How to Pour, form and Finish Concrete Stairs. PRO-Advice From 2 masters with 35 Years exp. 4k video

[Music] [Applause] [Music] not me [Music] just beware doors [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right so we got a lot going on in this jobsite we're pouring a new apron and a new set of concrete stairs right Ron right all right all right guys this is my buddy Ron graft from concrete arts we work together for how many how many years now Ron that's probably old tries you know some of these guys is very basic stuff oh it is uh no more than seven and three-quarter inch these are set up at about seven and three-eighths of an inch whatever works out you know I usually got to take here your your top elevation your low low elevation see what you got if we in this particular one we had about 36 37 inches roughly when you break that divide that up or whatever works out best okay no you got to keep it you have to slow these treads so the water runs off you know it's not like building a carpenter building wood stairs these always got to have a slight pitch them so the water runs away so now you're tying all the rebar together right Alex yes so it's just a loop and then you go too far breaks and the other [Music] I don't care how long one of these horrible by quiet one of this hide the other day I was not a flat you want to stir it all the way up don't ya [Music] but I want to see this so these days these days I actually use Pam he's not joking listen is this the Sam no actually I'm out of Pam but we're using this anything nonstick too so the forms don't stick to the concrete when you pull concrete doesn't stick to the wood wait you can use diesel fuel or good-ol'-boy operates all right guys I want you to meet Juan he's actually a master at laying concrete with over 30 years of experience this is all he does and he does it well and I'm asking him how he gets the concrete to release from his forms we use Pam cooking spray I mean it's it works just like a release agent do you have to vibrate the concrete to get in to settle in right Ron no and you just follow with a shovel or well all right with it yeah get in there less than incline more of a hill Oh longer Hill left steep next guy in the team that had liked it - DC - is Terry he's pushing the wheelbarrow up the hill and been doing concrete for quite a few years isn't having much skill as Juan or Ron he's smooth out more skilled in the every guy this would be a great spot for a powered wheelbarrow which I had one of mine handy these guys were working the law here you can see Ron applying the releasing agent on the face board of the steps those boards that he's working on right there have to come off before the concrete is fully cured because these guys got to be able to get at that face step and finish it before it dries so you what is that call right there it's called copper Drake come along concrete raker come along yo see that's now on the farm we never called that a come along come on was a winch with a a binder eyes so you use that to vibrate the material down cuz you can't just pour it and leave it when you have thicker pores you actually got to get that material to settle in right yeah we usually just use it to break and pull our pass rate around use it for puddling skull puddling we want dr. Stefan this guy in the bright green shirt is kind of pivotable to pivotal to our video because he's actually a third year laborer and he's going to be learning how to finish concrete and so our leader now do you spray this with any coloring after the words run or now I see some guy spray it with that white stuff yeah is that a sealer that always go on better now you're using your forearms to flow up the concrete down you're not just eyeballing at all my palms are at height get that finish concrete so you pull it and then you're gonna be up then I'll seal it close it up so you're closing up the pores kind of is that right one yeah you I'll use a thing called a derby or a boat won't to do it okay when are you going to be spraying on the top now surface retarder is called a1 so that goes on fairly immediately right yep it'll help the set time keep it moist and flat collect that water nope it's water mixed with another another deal [Music] so you can see Ron is raising up the font of the rebar as he's going so he's getting it off the ground so he's using the concrete to actually raise it up why he tapping the board fill any voids up bring a came to the surface solid eight you got trying to work them out hey I know when you're doing steps with smaller Rock you to rub out the faces well I suppose who's that with this stuff is there yeah just act yes stamp make we use this all the time when we're stamping concrete but I like to use it for stuff just because of that reason it's easier makes a little easier to finish stuff especially when I start to pull hard on you ain't trying to rub in big push in big rocks I'm guessing it's probably a pitch more expensive a little bit more not much is there a reason why you don't use it on every job then if the cost is almost better structured yeah because it's a better structurally then why would I forget larger aggregate so these guys were pouring a big wide open driveway or something they'd want to use something so while they're pouring one starts to level out the concrete geez right now it looks like he's finishing it but really waste trying to do is just make sure he's got enough concrete inside each farm before it starts to set up so that was a piece of rebar that Ron sticks in at the very top of that stair tread because that's where the foot strike occurs the most often and it gives it extra strength [Music] 35 years 35 years yeah but you know what those years of Secrets just helping other guys do their job the right way and giving customers better projects long-term and probably I don't know the way I look at it