Mix you own cement 13



Mix your own cement
This machine here is called a mixer, it is very handy on the building sites, because you can mix lots of materials with it and save some hard work if we had to mix it by hand.












This is a storage shed with all sorts of building materials that would help the builder make concrete, mortar and other things as well. Some of these materials can be straight Portland cement or lime, which are the main ingredients that could be mixed with sand and gravel to make whatever is needed. Today we can also use a prepared mixture that you have only to add water, if you don't require a lot of it, if you require a lot of it, this way could be costly.
Mix your own cement
Perhaps we could have called this article, “mix our own concrete”, because that is the real name that we use in the building trade, but for the people that are not in the building trade, when they think about concrete and other cement products, the first word that comes to their mind is cement.

Anyhow here we are going to mix other building things as well, and the name mix your own cement covers them all. So, here we are inviting you to learn how to use and recognize the most basic concrete building materials and other materials that are used together with Portland cement, so that you might be able to do many cement (concrete) things yourself. 

The reason why we are writing this article here about how to mix your own cement (concrete), it is because we would like to pass our knowledge of how these things were done in the past and even today; we would also aim this article to those people that are willing to do some building themselves and they need just a bit more knowledge to give them the courage to do it; and last but not least to those people that live in poor countries, where building skills and material are scarce and therefore they need a bit more knowledge to do some building themselves, as long as they can buy some Portland cement and/or lime to mix it with; so in a way this article is a D.I.Y article.

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This article “mix your own cement” (concrete) is going to be a long and detailed way of how to make concrete from scratch using Portland cement and the other basic materials required, we will also describe how to mix mortar for the bricklayer and cement plaster, just by using the most basic building materials and mixing them with Portland cement and/or lime. We will describe how this is done today and most of all we will be describing how these things were done in the recent times, because we believe that it could be helpful even today to know that. We believe that in the world there are places that could use the old procedure and we can even use it ourselves, when the modern ways are not readily available or they are too expensive to use, because of where you happen to be, or for other reasons. 

We have to say that today building anything has become a lot easier, because most things that we need are ready made for us to use, provided we are living in a city or large town in the western world and also in many other parts of the world. In our case we are talking about how to use cement and the many things that we could do with it: Now let us suppose we need some concrete, we can order it and have it delivered whenever we want it, it is this simple, and many other things we can buy or order as long as we are in the right places and have money to pay for it.

But these things were not so in the past, in the past people that were building had to have their own skills how to mix their own concrete, how to mix their own mortar and many other things, and sometimes they had even to find the building materials themselves, before they could even start to build anything, they were not easy times and people in the know tried to keep their knowledge for themselves. But today it is completely different some of the knowledge they had and kept to themselves has become completely insignificant compared to the things that we know and do today; so to keep any knowledge for your own self might be the wrong thing to do, because it is not going to help you, but it could help some people if it becomes common knowledge.

You see, what we are talking about here is not like a secret recipe to make something special and you are the only person that knows it and you believe that one day you could make money from it, no it is not like that at all; what we are talking here is common knowledge that lots of people know already, but because things are changing this knowledge does not mean much to those that know it anymore, but it could be very useful for those people that don’t know yet, because they might happen to be in a different part of the world or they just don’t know and would like to know.

Therefore, today we are afraid that some of those personal skills that the average building bloke needed in the past are becoming things of the past, so, one day all these known skills could be lost and/or only a very small amount of people will know them, so we would like to write these building skills down, so that some people may still use them if and when the need arises.

So, this article here is being written in the hope that our article could help those poor people that are not aware that they could be able to build a better place for themselves, if they are be able to learn and recognize the very basic materials they need to use for building this better place for themselves. Most of the building materials that we are talking about here are available anywhere in the world, because they occur in the natural state as they are part of this great planet earth, so what are those building materials you may ask?  And also how we mix them you would like to know, so here under is a link from YouTube that shows you how to mix concrete;

How to Mix Concrete by Hand - YouTube




We would like also to point out with these photos here under what is available in Brisbane Australia, and then we will talk about those building materials that occur anywhere in the world.

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What are these building materials?

