Make Your Own Stamped Concrete Patio

Have you ever wanted a patio that looks like real flagstone without the incredible cost of real flagstone? It's possible to save money and do it yourself, if you're not afraid of hard work. When we purchased our house, there was no deck or patio outside our sliding glass door. Of course, we wanted a nice place to hang out, have barbecues, and enjoy the great outdoors...on a lounge chair with a cold drink. I didn't like the cost and size of the concrete patios in our area, and I wanted something different than the usual wooden deck. I settled on stamped concrete. After looking at the costs, I settled on DIY stamped concrete. After some searching, I was able to find all the tools online. The following is a list of the specialty items required:

Concrete Stamp	Release Agent	Concrete Mixer
Nylon Fiber	Tamper	Pressure Washer

You'll also need some regular tools, like a hammer, trowel, timer (to time the concrete mix), etc. I won't go into the details of how to layout the patio, create a footer, and other essentials, as DIY instructions can be easily found on countless sites on the internet.

Since I wanted to do this project completely DIY, I decided to find a way to mix and pour all the concrete myself, allowing for me to do the project over a longer period of time and stamp it as I go. Most concrete patios are 4-6" thick. That's a lot of concrete to mix for a 600sq.ft. patio! I decided to go with a 12" base of gravel and use a layer of 2" fiber-reinforced concrete. This has turned out to be an excellent choice. I dug down 12" and created a base of stone that was compacted in three separate lifts of 4" each. This created a very firm base. My concrete mix consisted of a 3:2:1 mixture of sand, gravel, and portland cement. I added a handful of nylon fibers to each batch of concrete. The nylon fibers have worked wonders for fiber-reinforcement. The patio has withstood 4 winters and there's still no cracking!

The process of stamping is as follows:

Pour concrete, level it, and wait for water sheen to evaporate or be absorbed
Throw on release agent
Place mat on concrete and tamp it to make impression
Move mat and repeat tamping
Wait 24 hours and pressure wash the concrete to remove excess release agent

The key to the entire process is patience. You have to be patient to make sure the concrete is still pliable, but not soaking wet. You have to be patient when placing the mat to make sure the seams line up. You have to be patient and wait for the concrete surface to dry before you pressure wash it. Most of all, you have to be patient because it's a long, hard job. The rewards, however, are worth it. When I get a chance, I'll take some pics of our finished patio...oh, yeah, that's after I finish it. The concrete's finished, and most of the landscape is done, but I still need to put up a couple sections of privacy fence, clean up the pour lines with a concrete saw, seal the concrete, and finish the landscaping. For now, though, I'm working on replacing carpeting with resilient vinyl plank flooring. Hmm...oughta take some pics for my next blog detailing another partially completed project.