DIY Pea Gravel Concrete Finishing

Prepare the cement mix. There are two ways to add pea gravel to your concrete mix. You can order the concrete from a concrete supplier and ask that large gravel be replaced with pea gravel, or you can mix and add the pea gravel to the concrete yourself. If you are mixing the concrete yourself, mix one-half bag Portland cement, eight shovels of sand and 3 gallons of water. Mix using a hoe or concrete mixer. After the mix is prepared, add 3 to 5 gallons of pea gravel to the mixture.

Pour the mixture into the project area, raking it to the top of the wooden forms. Use a shovel and a hard rake to distribute the concrete. After the concrete has been leveled to the top of the concrete forms, use a concrete trowel to work the concrete smooth. Rub the concrete in circular motions with the concrete trowel until you have a thin layer of concrete mud on the surface.

Float the surface of the pea gravel concrete using a concrete float. The float can be rented from any tool rental store. It has a 4-foot wide aluminum plate attached to a long pole. The float will produce a completely smooth surface that must be allowed to set for 20 minutes or until there is no more water sitting on the surface.

Spray the surface of the concrete using a water hose and a spray nozzle. Use only enough pressure to wash the top layer of concrete mud away. Do a small test area first that is no larger than 12-by-12 inches. If too mush cement washes away, leaving deep crevices, refloat the area using a hand trowel and retry in ten minutes. Use a medium bristled brush to help remove the concrete sheen from the surface pea gravel, but don't scrub away the concrete or gravel. The purpose of this step is just to remove the thin layer of concrete that covers the pea gravel surface.

Seal the concrete surface with concrete sealer after 72 hours, using a pump-up garden sprayer.