We are going to talk about those building materials that the average building bloke could easily use, if he knows how to use them. Now since one of my best knowledge about building materials is about how to mix cement, since I have mixed it by hand and with a mixer hundreds of times, so let us talk about these building materials and how to use them. 

First of all let us see what these materials are and then we will take you through how to mix and use them. Today you can buy these building materials ready to mix, and all you need to do is to add the right amount of water and mix them, but we are not talking about these materials ether, because we want to start everything from scratch:

In building anything with cement there are four main sort of material that we need to recognize well before we start mixing our batches of whatever we want to mix, they are; bricklayers’ loam, plaster sand, river sand and gravel, and of course Portland cement; with these materials you can build just about anything, some of these materials sometimes are called with different names and for different reasons, but that would become a bit hard to explain all of them here, but let us just go over and describe what these material are like:

Bricklayers’ loams is a very fine sand, some of these fine sands could be a tiny bit sticky and when it is wet enough you can almost make a small ball in your hand, but it will always collapse as there is not enough sticky material in it, but if you add the right quantity of cement and water and perhaps something else if required it is easy to lay bricks.

Plaster sand is very fine sand too but not as much as bricklayer’s loams it does not stick together by itself and therefore it would stick together only when you add cement and water to it, this type of sand would be hard to lay bricks with it, but when you have to lay concrete blocks it would be ideal to use this sand provided it is very fine, in this part of the world we call this besser sand.

River sand, or washed river sand is a type of sand coarser or if you want thicker than plaster sand, as the name suggests it comes from the river, in this parts of the world because Brisbane river is salty water it is washed and sieved, but it is possible to find deposit of this sand in some rivers that can be used straight away,  sometimes this sand can be used by itself to lay a top layer on a fresh laid concrete, but its use is mainly indented to mix it with gravels to make concrete.

Gravel or gravels are small stones again these small stones can be found in or near the rivers; in most places if there is proper supplier, gravels are graded so one can order them as they are required, and this is what we need to make good concrete, but at the same time if you happen to be in the middle of nowhere they don’t need to be graded properly to use them for concrete and one could use a mix of different size provided you know what you are doing.

Today of course building people rely more and more from the specialized suppliers, and they order through these suppliers what they need, in fact there are so many things to choose from that it is even hard to know what would be the best thing to use; you see you could even buy bags of ready mixed materials that you can use just by adding water. These materials are very good to use if you have a small job to do, but they would become very expansive to use if you have a large job; I hope you see what I am trying to convey here. 

What we have described above are the main materials required to build most cement things, of course you have to know how to use them, and that is what we are going to write next:

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(PHOTO MISSING)

Since there is not enough room to describe the cement properties under the photo above, let us describe it here; cement is like the glue that when mixed with sand, gravels and other aggregates makes these materials stick together. The word “cement” can be traced back to the Romans, who called this “opus caementicum” to describe masonry that resembles concrete. We dare say that the Romans used burned limestone which when you add water turns into hydrated lime and also they used something called pumice that was collected from some part on Vesuvius it was a sort of cement that when you added water would become harder than if you just used lime, this is more or less how I have been told. As you can see there are two main bonding materials that can be used to make concrete and mortar, about this we are going to say a bit more later on.

In this retailer supply shed above there are several sorts of ready to use cement product, so beside bags Portland cement there are bags of hydrated lime, ready bags of concrete blend already mixed with cement, this is very handy if you have to do just a small job, there is read to mix mortar and ready to mix plaster and other things. These ready mixed materials are good, but they become very costly when you have to use a lot of it.

So the cheapest and best way is to mix your own, unless the job is very big, but when the job is big then the best way is to order premixed concrete that is if you have to concrete. If you need mortar or plaster you have to mix your own from scratch, or pay the price of the bagged premixed materials.   





Mixing your own concrete from scratch

Let us start to tell you a story from the beginning about mixing concrete, because sometimes this has really happened, as I was asked a few times the following. 

