How to Make a Rounded Concrete Curb

Mix the concrete with water in the wheelbarrow until it has reached a consistency slightly thicker than peanut butter. The ideal thickness for this sort of construction is found if you roll a ball of concrete between your hands into a 2-inch-diameter cylinder and place it on its end. If the concrete flows and the cylinder slumps over itself, it is too wet. If the concrete shows the appearance of cracks, it is too dry.

Pick up a shovelful of concrete and dump it where you want the curb to begin. In this fashion, run a line of concrete approximately 5 feet long along the stretch of where the curb is to be located.

Press the curbing trowel firmly onto the concrete and drag it in the direction that the curb will run. If you notice any small bits of concrete missing from the surface after you have shaped it with the trowel, fill those spots with additional concrete and run the trowel over it again.

Smooth the concrete with the trowel, adding additional concrete as necessary to run the curb as far as you want it to go. Depending on the style of curb that you have chosen to use, the curb may be smoother or rougher. In general, curbs with a slope running from the top to the bottom can be smoothed much more easily than angular curbs.

Point the concrete curb horizontally every 5 feet to provide a place for stress cracks to form naturally. This should be done using a concrete pointer, which has a 1/2-inch, rounded blade. If you run it along the straight vertical edge of your curbing trowel, you'll accomplish a professional looking curbing job when the curb has set.