My personal preferences are as follows:
jumping jack compact any soil which was disturbed during the process
4" crushed stone, plate compact in 2 directions. If possible laser-level using a "coarse" setting. I like washed angular lime stone 3/4" nominal.
Place 10 mil vapor barrier, lap seams 2' minimum or tape if going less. Can't tell you specifically what to tape with.
Set chairs for rebar or mesh. In order of preference, actual rebar, then flat welded mesh panels. Last would be rolled mesh. Ideally clean steel and not pre corroded down to 100% red rust. Buy 1000pc rolls of 4" wire ties from Big Box plus a J-tool for twisting them up. Ideally tie evverything so it locks together and can't be pushed over by a person walking on it.
Laser-level your forms. Use Mazola corn oil (or other cooking oil) as a form release agent if the forms are to be stripped.
4000 psi mix. In cold weather you will automatically get Calcium Chloride as an accelerator. Which isn't the greatest for the reinforcing steel...but has been around for probably 100 years now. There are other NCA - non chloride accelerators but you'd have to have a conversation with the mix yard on availability and cost, etc.
Depending on how you set reinforcement and access to the site it might be best to pump-truck the slab. A couple of advantages. They don't have to mess with the initial yard mix to get it easy to place. The crew is fresh for screeding and finishing and isn't all worn out from huffing heavy mud all over the place.
When the slab is finished enough to walk on it without marking it with footprints (couple hours after the last trowel was on it) one has two choices, either wet-cure it by flooding it with water continuously for 28 days, or apply a curing sealer which keeps the water right there in the mix. I used a BASF Master Kure product which I was generally pleased with. Freezing weather and me shoveling caused some to flake off but the slab appears solid and a few things I dropped on it have caused no chipping damage.
The next morning after the pour, have the crew (or you) snap chalklines on the slab in 10-12' squares and saw cut 1/3 of the thickness in depth.