Here we are asking for help, because we want to mix some concrete to make a small slab, or some foundation for a barbeque or something similar; we have never done this before, so we would like to be explained in a very detailed way how we can do that. We don’t even have a mixer and we want to learn how to do that just using a few tools that we have; we have a couple of shovels and buckets a wooden float and some other small tools. We are a couple of strong blokes and we don’t mind to do some hard physical work, it will be a pleasure to do some useful exercise, so could you help us by telling us how to mix our own concrete. 

Okay, since you don’t mind to work hard, I will be glad to tell you how to go about mixing your concrete by hand, after all I am writing this article because I would like people to know how to do this sort of work; you see we can easily help you mix your own concrete by writing this article, and also you never know if this article could be read one day in a faraway place, where they would like to know how to mix concrete and this article could help them just as it helps you today.  And now, let us assume that you have already the material on site, and that you are ready to mix your concrete.

First of all you need to understand that you need a flat platform where you can mix your concrete, this platform does not need to be made on purpose, all it is needed is a hard surface, perhaps a slab of existing concrete or a concrete path could be helpful or anything at all, as long as this surface is not loose, because you don’t want to mix the soil with your concrete.

 For this time we will assume that for easiness sake the bloke that sold you the building material, has sold and delivered some concrete blend. Now what is concrete blend some of you are wondering; so let us explain, concrete blend is gravel and river sand mixed together approximately two part of gravel and one part river sand, so you don’t have to mix them anymore, it is ready to use.

To make just normal concrete you need to mix by volume six containers of concrete blend to one container of Portland cement, depending on the quality of the concrete blend this may vary a bit, so what we do next; we know that we need a lot of concrete, so we measure say twelve bucket of concrete blend and put that on our platform, then we measure two bucket of cement ready to mix with the blend, you know that you need at least twice as much, but because you are not so sure and your platform is small you prefer to start with a small batch. But wait just a minute before you mix your cement with your blend; make sure that everything is ready, because once you start this process you have to continue until you finish.

Since everything is ready you can spread the cement on the concrete blend, after doing that you take your shovel fill it up and start turning your mixture around, just by pushing the shovel under and turning it over, you need to turn your mixture a couple of time; say first from A to B and then from B to A, so that everything is approximately in the same place, after doing that and you are satisfied that your mixture is more or less even, you can make a hole or well in the middle of it and add a bucket of water, if the water is absorbed quickly, then you know that you have to add more water, if a fair bit of water remains in the centre then you can start folding the outside mixture in the middle, you can add some water as required, but don’t get carried away with adding too much water, because you need to add water bit by bit, you see this is one of those things that you learn as you do it and not before.

You have done all that and now you have a heap of this mixture half mixed; here again you take your shovel and turn your mixture from A to B while sprinkling some water on it, you may need to do this a few times sprinkling water and turning your concrete mixture from B to A and from A to B, you need to do this until you have an even mixture that it is well mixed. Now you have your concrete ready to place wherever you need to place it. I hope that I have been able to describe this procedure clear enough for you to follow easily.

This is how mixing concrete was done in the old days, it was a hard job and it was not as accurate as it is today with the ready mixed concrete truck that could deliver concrete to your job whenever you need it, and all you have to do is to lay your concrete slab, or whatever you need to do.

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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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Lime use in building

Quick-Lime and slacked or hydrated lime


Let us talk about lime,

Today when we talk about lime we see a bag of white powder that we buy at the hardware store, we know that we can use this powder to replace some cement in some cases when we make mortar, but we don’t seem to know much more than that, But lime is a lot more than just a white powder in a bag, because lime is one of those materials that has been and is being used a lot in many ways, its’ largest use is in making mortar for the master builders, but it has many other uses also. So first of all let us talk about lime and where it comes from, so that we would be able to understand a few things about lime process and its several uses, of course here we are mainly interested about its use in the building industry for making mortar etc. But there is a lot more to say about lime, but before we do that let us check out how the Wikipedia explains quick-lime etc. Where you can find a lot of information about lime if you care to know all you need to do is click on the links therein.

And then we will say something about how in the old times quick-lime was turned into slacked lime for the builders and other people to use.    

