Concrete footings provide a stable foundation for constructions like Lawn Care price Bakersfield, CA sheds and gazebos, but concrete cures best between 50 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. As you ought to not try to pour concrete footings in freezing temperatures, then it’s likely to pour footings in cold weather without cracking the concrete. Wait to pour the footings at a moment when freezing temperatures aren’t expected for two weeks. The task is simpler when temperatures are anticipated to be near 50 F compared to when nearer to freezing.

Store bags of quick-setting concrete mix in a room with temperatures as high as possible before just before mixing and pouring. Quick-setting concrete cures and strengthens quicker than standard concrete, which lowers the potential for the moisture within to freeze and crack the concrete while it cures. High temperature storage produces the concrete mix itself hot so that it takes more time to cool when poured.

Mark the Landscaping front yard Flagstaff, AZ to get the concrete footings with bets and a string line to the desired width, which changes based on the structure and your place building codes. As a general guideline, a backyard shed may need footings which are 12 inches wide and 12 inches deep. Add another 3 inches to the width measurement to adapt the two 2-by-6-inch form boards which line the trench — the true timber dimension is 1 1/2 inches wide. Dig out the soil to the desired dimensions to make a trench with hand digging tools or excavating equipment, making the sides and bottom as smooth and straight as possible.

Pack the soil within the trench as tight as you possibly can with a hand tamper or comparable instrument — the dull end of a digging bar works well in tight corners. Concrete footings rely on tightly compacted soil to support the footings along with the structure. If the soil is not compacted, it can readily erode under the footings, causing the concrete to crack.

Mix the concrete mix in a wheelbarrow with warm water to a thick but spreadable consistency. Bagged concrete mix comes premixed with dry cement, limestone and a aggregate, but you have to add lime and aggregate if working with only bagged cement. The amount of water required varies with different brands and bag size, but an 80-pound bag of concrete generally requires about 3 quarts of water. Hot water increases the concrete temperature and extends the amount of time that it takes to cool down so the concrete cures more quickly.

Fill the footing forms with the warm, wet concrete. Spread it evenly with a mason’s trowel across the top. Draw a scrap piece of two-by-four round the tops of their kind boards to level off the top of the concrete.

Cover the wet concrete with concrete blankets to hold from the heat in the warm water, in addition to the heat which generates when concrete cures. Look for these blankets where concrete and masonry supplies are sold. Cover the concrete blankets with thick sheet plastic, like you’d use to get a greenhouse, to provide extra insulation. As an alternative to concrete blankets, cover the wet concrete with plastic, lay 6 inches of wax over the plastic, and top the straw with a different layer of plastic.

Construct a lean-to structure round the poured concrete footings with scrap timber, extending the legs of their lean-to at least 6 ft away from either side of the Landscaping backyard Flagstaff, AZ to provide lots of clearance space. Drape heavy sheet plastic like 6 mil plastic over the lean-to structure that goes down to the bottom to fully close in the lean-to. Turn a space heater or even multiple heaters beneath the plastic structure to keep the space heats. This step may not be mandatory unless temperatures are anticipated to drop near freezing. This structure should only be necessary to get a day or two until the concrete sets.

Remove the plastic and blankets cover following about two weeks when the concrete is totally cured and dry. The curing time varies with different concrete brands and may need more or less time than two weeks.