Al Carrell: How would you like to make your own patio that looks like brick, but cost little more than just plain old boring concrete? There are products that stain the concrete and forms that shape the concrete into brick. We're going to show you how easy it is to make your own patio in a weekend for less than two bucks a square foot. Well, first we have to prepare the surface, and I was able to get Randy Williams to do that.
Randy Williams: How you doing Al?
A.C.: Doing great. Now all you're doing is just sort of leveling it out. You don't have to be completely level with it.
R.W.: Absolutely. All we want to do is to get the ground as level as possible, and we're going to set the form right on top of the ground. You can even set the Walkmaker right on top of the grass if you wanted to.
A.C.: No kidding?
R.W.: Absolutely.
A.C.: That makes it easy.
R.W.: What we're going to be doing is using the Quikcrete liquid color. We're going to pour this into our water, we're going to pour this right into our concrete mix. You see how it gives it the red color.
A.C.: And I'll do the mixing. And now for the fun part, Randy. We'll start making this patio out here.
R.W.: After we've got our concrete mixed up to the consistency we wanted to, all we're going to do is pack it into the form and fill the cavities with our colored concrete. One mold will take approximately 80 pounds of concrete, about one bag of concrete mix.
A.C.: You probably notice we've got more than one form, but actually a do-it-yourselfer would be able to do this with just one form, right?
R.W.: That's right Al.
A.C.: Actually, by the time you go and mix another bag of concrete, you can lift this form off and you'll be ready to pour it into the same form right beside it.
R.W.: That's right. Now, you'll notice, we did turn this pattern, or this form, a little bit different, and that will give us a herringbone pattern instead of a running bond brick pattern. It's going to give our yard a nice addition.
A.C.: Looks like it's time to take this form off, Randy.
R.W.: Yeah, this one's ready to come up Al. All we're going to do is pull the form up like that.
A.C.: Aw, man, look at that. That's great. Let's see what the next one looks like. Aw, this is really going to be a great looking patio.
R.W.: What we want to do Al, now, is spray this form off. It's totally reusable. All you want to do is spray it off with a water hose and we're ready to lay it down right beside the next pattern. These forms run just under $30 Al, and they're available at most of your better home centers.
A.C.: You know, Randy, I've figured out one really big advantage to this is, you can just use it for whenever you have leftover concrete.
R.W.: Absolutely. You can pour your patio, pour one form at a time until you're finished with that walkway or that patio.
A.C.: Well okay, Randy, this is the last one. What do we do next?
R.W.: What we want to do Al, is take our mortar mix and we're just going to take it dry and broom it back across the patio and then take a garden hose and wet that mortar down and that will give us a nice finished look for our patio.
A.C.: Okay, but we have to wait until this sets up, don't we?
R.W.: Correct. We want to let this concrete dry, a couple of days, and then we can broom it in.
A.C.: Hey, I think I can do that myself. Now for the last step. We'll spray on a concrete sealant which will protect the patio for years to come. This particular patio is 6x10 and it only costs about $120 and we were able to do it over a weekend. And if you don't like brick, there are other patterns available.
For more information on Walkmaker call 800-282-5828.
Episode 33 1996 - 97 Season
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