serious it's probably nobody's gonna be you're not gonna lose any jobs because you're doing this you know what you know I mean I give them away all the time that was loose that's been pretty loose Ryan if that's the way you wanted it yeah so all the concrete's been down for about 15 minutes and Juan's gonna start to put in the control droids these are designed to keep the concrete from cracking and what that means is if your concrete starts to crack this control joint should stop it from cracking all the way through don't it and it's like that I could probably start stripping it but since I could push my finger in it you don't want to pull it because as soon as you pull this it's just gonna fall and roll and then you end up getting a out of whack shape step and then you just plate to try to get it back in okay so the finger test is the way to go yep and just you know after a guy that's been doing it for so many years he just he knows when to get on it you don't want to wait too long with so many steps because each one's got to be rubbed out form that your top noses your gutters all got tools to make them round and look really sharp and crisp and clean and so you what you want to get on it semi soft but not too soft and not too hard there's a fine line otherwise that you'll just struggle and really bust your butt out there you go now you know you're straight cuz you always get your edger tight to your form that way you know it's straight but [Music] heel to toe youko what does heel-to-toe mean heel-to-toe means like this this year heel to toe heel toe heel toe so you put it otherwise your your not your your dragon and cutting and and pushing the concrete out so that that's the wrong way to be up and then you just hear you're moving all the rocks and stuff and then you have a hard time filling it in and then you got that then you got to take cream steel cream from your slab to fill it in so we cut it he'll come back toe now way you get a nice crisp clean cut awesome thanks mom no steal a little creams with your head with your cutter and fill your your joints in their blood when you kind of made that look easy a lot of years of doing this and another thing is you don't want to push too hard because when you do what happens is you know that's acceptable you won't have any problems getting that out what if you get to push too hard it leaves big big ridges so then you'd sit here having a hump and then you have you'd have to work to try to get those out of there see you so that's pretty easy and and pretty flat anything bigger than that deeper than that it just you don't end up with a flat spot skewed edgers start edginess so now it's been roughly 20 minutes or so the time isn't as important as the feel of the concrete if I'm picking anything up and one is why are you rubbing that out right now I'm bringing making sure the rocks are down it's flat so by doing this all I could tell if there's dips dips in it or there's a hump go by there's a hump in it my mag is gonna come up and then come back down up down and anybody there was a dip when I want to swing over it it'll leave an unfinished mark so now I know I have to push cream over to fill it and flatten it out that makes sense we're trying to stay ahead of the game before it gets too hot the Sun starts baking the concrete because we have a lot of stairs to finish though we're gonna try to stay ahead of the game and get our edges everything edge so we're not plating to get them in once the concrete gets hard now Alex when you're coming up the existing concrete here you want to make sure when you're edging you want to make sure you're too height of you're too low then you leave a tripper if it's too high you're leaving a tripper here so you want to make sure when you're coming up to existing you're exactly flat and you're right on the money okay so if you guys can catch that of clippers where the time creeps a little higher than this concrete and I mean you're gonna sub your toe or vice versa those aren't steps we have pitch on the steps so it usually by rubbing it and sealing it pushing the rocks and getting it to this point usually rolls and leaves a rich you can see the ridge my mag isn't sitting flat on the concrete and not flat on the board yep so by pushing it just like that I know I'm pushing it back where it's supposed to be and now I'm flat to the top of my board I'm taking it comp out so you told Alex to take a full use the whole mag not just a little bit of the mag kick your whole mag that way you know your flat three three-year because if you use half a Meg you're only getting there only getting this so if there's it's humped up here you're just riding this down but you're leaving this Ridge here so now you're gonna be like this your steps gonna go like this so you're getting two so this way you know your step is flat okay by using the whole mag we're edging this so when we strip the forms and we we'll use our top covers to shape the top of your step it's already preformed it's got a curve to it already okay and we pulled this and it was harder we would really have to work to try to get that rounded out by edging it first you're preforming your your nose on your step okay so wait what what were you telling them on cuz I missed it too long ways opposite of the length you know this way so that you don't get no dips in there you want to use your tool to long ways this way oh okay see that well you can see that that's flat and you get that box quarter three-eighths and also just make sure you put it down than the way you're on top of the form so clean the top of your forms while you're edging yeah I mean or beforehand when we go to slam that form after all that dry stuff gonna fall back into or so another ten or fifteen minutes have gone by and now you got a broom um right just this area here those will have the way to finish the faces as we go they