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Welcome to our blog, Menfranco general blog
and this post, the art of mixing cement
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This is an average mixer used on the building sites, it saves a lot of hard work, if we compare it to the times when everything was mixed by hand. Anyhow in this post we are talking about how to use it and how to go about mixing by hand.
The art of
mixing cement
Learn to recognize and use the building materials when we use
to mix cement;
Now, that we have written what are the building materials
you need to make many cement things, we have also explained above how to mix
concrete by hand and other things, this procedure could also be applied to mix
mortar and plaster etc. We have also explained how you could recognize the raw
building materials; then we have taken you through with this procedure of how
to mix concrete the old ways; and we believe that it can still be useful today,
if you happen to be far away from anywhere that can supply ready mixed
concrete.
You see, let us just imagine that you happen to need
concrete, you live in the middle of nowhere and you have only a few tools, but
you now a faraway place where you can go and buy some Portland cement; you are
not going to buy anything else at that place, because it is too far and
therefore too costly to bring it in, so the rest of the concrete materials you
are going to find near the river banks. I know it is like going back in time a
hundred years ago, but there are some part of the world that are still that far
back and perhaps even more. Therefore learning how to recognize the basic
building materials for making concrete, and then mixing concrete by hand can
still be useful today.
In this article we are going to continue to describe most of
the procedures that we have used during our lives when we were/are building
with cement and we will do that in a few different ways, so that a record in
writing exists for anyone that wishes to have an idea what it is all about. So
we are going to add many articles every now and then hoping to be able to help
any would be do it yourself small owner builders.
Now, we have to add that what we are writing here is only
how we have done these things, and we know they work, however it is only our
view and they work well in all minor jobs, but if you have important work, you
should consult the local experts.
Now let us see how we should mix concrete with a mixer.
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Mixing
concrete with a mixer
Now that
we have seen how concrete was made the very old ways, let us see how concrete
can be made using a mixer, and what the differences in the procedure are.
Okay, let
us make this clear, there may be several ways how to mix you own concrete; you
can mix it on the ground as we have done in one of the above description, you
can mix concrete in a wheelbarrow, if you have a modern wheelbarrow with a good
tray, or you can mix it with a mixer which would be very helpful to have, but
what are the different procedures when you mix, in order to achieve the best
result with the least amount of time and work:
The
greatest difference for mixing concrete and also other cement materials is
mainly this: when you mix by hand you can achieve the best result by mixing the
materials with the cement before you add water, as this helps to make a more
even mixture quicker: But when you use the mixer you don’t need to do that, in
fact you can have better and quicker result by following this procedure here
under:
Start the
mixer and put in the mixer some water, approximately the proper amount to mix
the whole batch, you know how much water to use once you have made a few
batches. (Let us explain first)
Now
before we proceed to mix, let us talk about the water amount, on building sites
and in most other places, it is near impossible to tell you how much water you
need exactly to start with, due to the fact that the material you are using
contains an unknown quantity of water themselves, and therefore the quantity of
water varies, you see the wetter the materials are, the less water you need and
vice verse if they are dry.
Now, let
us assume that because you are new at doing this you are using a dry small
bucket to measure the quantities of the building materials; in this case you
have gravel and river sand in separate heaps, you know that this concrete is
going to be mixed 6 to 1, but overall this batch you are going to mix 8 small
buckets of gravel four of river sand and two of Portland cement:
Now the
quantities above is how the best and strongest cement can be achieved, with a
minimum of Portland cement used, as these are the quantities that would very
likely be written in the specifications, if you have any specification written,
and perhaps the ready mix people would use those amounts and have a perfect
concrete, because the concrete mixer will mix it well and as dry as possible,
just look at one of the photos that we have in this article to see what I
mean. But by experience on building
sites usually we would be using a bit more river sand and a bit less gravel, as
this makes it easier to work with overall.
But let
me explain, the strongest cement is achieved by using the least amount of sand
and water; however this sometimes becomes hard for the tradesman on site to use
properly, since it is harder for him to compact it to the stage where there are
no air bubble in it, unless he uses a vibrator, therefore the extra strength in
the concrete could easily be lost and also to finish the top layer smooth
becomes harder, because the concrete does not flow easily in place and there is
not enough fine stuff at the top to finish it.
