A sidewalk full of cracks or broken cement is dangerous and an eyesore in the neighborhood. It also makes the neighborhood less usable. Cleaning up a broken sidewalk is the first project you should perform when trying to spruce up the exterior of your home and make it look more upscale. For a sidewalk, you may want to hire a concrete contractor to perform precise work so that your concrete is properly measured and poured. Here are a few items to get together before the cement contractors come to help create a prettier sidewalk. 

Purchase ready-mix concrete 

Ready-mix concrete is a durable product that can be used rapidly and cleanly on a project for a sidewalk. Ask your contractor just how much concrete you will need to get your project completed. It's a good idea to get a few more buckets than you are quoted for the project. The extra will be added insurance so that if any mistakes happen or if there was a miscalculation of the square footage of the sidewalk, you won't have to stop the project to shop for more supplies.   

Design the landscape before you start the sidewalk 

Before the sidewalk work begins, you should design the landscaping that you want placed around the sidewalk. It is important to come up with a landscaping plan for two reasons. First, you should ask your concrete contractor if any of the plants, trees, or bushes that you plan to plant around the sidewalk may be detrimental to the new concrete. Some plants produce fruits that can stain the sidewalk, while some trees have sap that could destroy the concrete's color. Go over the landscaping ideas with both a landscaper and concrete contractor for final approval on a plan that will keep the plants and sidewalk looking nice.   

Make sure that the soil is level

Concrete contractors will typically use mesh to lay the concrete to make sure that it takes shape and is properly formed. If you have no current sidewalk, you should insure that the soil is level before the concrete is laid. If the soil bed near the future sidewalk needs to be turned over or if you need to add soil, this should be performed prior to having the concrete mixture poured to form the sidewalk. The soil foundation being properly laid can stop cracks and foundational issues from forming in your cement sidewalk. This will keep your sidewalk pretty and stable in the long term.