The Process of Creating a Concrete Sidewalk

Chris Lazration March 27, 2014

Audience & Description of Scope: The purpose of this process description document is to present the reader with the basic knowledge and know how behind the making of a simple concrete sidewalk slab. This document will begin by focusing on the primary ingredients that make up a concrete sidewalk, and then will shift into the process of mixing the concrete ingredients and pouring the mixture into a sidewalk. Upon completion of reading this document, a user shall be able to understand what ingredients go into a concrete sidewalk, and the process of how those numerous ingredients end up as a concrete sidewalk slab. The intended audience for this document is students and/ or any other persons who have an interest in creating their own concrete sidewalk, but has limited previous knowledge of the topic. This document would work well in introductory concrete textbooks, as an article in a simple do-it-yourself book, or even stand alone as a technical process description paper. Due to the fact that the user of this document has little previous knowledge about concrete sidewalks and their ingredients, this document should be used as a stepping stone into more in depth, detailed documents. This document allows the users to grasp the idea of a concrete sidewalk and its ingredients, but is not too technically based that the user will not understand.

Ingredients of a Concrete Sidewalk: The evolution of the sidewalk has changed drastically throughout the developmental times that humans have been carving their marks into this world. From dirt and gravel sidewalks to more elaborate sidewalks such as concrete, bricks, or stones; todays sidewalks are made up of an elaborate mixture of ingredients. Before the process of how a concrete sidewalk is developed, it is important to thoroughly understand the particular ingredients that make up a concrete sidewalk. The following list shows the fundamental ingredients and explains their significance and role in the concrete sidewalk. 1. Water: Water, by far, is the most important ingredient in a batch of concrete. Without this ingredient, the mixture would basically just be gravel and some powder; something that is not hard and not very strong. When water is added to the mixture, it hydrates (causes a chemical reaction to induce the solidification process) with the Portland cement. This hydration process bonds together all of the concrete constituents into a robust stone like materiel, and the process where the concrete receives the majority of its strength. 2. Portland cement: Portland cement is an ingredient that is generated from grinding a Portland cement clinker (item that is produced when ground limestone and clay are heated in a kiln), calcium sulfate, and other constituents into a fine powder; which can be seen below in Figure 1. This fine powder that is produced is the one of the most important ingredients in a batch of concrete because it is what actually hydrates with the water to cause solidification between the concrete constituents.

Figure 1: Portland cement powder

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3. Course/Fine Aggregates In a batch of concrete, the course and fine aggregates typically account for 60-75% of the total volume of the concrete mixture. These aggregates also strongly influence the concretes hardening properties both during mixing and setting. For example, having both coarse and fine aggregates allows minimal volume between the actual aggregates; thus causing the concrete mixture to have a greater strength. In a typical batch of concrete, the course aggregates (particles greater than 3/8 in diameter) are made up of gravels and crushed stones; whereas the fine aggregates (particles less than 3/8 in diameter) are made up of sand particles or really small particles of crushed stone. Figure 2 below depicts the realm of aggregates.

Figure 2: Examples of course and fine aggregates

4. Steel Reinforcement: This is the only item on the list of ingredients for a concrete sidewalk that is not completely necessary to include. Also, this ingredient does not go directly into the mixture of concrete; it is pre-placed in the form work and the concrete mixture is poured over it. Concrete is a material that is very strong under compression, but very weak in tension. To account for this weakness in tension, steel reinforcing bars are placed in the section of the slab that would be in tension as depicted in Figure 3 on the beginning of the next page. Typical concrete items that must include steel reinforcing to prevent failure are items such as beams, columns, floor slabs, and foundations. It is essential for these items to include the steel reinforcing because of the huge amounts of loads that they carry; thus preventing failure. For a typical concrete sidewalk, the loadings do not impose enough stress on the concrete to cause failure; therefore steel reinforcement is generally excluded from concrete sidewalks.