Now let
us go back to mix our concrete:
So, after
you have poured the water into the mixer, you put one single bucket of gravel
and while the mixer turns put the two small bucket of cement into the mixer,
the cement in the mixer will immediately mix in the water and the first bucket
of gravel will make sure that it does not stick to the mixer, because it will
cut though any lumps easily, now you add four buckets of river sand, and this
again will mix very quickly and become like a thick cream, all you have to do
next is to add the other seven bucket of gravel, once you have done that you
only need to wait a little bit for the mixer to mix it properly and your
concrete is ready. Now all you have to do is to tip your concrete in a
wheelbarrow and take it to the place you need to concrete.
This is
the quickest and best way to mix concrete in a mixer, as I have done it for
thousands of times, but I need to say also that on building sites, where there
is plenty of cement to mix and the workers have to try not to injury
themselves, by lifting hundreds of bucket full of material all day long, they
use to measure the materials by the shovelful, but you have to be an expert at
doing that and get everything measured right.
I hope
this description of how to mix concrete is clear enough for our readers to
understand what we have described.
Before we
leave this concrete discussions we would like to add a bit more information;
you see concrete in itself is very strong in compression, but is lacks some
strength under tension, so to make concrete very strong and last a very long
time you need to use steel in the concrete; here is a link that will help to
understand some of these issues.
How to Make Concrete Even Stronger: 6 Steps (with Pictures)
And now
let us talk about, mixing mortar, plaster or cement topping.
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Mixing
mortar, plaster or cement topping.
Now that
we have described how to mix concrete by hand the old ways and also by using a
mixer, the same ways can be used to mix mortar and/or hard plaster or cement
topping etc. So now, we do not need to explain step by step how to mix them,
but we will just describe only the different amount of things that are used;
but try to remember that when you mix by hand, it is a lot easier to mix the
dry materials first and then add water, but when you use the mixer it usually
is better and quicker to start with the water first.
To mix
mortar for the bricklayer;
Just by
using brickies loams and Portland cement, this mixture by volume is most likely
4 part brickies loams to one part Portland cement, but it could vary from (3 to
1) to (6 to 1) the aim here is to give the bricklayers what is easy to work
with, and at the same time you don’t want to make the mortar a lot stronger
than the bricks when it dries, and you don’t want to make it too weak for the
job you are doing, so it would make sense to see what the bricklayer reckons is
good enough for the job; sometimes when making mortar you can replace part of
the Portland cement with hydrated lime, plus other things to make the mortar
easy to work with.
Mortar
for cement blocks
The
mortar for cement block is usually three parts fine plaster sand and one part
cement, it is a bit different from the brickies loams, as it is thicker and
stronger and very close to the blocks colours when dry.
To mix
cement plaster to plaster walls;
This
mixture is usually 3 part plaster sand and 1 part Portland cement, in some
countries where lime is easier to have than cement it can be made by using a
mixture of lime and cement for the interior, we believe that there are a lot of
old places that they have used lime only, the cement mixture is used wherever
it is too wet.
Cement
topping;
This
mixture is usually 3 parts river sand to 1 part Portland cement; it can be used
straight on the cement if it is still green, but when the cement is dry you need
to make sure it is clean and a bit rough for the cement to bond, you may have
to use tools to indent the existing concrete, then you have to wet the cement
and also you may need to use some cement bounding agent and/or paint to
concrete with this cement glue called Weldbond or Bondcrete or whatever and place the topping
cement according to the instruction supplied, if these concrete glues are not
available, you have to wet the concrete that you have to lay the topping on,
then make some slur of water and cement and somehow work it in with a brush as
if you paint the concrete, and before this starts drying lay your topping on
it.
These
three mixtures plus the concrete are the main things that are required when we
build with cement, of course for those people that do not know how the
different materials look like, is still hard to understand the hole procedure
easily, but if they read a few times what we have already said they should have
a fair idea of what we are talking about. Anyhow I have already described
several things already, but I think that I need still to describe how to mix
mortar with lime only, as it was done in the old day and here I am not talking
just hydrated lime that you can buy at the hardware store, but I am talking
about quick-lime as it comes from the kiln and slacked lime.
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This is:
Menfranco general blog,
The art of mixing cement
IS TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, slacked lime
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Some personal and religious links:
Some personal and religious links:
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