Your list is short because the site work is already done
By the time concrete is on the road, the ground has been open for days. The outline is staked, the sod and soft dirt are off, the grade is cut, the stone base is spread and packed, the formwork is set, and the steel is tied and sitting up on chairs. None of that is yours. How that sequence runs is on our process page.
So the homeowner list is not really preparation. It is clearing a path and handing over the information nobody else has. Do those two things and pour day is uneventful, which is the only kind of pour day worth having.
The things only you know
Nobody standing in your yard with a tape can see an irrigation line, an invisible fence wire, a shallow water line, a septic line or a drain field. You can. That is the single most valuable thing you contribute to the day, and it is worth walking the area and pointing at things out loud rather than assuming it came up at the estimate.
The same goes for the small operational facts. Which spigot actually works, because the crew needs water for finishing and for washing the line and tools out at the end. Which gate is the one that opens wide. Whether the dog gets out when the gate is propped. Whether a neighbor parks in the spot a loaded ready-mix truck needs to swing through. None of those are big problems on a Tuesday. All of them are big problems with concrete already mixed and moving.
Move it the day before, not the morning of
Once concrete is placed, the clock is running and it does not stop for anybody to go find car keys. Everything below is easier the evening before.
- Vehicles and trailers, off the work area and off the route the ready-mix truck takes in and turns around on
- Grills, planters, patio furniture, and anything you would rather not have splashed
- The hose path, if the pour is going through our line pump. Hose full of concrete is heavy and it gets walked and dragged, not carried over things.
- Low limbs over the truck route, if you have been meaning to cut them anyway
- Gates unlocked, dogs inside, and kids kept clear of the forms while the crew is placing
What is not on your list at all
You do not have to strip sod, break out the old slab, haul anything off, line up equipment, order concrete or arrange a truck. You do not have to be home the whole day, only reachable. You do not have to pick a finish that morning either, because the finish, the thickness and the joint layout were settled at the estimate and stopped being open questions when you signed.
You also should not be sorting out a permit question on pour morning. Work that supports a structure, a garage, an addition, a retaining wall over three feet, needs a permit and a footing inspection before concrete goes in, and that is settled long before this day. Whether your county wants anything at all for a plain flat pour is a short phone call to the building office, and our Virginia permit guide has the numbers to call.
If something on the list cannot happen, call before the day
There is a real fork here and it is worth naming. Moving a date costs nothing. Pouring around a problem costs somebody money, usually more than it looks like it should. A car that will not start, a gate narrower than it looked, a soft spot in the yard after three days of rain, a neighbor's driveway you thought you could borrow: any of those are easy to plan around with notice and expensive to discover with a truck idling.
Call and tell us. We would rather reschedule a pour than pour a slab you are going to look at for thirty years around an obstacle we found at seven in the morning.