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Figure 3: Depicting how a concrete slab reacts to loading

Mixing Process: The mixing stage of creating a concrete sidewalk is where all of the above mentioned ingredients are combined together to get the mixture that will be ultimately poured into the prelaid out sidewalk formwork. This mixing of the concrete ingredients can be done in two main ways. The first way is to combine the ingredients into a container such as a wheelbarrow and to do the mixing aspect of it by hand. The second way to combine the ingredients is to place them into a portable concrete mixer, as seen in Figure 4. Once turned on, the mixer will begin to rotate and will mix the ingredients for the user. The list of steps for adding the ingredients to be mixed is as follows: Step 1: Preparing the Dry Ingredients: 1-1 Adding the Portland Cement Powder: No matter which method of mixing the ingredients was chosen, either by hand or by mixer, the first thing that needs to be added is the Portland cement powder. Like stated in the ingredients section, the Portland cement powder is one of the most important items in a concrete mix, so it is very important to not forget this powder. 1-2 Adding the Course and Fine Aggregates: The next ingredients to be added into the mixture are the aggregates. For the cement batch to turn out correctly, it is important to include the proper aggregates. In a proper batch, it is necessary to make sure that there are more fine aggregates than the amount of Portland cement powder. Also, for the batch to turn out correctly, the amount of course aggregates needs to be more than the fine aggregates. Typical concrete batches have about a 2:1 ratio of course to fine aggregates.
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1-3 Mixing the Dry Ingredients: The Portland cement powder, course aggregates, and fine aggregates need to be thoroughly mixed together before water is added to the mixture to achieve proper strength in the final concrete. If these materials are not thoroughly mixed together, the final concrete sidewalk slab will contain air pockets and clusters of aggregates; both of which make the concrete mix much more susceptible to failure than if they were properly mixed. Step 2: Adding the Most Important Ingredient: 2-1 Adding Water: While the dry ingredients are spinning in the mixer, water is now added into the mixture. The water causes a chemical reaction with the Portland cement powder and begins to solidify into a binding agent. This binding agent begins to adhere to both the course and fine aggregates, and once this mixture is placed into the forms, the binding agent begins to harden significantly; and the excess water begins to rise to the surface. When properly done so, the dried, binding agent is ultimately where the concrete gets its strength from. If this part of the mixing is not completed properly, the strength of the concrete will be compromised and the concrete sidewalk will be very vulnerable to cracking and failure.

Figure 4: Example of a portable concrete mixer

Step 3: Placing the Finished Mix: 3-1 Pouring the Mix: Once the proper consistency is reached within the mixer, the batch of mixed ingredients is ready to be placed into the pre-placed form work. The batch is typically poured from one end of the form work, typically the far end, back to the
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other end. Once poured, it is essential that the mixture is worked and compacted thoroughly to ensure that the final slab will not include any air pockets. After the mixture is worked and compacted, it should be leveled with a tool known as a screed, and should have time to settle and hydrate before anything else is done to it. Right before the concrete mixture hardens and is still workable, the concrete sidewalk slab should be trialed over with a tool known as a bull float. This tool is used to finish the surface of the concrete by smoothing out the imperfections. These tools and a finished concrete slab can be seen in figure 5.

Figure 5: Top Left, an example of a creed 6 Bottom Left, an example of a bull float 7 Right, an example of a finished concrete sidewalk still in the formwork Conclusion: Overall, the process and the items that make up a concrete sidewalk are pretty basic and trivial. With some simplistic ingredient definitions, and a vague overview of the mixing and pouring process, one should now know the basic principles behind the construction of a concrete sidewalk. With that being said, these basic principles set the user up for a successful trail at constructing their own concrete sidewalk. These principles may also lead them to a more detailed analysis of the particular part of the process that they would like to learn more about before tackling a concrete sidewalk project. Either way, this document gets the users brain stirring about how to construct a concrete sidewalk.
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