Mixing and Pouring Cement | Home Improvement and Garden

Concrete is a mixture of cement, aggregate and water. It is very easy to mix using a cement mixer and can be used for a whole range of different building projects.

Concrete is one of the most common manmade materials in the whole world. It is commonly used in construction, both on large scale projects and for smaller, domestic projects. Unless you are mixing a very small quantity of concrete, it is very likely that you will need to use a cement mixer to mix your concrete. Let?s take a look at the ingredients involved and the process of mixing the concrete using a cement mixer.

The ingredients

Concrete is, in many respects, a very simple recipe. All you need to make it is:

The skill in mixing concrete is in making sure you use the correct quantities for the job. Many people think that concrete and cement are the same thing but they aren?t; the cement is what you need to bind the concrete together, and the concrete is the finished product.

There are a few different types of aggregate you can use to make concrete. For example, for some purposes sand will be a strong enough aggregate. For other jobs, you might need to use a stronger aggregate such as crushed stone, which is often used for things like foundations. You might find that you need to use a mix of different aggregates to get the right consistency.

The water is there to cause a chemical reaction with the cement. This then enables it to start the process of hardening. If you are looking for very strong concrete, you will need to give the water and cement more time to react to each other. One way of doing this is to leave the finished concrete to dry for a few hours after pouring and then spray it with water to keep it moist and continue the reaction.

Mixing the concrete

When it comes to mixing the concrete you have two main options: buy a bag of ready-mixed cement and aggregate so all you need to do is add the water, or work out the quantities yourself and mix them together in the cement mixer. Bear in mind that the more water you add, the weaker the concrete will be, so think carefully about what you want to use it for before deciding on the water quantity. If you buy a ready-mixed bag, it should give you a guide for water quantities.

Generally speaking though, you will usually need about a pound of concrete to half a pint of water. Alternatively, you can simply add the water slowly to the cement and aggregate in the cement mixer until you get your desired consistency. It will usually need to mix in the cement mixer for at least five or six minutes so you can be sure all of the mix is wet.

Pouring the concrete

It is important to pour the concrete as soon as you can after it has been mixed in the cement mixer. This is because it starts to harden as soon as you add the water to it due to the chemical reaction, so you will usually only have about twenty minutes to get it into place.

One of the benefits of cement mixers is that you can use them to pour out the concrete onto the desired area, which is much faster than moving the wet concrete manually. Then you need to smooth it out as quickly as you can so that the concrete can dry evenly and you will get the desired finish for your project.

Source: http://www.adcel.org/mixing-and-pouring-cement.html

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