DIY concrete pad

It is very easy to make such a concrete platform in front of a house or garage with your own hands. The area is poured on site one by one into the form of tiles with a decorative pattern. Unlike purchased forms, ours is homemade, which makes it possible to make tiles of any size and thickness.

Tile mold

The shape is homemade, quadrant, with dimensions of 90 cm x 90 cm x 8 cm. Made from a thin wooden plank. The decorative pattern is made using slats, not covering the entire thickness of the form. Everything is held together with ordinary self-tapping screws.

Ideally, of course, it would be better to weld such a form from metal. But if you have no desire and need to quickly lay out a small area, then wood is more practical, since it is easier to work with.
To make it easier to remove the form from concrete, all its edges were greased with Vaseline.
In my case, it takes approximately 36 kg of solution to produce one slab to fill the mold.

Laying a concrete pad in front of the garage

We level the area that we will fill. I managed with simple leveling, without any backing, and laid the tiles directly on the ground.
Prepare a cement solution. For painting, I used a special cement dye to give the tiles a more familiar color.
After the solution is well mixed and has the desired consistency, we proceed directly to installation.
Set up the form and fill it with solution. Smooth everything on top to a smooth surface.

Before removing the mold, you must wait about two hours for the solution to set. Then carefully lift the form, alternately from different sides.


If after removing the form there are torn or broken edges, they can be corrected by hand until the concrete has completely hardened. In general, there is no need to worry about them, since in the end all the cracks will be poured with concrete and it will fill all the voids and cracks.

The final step was to dilute cement without dye, spill it and wipe all the cracks with it. The tiles were wiped with a damp sponge to remove excess grout concrete.
I'm happy with the result, that's what I wanted - that's what I got.
In the future I plan to make garden paths in the same way. Good luck to all!


Original article in English