An integral part of any construction is the preparation of concrete solution. You can prepare a concrete solution at home – this process is simple, but laborious. The main thing is to pay attention to this quality of the components, their expiration date and, of course, the percentage of the ingredients.
They used concrete even in ancient Rome, but the recipe for the preparation of the mixture was lost and revived its production only in the eighteenth century.
What components are needed for the preparation of concrete? The composition is very simple – sand (preferably sifted), water, cement and crushed stone. It is possible to use special mineral additives that change the properties of concrete, which is very convenient in construction in different climatic conditions.
Such components of the solution as crushed stone and sand are fillers, uniform well -sifted sand evenly fills the space between gravel, and cement is a astringent that dissolves in water and when drying firmly binds all the components of each other. The sand should be clean and uniform. Since flushing sand is an expensive and complex process, preference is given to the use of river sand.
It is very convenient to make a solution in a small -sized concrete mixer, but if you do not have it, then a shallow wide container is used to prepare concrete. At first, sand and cement are thoroughly mixed, then crushed stone is added and again everything is mixed qualitatively until a homogeneous structure is obtained. And only at the end water is added to the resulting composition and mixing the mixture until a homogeneous mass is obtained.
A very important characteristic of concrete, which must be taken into account is the ratio of water and cement. A large amount of water reduces the plasticity and, accordingly, concrete strength, which leads to cracks when dried and shrink. At the same time, weather conditions are taken into account-in cloudy weather (due to hygroscopicity of sand), water is added by 10-15 percent less than in dry weather.
To change the properties of concrete, modern technologies provide for the use of plasticizers, which are added to the concrete mixture. Concrete becomes more fluid, frost -resistant, durable, gives a good shrinkage, as well as some types of plasticizers allow you to carry out work even in water!
The prepared solution quickly hardens, so calculate you need the amount of the mixture that you can use within one hour.
Important! You can not add water to the concrete solution so as not to make it liquid, it is better to add a ready -made mixture that has the same proportions.
With your own prepared concrete solution, you can make a screed, concrete the path, pour the foundation, etc. D.