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From the Wikipedia:

   Calcium oxide (CaO), commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely usedchemical compound. It is a white, causticalkaline crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term "lime" connotes calcium-containing inorganic materials, which include carbonates, oxides and hydroxides of calcium, silicon, magnesium, aluminium, and iron predominate, such as limestone. By contrast, "quicklime" specifically applies to a single chemical compound.

Quicklime is relatively inexpensive. Both it and a chemical derivative (calcium hydroxide) are important commodity chemicals.

   Calcium oxide is usually made by the thermal decomposition of materials such aslimestone, that contain calcium carbonate (CaCO3; mineral calcite) in a lime kiln. This is accomplished by heating the material to above 825 °C (1,517 °F),[5] a process calledcalcination or lime-burning, to liberate a molecule of carbon dioxide (CO2); leaving quicklime. The quicklime is not stable and, when cooled, will spontaneously react with CO2 from the air until, after enough time, it will be completely converted back to calcium carbonate.

Annual worldwide production of quicklime is around 283 million metric tons. China is by far the world's largest producer, with a total of around 170 million metric tons per year. The United States is the next largest, with around 20 million metric tons per year.[6]

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As we have said above, lime has been used for a very long time its use could be prehistoric, nobody seems to know when it was first used in making mortar and plaster for buildings and also for other things, it was/is used even to disinfect places when there is no much else to use, and I know that there is a lot more to say about the use of lime even today; up to the time when I was young it was used even to whitewash the walls in spring once a year, after a long winter all the walls would be all darkened with smoke, since then if you wanted to keep warm you needed to light a fire in the chimney, so some of the smoke of the fire would find the way into the rooms instead of going all up the chimney, I am pretty sure that even today this would be the cheapest way of cleaning rustic building, as, it is one of the cheapest ways to make everything clean. But let us start to tell you it several uses including as a building material to make mortar when I was young, as it was done then and how I have witnessed it done and in rare occasions helped to do it myself, just to bring water to the pit.

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From quick-lime to hydrated lime

From quick-lime to slacked lime the old ways

Here we are going to talk about the late forties and early fifties, when I was young and learning what was happening around me, so, here under we will be writing about what I saw and learned at that time about lime products and its uses. 

In the town where I come from in southern Italy; in the early fifties when there was a new building to be build or some alterations to existing buildings to be done one of the first things we would see was that the master builder would get ready a good supply of slacked lime, because this was one of the most important building materials he would need to do the job. In those times bagged hydrated lime and cement was very expensive, and also bagged cement has a short life shelving span, as it reacts when humidity infiltrate the bags, therefore most people or builders that needed to build would use lime wherever they could; they would buy quick lime and get it process immediately on delivery themselves or with the help of the people that delivered it, of course one needs to know how to do that, because there is some danger while you are doing it, so let us see how it was done, and then we will also see where else the lime was used.

So; the master builder would get ready to do this; if he had some large container or a purpose made pit he could use them, otherwise he would build a square wall like a box and in this large box he would process the quick-lime, now the quick lime cannot be held the way it is for any length of time, because it reacts to humidity and violently to water, so it is necessary that it is turned into slacked lime as soon as possible after delivery.

 Okay, the cart or the lorry is on the way, so the master builder gets his worker to start filling the pit with water, and when the quick lime arrives they start carefully throwing this burned lime stones into the pit in very small quantities, as soon as the quick lime comes in contact with the water it reacts and the water starts boiling, everybody is banned to approach the pit accept the people that need to work there, and they ware some protective gear, because it is dangerous to handle quick-lime and around the pit, this process goes on until all the quick lime is thus treated, once they have done that it is left to cool down for a few days; after it has cooled down it is a lot less dangerous, but still you need to be careful near the lime pit. You see the lime pit is now filled up with slacked lime, which looks like curd when you make cheese, but it is still very dangerous and it can easily kill you if you fall in it, its contend must be handled with caution, but anyhow the slacked lime is now ready to be used, this is how the builders used to get ready the lime to make mortar. Now to use this lime to make mortar might be a bit different than using bagged hydrated lime or cement; so we will come back to that soon enough, as now I would like to talk about some other lime use first.

