Damn, dude you went hardcore mode, lol. I've built my own launch ramps before, but I never even thought about making curbs. Then again we'd have nowhere to put it. We used to put the ramps I made on our skateboards, and roll it to a place called "the slab". It was just a huge empty lot that had been neglected, but there were some pretty huge areas that weren't cracked, or heaved from rain, and earth shifting. On the weekends we'd have like 30 people skating that spot, and it was a ton of fun. I got to meet a lot of cool people there. To answer anyone's question, no, we didn't have a skatepark. This was in the mid-80's during the period when adults couldn't understand skating, and tried to ban it. We picked the slab because no one cared about it, and we'd be left alone to shred, and incur medical bills for our parents, LOL. Thank you, Ben, this takes me back.
Ben, that was so cool that you went out and built that. I’m 64 years old and loved skateboarding. We started skateboarding in south Texas back in the seventies. Great memories and awesome job on that curd🤙
Im a finish carpenter so I dont do concrete very often but I have poured a fair amount of small walkways and patios over the years. I usually run the edger almost immediately after screeding it (while im mag floating it first pass) but only a very rough pass just to get the rocks out of the way. I come back later and actually make it nice once its set up enough. Cheers from Toronto. Nice curb!
Hello, red seal carpenter here in Ontario, I get your feeling about going from drywall to concrete work and your drywall experience being a hindrance in concrete. I came from a concrete background and trying to learn drywall after being a concrete finisher was tough. Luckily I found your videos! Thanks for all you do.
PPS- when using screws with concrete work I'll just use some cheap candles, u could use skate wax to fill the heads. I use torx drive. It works great to keep concrete out of the heads and makes taking forms apart a breeze 👍
I remember also anytime we started a curb I would always save my old beat trucks. I used to go over the new curb and it would be like glass plus I found it did not chip as much over time since there was a nice layer of metal on the edge.
Canadian Builder Magazine Cover: "Turning your tennis court into a skate park." 😁 Don't worry about rebar; it rusts because concrete is porous, allowing moisture to penetrate and reach the rebar. I have precast concrete sidewalk panels in the back yard of my 82-year-old house in the USA; the rusting rebar has caused the concrete to weaken and start breaking up. I've had to cut the exposed rebar out on more than one panel.
Thanks for pulling back the curtain so to speak. It’s cool that you built that with your kids. I can tell you from someone that has done a lot of concrete. It just has to be functional. Yes maybe you could have use a mag float. Maybe you took it off the form too soon. But hey. It works, you are having fun. And most importantly your kids are going to remember this. Great job.
Typically the braces i put on a form like this stay in the way and i scrub with a mag and edge right before stripping the form. You pulled the form partly right in my opinion i pull away slightly then i press it back into the crete and slide up i found if sliding straight up the suction can pull the top edge off. Sometime in certain circumstances i pull them just like you did scrape the cream off the board with youre trowel. Then use a float to work it back into the voids. I think its really funny you kept it that wet for 30 days but you are 100% correct and it made it alot stronger than i think you realize it did. It basically melts the lime dust back to the lime rocks much better than a fast cure ever could. You did a great job watching this made me want to build a mini skate plaza in my yard haha
Wow. Now words. All I could say that you’re awesome. I did a ton of concrete work before I began doing drywall, learning a lot by following you etc.. What gets me is that you could skate! 😎😎😎
same, started going crazy being like, did the video change? i dont remember that shot in the video i watched... then realized its a completely different channel of his.
Great video Ben! I built a bunch of skate curbs over the years, and from my experience I think its really hard getting the dimensions just right. Different dimensions work better for different tricks, so finding the sweet spot can be really challenging! Your curb looks great and it shows when you skate it! Hope we also get to see a build video of your concrete bench! One tip I can share to anyone doing this is that if your hammerdrill can be set to only the hammer function you can use it as a vibrator on the forms. Works great!
I'm in the same boat as you. Contractor/Skater (although my skateboarding skills aren't as good as yours), with intermediate at best concrete skills. Just wanted to say that I appreciate the fact that even though you knew your concrete skills weren't great, you still did it and even recorded it for the world to see. It teaches us viewers two things. 1. We can learn from the mistakes you made in case we ever make a curb ourselves. And 2. Don't be afraid to be vulnerable or show your weaknesses. We can all grow by doing so 🙏 (Edit: The curb came out great, btw!)
I'm far from a Master of concrete - but I've been told by some that in general, you want to avoid using anything that agitates it too much while it's drying. The reason - it makes the aggregate (rocks) settle to the bottom, leaving the "soup" part of the concrete higher - and that is weak - and how cracks/chips form. I'm not saying you can't vibrate it, or trowel it - in fact you need to, in order to get a good shape - but I am saying that it is better to apply those methods as sparingly as possible - the better off the final product is from a structural standpoint. Good video - always liked this channel. Learned a lot from it and my house has definitely benefitted from many a DIY project gone right!
