out the concrete and expose any low spots in the pour.
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Add concrete to any low spots and screed the slab again.
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Smooth out the surface of the concrete by sliding a bull float across the surface. Push the bull float across the surface with the back of the float tilted slightly in the air, then pull it back toward you with the float flat on the concrete.
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Cover the concrete with plastic sheathing. Add water to the concrete for five to seven days to keep it damp, placing the plastic back on top of the slab after you have added the water.
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Allow four to five days for the concrete to cure. Remove the plastic sheathing and the wooden frame around the slab.
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References
- Photo Credit cement,concrete image by Greg Pickens from Fotolia.com