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Lime use in farming

As we have seen lime is a very useful commodity, in fact they are countless places where we could use it, I only happen to know a few of them but there are a lot more, so, let me just say a few things about how we were using lime in our small family farm at the time when I was young, just the way I remember it:

We would use it just like the builders use it when we had to repair or replace a few stone that were falling apart in the old stone building, so, instead of using a sort of clay that had been used the first time, we would mix a small quantity of mortar using lime and sand, but that is what most of you would already know. We used lime to whitewash the farm house, the stables, the pig stay, the chicken coop and sheds or other buildings near the farm house once a year in spring.

We would use it sometimes to disinfect stagnant water ponds that showed signs of vermin or the water were to dirty, so we would dilute some lime in water and then pour it in the water ponds, and next day the ponds would be clean, as the lime would kill the vermin and also would make the water clear because all the dirt would sink to the bottom of the pond; you see in our small farm we used to have a kitchen garden, so we would dig up a few ponds beside the garden that would feel up with water during winter or when it rained, we used this water to water the plants when the soil was becoming too dry for the garden plants to grow.

In the farms of those days lime was also used to spray vines and trees, sometimes there were diseases that could be controlled by applying a coat of lime to the trunk of those trees; but there is one thing that always comes to my mind; it is when we where spraying the grape vines with a copper sulphate and lime, we would have two containers one with diluted copper sulphate and one with diluted lime, some people used to spray first with copper sulphate and then with lime, so that they somehow would help each other to kill the mildew, but my grandma had worked a way how to avoid this double spraying and it worked thus;

In those times it was not like today and even the vine spraying pump was a devise that you would put on your back and with a handle that you would move up and down you would spray your vines and trees as well; this devise would hold about three gallons of liquid, so every now and then you needed to fill it up; so as I have said we had two containers one holding diluted copper sulphate and one with diluted lime; (of course you had to know how much diluted you had to do your mixtures but that does not mutter here this time) anyhow when the pump was/is empty you would go to these containers to fill it up: here is my grandma way to avoid to spray twice, when filling the pump, first of all you had to make sure than the mixture were well stirred, then you would put the copper sulphate in the pump and at the last minute you would add the lime, and immediately start to spray. This was my grandma way and it worked because the mixture would not have time to settle down and become stale.

There you are this is just another way of how lime is useful in the farms. And now we are going to tell you how to make mortar with slacked lime.

How to make mortar with slacked lime

This is how I know it was done in the old time, perhaps for thousands of years, anyhow let me just describe to you the procedure; We would like to do that so that people that want to try how to do it yourself, could have a go and also in those parts of the world where are far behind may come handy to know, since lime being cheaper than cement and having a longer storage life once it has been hydrated might be more convenient to use than cement. Now that we have stated the purpose of this article, let describe how it was done.     

Let us suppose that you have the slacked lime in the pit or in a container; you also have some brickies loams or very fine sand, so let us start:

First of all make a hip of your sand on a platform and definitely not on loose soil; now that you have done that, make a well in the centre and place your slacked lime in it. The quantities in here may vary a lot more than when we use cement or hydrated bagged lime, because the slacked lime can be as liquid as thickened cream to as compact as feta cheese, so you have to learn as you go about the quantities, but if you have mixed mortar before you soon work it out yourself, or if there is any tradesman that is going to use the mortar he would be able to tell you just by looking at the mortar being done, whether you need more lime or more sand and water etc.

Okay, now that you have the lime in the middle of the sand, with a Larry start pushing this devise up and down through the lime by adding a bit of water as needed and slowly mixing some sand with the lime; you need to do this until you have mixed the whole lot evenly. This is hard work but that is how it was done when there were no mixer and no bagged hydrated lime around.

Here we need to note that this mixing of slacked lime to mix mortar is completely different from mixing other mixture, because the slacked lime is already wet and it is like a paste, and the others are dry powder, therefore it needs to be used in a different way.

Anyhow this is how I remember it was done. Now, I think that I might have said enough about how to mix your own cement or mortar, and also this article has become too long to continue, so see you next time with a different subject about buildings. 

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