How to Build a Parking Pad

Select an area to place your parking pad. Flat areas with access to a roadway are best. Mark out the dimensions of your parking pad by placing stakes into the ground surrounding the proposed pad perimeter. Use a rubber-headed mallet to plant the stakes. Attach brightly colored string to the tops of the stakes, using thumbtacks, going from stake to stake to get a visual representation of the positions and to help you properly align the sides of the pad into straight lines.

Remove ground cover from the area by pulling plants and bushes out by the roots. Use a spade to cut the grass in the area into easily manageable squares, then remove each square.

Create a concrete frame from 2-by-4 inch wooden planks, four inches high. Use a tape measure to measure the dimensions of your paving area, then cut the lumber to match those dimensions with a circular saw. Secure the lumber together at the ends with nails to form a rectangle the same shape and size as the paving area.

Level the paving area with a carpenter's level. Place the level on the ground and sift the soil with your spade until the ground is level. Go over the leveled soil with a vibratory plate compactor to compress the soil in order to provide a firm footing for the concrete slab.

Remove the wooden stakes and place the wooden frame over the cleared surface. Place stakes along the outside of the frame into the ground on all sides to secure the frame in place.

Dig a strip about 1 1/2-feet wide and 5-inches deep following the interior of the frame with the spade.

Mix the concrete for your parking pad in a concrete mixer. Pour half the water required for the amount of concrete you're using into the mixer then begin the mixer turning. Pour in the concrete and allow it to absorb the water, then pour in the remaining water. Mix to the consistency of peanut butter.

Fill the concrete form with the concrete to the halfway point. Allow the concrete to set slightly until firm enough to support the weight of your rebar.

Place the rebar onto the wet concrete about two feet apart running the length of the concrete, with each bar beginning and ending about 2-inches from each mold edge. Place a second line of rebar above the first, crossing the frame width so that the bars are at a 90-degree angle to the first run. Make sure the bars are also 2 inches from frame edges.

Mix a second batch of concrete and fill the rest of the form over the rebar. Tap the edge of the form with the rubber-headed mallet to help raise air bubbles within the concrete to the top. Drag a screed across the surface of the concrete with a back and forth motion along the top of the concrete form to level the surface. The screed sifts the concrete, filling voids and lowering high points. Allow the concrete to firm up.

Cut an expansion joint through the center of the slab about a half-inch deep using a trowel. The expansion joint will help prevent the concrete from cracking as it expands and contracts with temperature changes.

Run a concrete float across the surface of the concrete to settle the aggregate throughout the slab and raise moisture to the surface. Wait for the concrete to absorb the moisture back into itself, then run the float over the surface once again. Allow the concrete to dry overnight.

Pull up the stakes around the concrete form then remove the form itself using a claw hammer. Keep the concrete hydrated with a mist of water daily for the first three to five days after pouring to allow it to cure to full hardness without drying prematurely. Wait four more weeks for the concrete to cure to hardness before using the new parking pad.