Civil Engineer with no experience skating or actually building forms. Just know what I was taught in school and what I inspect for on job sites for rebar. The distance between the rebar and the edge of the forms is based on the size of the rebar, and the size of the aggregate (rocks) in the concrete. Typically 25-30mm, this helps mainly to protect the rebar form moisture ingress, avoid concrete spalling, and a host of other reasons. The other thing was using wood as a spacer for the rebar to hold it up. The wood is quite porous and whicking, it will take in moisture from the subsurface right up to the rebar. It will also rot over time and swell which might cause issues down the line. With this being on a tennis court, it won't be as much as an issue but something to consider in the future would be either using plastic chairs to hole it up, or even pieces of concrete block work that has been broken uṗto lift the rebar into the air.
Awesome! Skateboarding brought me here in life as well! We started building ramps when I was younger and now I flip and rent houses. I remember the one time we got 6 x 6 lumber and cut out 1/2" on each side and put in 1/2" copper for a little "curb"
Yup old motor oil thinned with diesel for pump spraying. Cooking oil works too if wanna be more eco, can also get good eco release oils now too but cooking oil cheaper
The only real issue I saw is the lack of bonding agent. Without that the curb is going to let go of the slab it's on. Learned about bonding agent on Holmes on Homes. Other than that use plastic to space the rebar, wood will still absorb water and take it straight to the metal. Stainless wire to the form is another option. Once the bubbles have been tapped out you can pull the wire out if you choose and the rock won't let the rebar drop. Thanks for all the tips on drywall. I turn wrenches for a living but remodeling a house for an airbnb retirement income. Your vids really helped!
I use hex screws tho and clean the tip out w another screw and re use and re use the screws. But i do it every day, either way i still wnjoyed yur video and think it was very nice
Had a curb like that outside an old school (not in use) down the street that was one of the major skater hangouts. We had it waxed up slicker than wet soap. My grandpa had helped weld the school when being build. Sucked to see it torn down.
Used motor oil is what I use .. they also sell release agents too if you want .. wd40 sprays and works well too ..! Thanks again for everything love you brother
This is so rad. First cut, maybe one could clamp the factory milled edge of a board as a guide for the skill saw when cutting the diagonal. Takes some of the skill out of the saw cut.
Yo link the skate channel in the description! Great build. That slappy crook probably felt amazing first time on your own curb. Clean DIY spot too! Ours is always covered in broken glass from morons 😭
Knock th e sides laterally with a sledge. Once they move 1/2 inch, they are free. Works with stucco as well. Also, very good call on curing the 'crete.
Hey just on vibrating the form, grab your recipro, take the blade out, and hold the foot to the sides of the form and go for gold, works a treat getting the concrete to consolidate.
Hey Ben! I’ve been a fan of the channel for a while now. I know this is a concrete video but I have a taping question that you might have an answer for. Say I already taped my inside corners with the slop bucket method, roller & flusher- and now the inside corners are ready for a coat of mud. Instead of using a compound tube with an inside corner applicator head, and then using a flusher to feather everything out; could you use one of those spherical paint rollers (I think you’ve called it a lambs wool roller, or it’s called a corner roller) in place of the compound tube, and still use a flusher after. I invested in a Columbia super taper, roller, and 2.5/3 inch flusher heads but not sure if I want to invest in a compound tube with inside corner applicator just yet. I was hoping I could just use one of those spherical paint rollers to apply mud then proceed to flush with flusher instead of the compound tube method. Sorry if that was a lot aha.
@@vancouvercarpenter Ok 👍 I’ll have to give it a shot soon then! Thanks for taking your time to reply. Much love, and respect from Chatham, Ontario (near Windsor/Detroit Border)!
Very nice. I was always taught to to never pour concrete around wood. The wood you used to hold up the rebar is going to expand. A rock or a piece of broken concrete should have been used to hold up the rebar? What do you think?
For my curbs I always wait until the concrete is not like jello anymore. Then you can take a brush and lightly go over it with a little water and hit it with the mag to really smooth it out. That what works for me and how this old man showed me in my crew.
maybe youve already said this in another video but i gotta ask. how did u acquire this tennis court? was this sort of a brittania courts situation or did u buy this land. thanks for the continued uploads despite the lack of interest in the youtube game.
Run the edger as soon as you can .. running it too late can be a hassle .. edging pushes the rocks away from the surface so you don’t have rocks and sharp edges .. when it sets up more you can get a better finish on it
Should have lined the form with plastic that comes in those big rolls and the curb would have come out of super smooth. Forgot where I watched this but I’ve seen it done on RU-vid before
Your hammer drill on hammer only would be a great vibrator The broken curb is from the snow plow ask me how I know..... I don't imagine you needed Rebar maybe one piece down the center for skateboarding but definitely Rebar in a curb I imagine is a great idea
Not a pro, but I've used mineral oil (baby oil) as a form release. Also, I don't know if this is an advised usage, but I've used a large common nail turned backwards into a hammer drill as a vibrator for tamping base under concrete; maybe it'd also work as a way to vibrate the outside of the form in place of a concrete vibrator? It might be too fine of a vibration compared to regular hammer....