start getting too hard you'll probably have to broom the tops and then touch up a little bit but most of the time you try to broom everything at the same time yeah we mark there out then cleaning that see widen does the same thing doesn't clean the top the swarm I use it for filling yeah I got it right let's rip in any way but after this round roll you're not huh let's do a little cream eye in here too you can roll that see I just filled it in finishing it so one can fix it yeah edit that little piece so so Hwan laid down the challenge yeah hey well I'd say it again all right we'll see if you broomed one before Alex okay rooming does two things it hides imperfections but way more important than that it adds traction perfectly smooth concrete when it gets wet can be almost as slippery as ice make sure you broom it straight looks good bud yeah always will come all the way to your edge so you don't leave that little ambition about and losing there right now why aren't these steaks cut down don't keep going keep going keep going keep going boom like it nice now you know your edges are all Froome - all the way to the edge you see what I touch you know my fingers aren't they're not poking into the concrete as far because now the concrete is starting to firm up what happens is if you have any flaws up here it's not going to matter cuz your covert is going to go over probably six inches into the concrete then we're gonna have to rub it out anyways and rebloom uh-huh but we want to get this done because by the time we start getting down here we're not gonna have time to get back and broom this [Music] so you work to play again to this fair yes take your little magic or something hold that corner like this so you don't pop it go one way so it looks nice and rounded are you right-handed you want to company the same thing with your tools you know so is if not what's gonna happen is you're gonna dig into the concrete and you're going to live feed yourself holes not too much pressure for years digging into your step you know I mean do that very last Oh hit your top Cove here you know you kind of hold it in so you're not pushing down pressure and pushing your nose be able to go a little more pressure but but make sure you hold that in boom like that alright now I'll hit it with your good heel to toe and make sure you get your your heel all the way in your corner you know and we fix it because that's our saying have you used the whole thing when it's gonna happen that's where you'd heel the toe just like your cuts so you don't dig in and pull the rocks good that's it you got it the more you mess with your truck we got a lot of scares ago take your marks out of there some of your stuff anything you know well that's not too bad again it brings me know when it brooming is they had traction right yes you thought it was the head clog yeah it's like texturing the walls now we're gonna rub our artist panel as we go yep we're gonna do everything so one of the challenges these guys have is they're on the top step and they got to get all these out but this concrete setting up all at the same time so that means the workability up there won't be the same as the workability down there so that's something to take into consideration when you're starting your own project is the concrete can get away from you and harden up what will happen is you'll have one finish on a part of the stairs and then if the concrete hardens up you'll have a completely different finish on a different portion of the stairs so it's pretty critical that you make sure you time it out and make sure that you're accomplishing the work before the concrete gets away from you so on this job site Ron and Terry were actually pouring a concrete apron and sidewalk what you'll see in an upcoming video and they needed to come over and help one and Alex make sure that they got all of these fit all of this finish done at the same time and the same consistency especially additive in that water that's the same stuff that you filled it up okay let's just say one harder day one than the cars are okay it just helps as a loosens everything off then gives you a little workability you just cream [Music] who's your top cold up there and remember we got to bring all our tools down as we go down the corner use two hands - so you're pushing in because of your pushing here you can push move this and then put a bubble in here and step by pushing on here you know you're pushing in and you're getting your top finished out okay how you doing on time line I can't handle how much time you think you got before it gets away from you and I'm not about to see that I got cream so I could do that and I'm getting nothing I'm having a I'll be struggling but with one of these fiberglass boats and some of this I'm good to go I'll make it happen you ready now she's ready to get hard all right well I want to say big thanks to concrete are on and all the guys Terry and Alex and Juan for helping us understand how to do stairs so thank you guys and I'm gonna actually put concrete arts logo up on the on the screen here so these guys if they want to reach you do you even want more business I guess I should ask yeah you do alright cuz a lot of guys get so swamped they're like no you know video but I don't want any more business so there you go if you guys were on Minnesota Wisconsin you should look these guys up I've worked with Ron for years so big thank you to you guys for showing us all the in turnout tricks of the trade on these stairs thanks guys I hope you guys enjoyed this video let me know in the comments down below what you think of it and we will see we will see you guys on the next one god bless and go get them you guys and while you're here do me a favor and check out these other two videos and I'm going to put up for you right now hit the share button and subscribe these guys wrap up [Music]