Pouring A Thick Concrete Driveway

Pouring concrete can be extremely stressful and even disastrous if you are unprepared or have some bad luck. To have a successful outcome you control and monitor as many of the variables as you can - you have a reliable team, and then you roll up your sleeves.

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A few of my preferred concrete finishing tools:

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Thank you, be safe, and be grateful.

[doak]

Seems like the guys playing the fiddle, banjo, and guitar could have helped.

[bradledford]

My father-in-law poured a driveway in front of our first home, a job for his daughter and newly married son-in-law. We had every conceivable issue happen that culminated in a flurry of black walnut leaves and branches falling on the finished product. At some point, I just went outside as the crew was desperately plucking leaves from the surface and rain started to fall and just said something like "well, we'll have a nice pattern of mother nature in the finish". I believe I recall the extremely stressed finisher looking up at me as if to say "thank you, I think I will be able to sleep tonight." Fifteen years later I go back to that home every month or so, which I still own and rent, and the impressions of the walnut leaves remind me of the hard work put forth that day and how something as trivial as a gust of wind can break the spirits of good men. Be kind, y'all.

[JohnDoe-nywp]

50 years in construction and still learning. Well said, well presented, and well done.. No one appreciates the man that gets the job done. Thank you sir for letting others know what we do.

[hdcrook]

One of my favorite YouTube videos of all time. Workmen and not ashamed.

[ChrisGates]

I poured concrete in the summers while in college and know how hard of work it is. I love how you make these videos a tribute to the trades. Your videos show a dignity and respect for the folks and the trade themselves. Good work. I appreciate you.

[derpus]

As a concrete ready mix driver for 20 years, i can tell you that this is the best informational video I have watched on youtube. The pointers you give are the best (you are giving away the secrets!) Thanks for sharing this video with the world to see. Your narration is 1st class and the best!

[iowamatt]

as i sit here in my work trailer in Iowa, it's minus 57 wind chill. I'm jealous of these guys, love pouring in the dark. Gets me jacked up, cuz u know it's a fight against mother nature. 30 years in the concrete business and i still love pouring a bunch of mud. Great video.

[jcdecarlo]

Im a professional concrete finisher. From Southern California I've been doing it for about almost 10 years and it's a loooong learning process. It's a great trade to learn. I'm looking into welding and blacksmithing that's what brought me to this wonderful channel. Love you videos keep up the great work.

[michaeldougfir]

A couple of days ago I drove by an old house of mine. I noticed the neighbor had put in a double wide driveway about 30' deep. Then I found this video. It gives me a real appreciation for concrete work.
I come from a family of plumbers and carpenters. So I learnt a lot here. Thank you!

[IppiopaidFEEDBACK]

He’s an excellent narrator! In addition he is full of wisdom from his years of experience.

“Knowing your tolerance, is the key to productivity” Is the best thing I ever heard him say!

[TokyoCraftsman]

Mad respect for concrete guys, I've helped out on a few driveways etc and it's made me want to be a better carpenter, so I don't have to do concrete LOL
Really mad respect.
Cheers from Tokyo!

[barburous]

"concrete waits for no man" a quote from my first foreman.

[candace]

Just shared this with our grandson, almost 20, who has been offered a job working with a concrete contractor. He's been working as a gopher for a housing contractor, learning but pay is low, too low to get ahead. We wanted him to know he will be moving to a higher stress job with more physical labor! Appreciate how real your videos are of the trades. Thanks, Scott and Nate. Nate's statements at the end tell it all.

[kengamble]

Oh man you sure did make my back hurt watching this!
I have had five back surgerys and I still believe that at least two of them were from working concrete !😂
Worked with a cousin that done concrete and there were no such thing as someone just watching, they either got to work or left !
Looking forward to the get together there and meeting you guys !
Thanks for sharing and take care . 👍

[chevellechris]

It's fascinating to me that you can walk on the concrete with the power trowel, and that tool can affect the surface of the concrete but the boots of the worker don't really seem to dent it. I am hoping to build a pole barn here at my home in Michigan in a year or two around 30x50 with a heated floor and I wanted to try to find contractors that would let me help and watch so I could learn. Pretty sure when it comes to the slab I'm going to limit my helping to filling coffee's getting donuts.

I really do like that you are getting the human element behind all of these jobs EC, your showing your viewers the value of these trades and the men and women that work them. One day some young kid watching now is going to be making a lot of money in an office somewhere, hiring crews to do work on his home and they are going to really respect and value that work because they saw one of these videos.

Great job, sir.

[Wieprzow]

I really enjoy commentary videos of yours. They're like kids stories but for adults. Very relaxing and informative.

[jeffsarros]

Truer words about this profession were never spoken . I've been working with concrete 40 plus years! Anxiety plus for sure!
Thanks for the fun videos!

[imsorry]

Fella in the plaid top is the cleanest concrete finisher I’ve ever seen. Hats off to him!

[johna]

Forever grateful to my brother-in-law who was a concrete contractor. When I was young, I knew I wanted to be my own boss, and work outdoors. He hired me as a know-nothing kid to join his crew. Took me just three days to realize the stress level associated with the trade wasn't for me. Ended up as a deck and fence contractor here in redwood country. Retired after thirty-eight years, having built acres of decks and miles of fences, with gazebos, pergolas, arbors, etc. thrown in to keep things interesting. I KNOW I wouldn't have lived this long had I stuck with the wicked mud.

[zaledalen]

Ah, this takes me back. Memories of forms blowing out. Panic. Scrambles to deal with approaching disaster. Most of all, memories of good friends showing up for the pour and working their butts off for no money to get the concrete in place and release that truck before it starts charging time. Our last foundation pour, we ended up short of concrete from the redimix truck. That was part of the plan because we didn't want anything left over and planned on finishing with hand mixes from a small cement mixer. So we were ready to dismiss our crew, but our friends said no. We'll stick around and help you mix to get this job finished. Those are friends, eh.
The last driveway pour we did, it started to hail just as the concrete was about to kick. I freaked out, expecting it to ruin the job. But the hail didn't last long, and when the balls of ice had melted we found we had the most perfect concrete texture. Just a smooth dimpled surface, much better than the brooming we were planning to use.
BTW I always enjoy your music. Nice to hear Angelina Baker on your track. So many videos I watch are smearing on computer generated glurge that gets so annoying I end up turning off the sound. Not you. You treat music properly, so it adds feeling and mood to your videos. That along with your smooth narration makes watching your videos a treat I really look forward to. Thanks for this one.