How to Pour Concrete Pads

Decide how wide and long your concrete pad should be when complete. The pad should not extend more than five feet past the item or structure to be placed upon it in any direction, which may result in pressure points and cracking. Choose a location for your concrete pad.

Excavate the entire location for your pad, removing all of the structures, plant growth and grass. Create an area of bare soil that is a bit larger than the space for your finished pad. Construct a pour form for the pad on-site to keep it from getting damaged.

Make the pour form from plastic-coated lumber. Attach the edges of the shorter boards to the faces of the longer boards using drywall screws, leaving one foot extending from all four ends of the long boards. Place the form in the center of the excavated patch.

Arrange wooden stop pins around the outside of the frame, placing them snugly against the boards to hold the form securely. Push each pin slightly into the ground, about two feet from the last. Use a sledgehammer to go back and hammer each pin in further, about halfway. Cut off the top of each pin with a manual saw to keep them even with the top of the form and with each other.

Dig along each side of the form to create channels about four inches deep and as wide as the spade of your shovel. Spray the soil within the form lightly with water from a garden hose. Tamp the center dampened soil firmly to make it level and even.

Protect your eyes with plastic goggles and your hands with thick work gloves while working with the concrete. Pour prepared concrete into the wooden form until the bottom is completely covered with a layer about one inch thick. Lay reinforcing rods over the surface of the wet concrete; space the rods three feet apart.

Wrap the rebar around the interior of the form, keeping it about two inches from every side. Create gentle bends in the rebar at the corners of the form. Wrap any areas where the rebar overlaps itself or add a reinforcing rod with tie wires to prevent rubbing.

Fill the remainder of the form with concrete. Bang on each side of the form two to three times with the sledgehammer to settle the concrete and release air. Drag a screed over the surface of the concrete, back and forth from one end of the form to the other.

Glide the surface of a rubber float in straight lines over the top of the concrete. Wait 30 minutes. Repeat and wait 30 minutes. Repeat this procedure one last time after another half hour. Let the majority of the surface moisture evaporate from the pad.

Use a straight metal trowel to finish the surface of the concrete in straight lines as you did with the float. Let the concrete cure for three days, misting it with water from a garden hose once daily. Disassemble and remove the form once the concrete pad has dried completely.