It is impossible to prevent construction work without a concrete solution. Especially when you need to create prefabricated or monolithic structures. About how to make concrete correctly, and it will be discussed in our article.

Concrete Components Requirements

To prepare a concrete solution with high quality, it is necessary to pay special attention to the proper selection of its components. All components must comply with certain requirements.

For the production of concrete, we will need:

• cement;
• sand;
• gravel;
• water;
• additives.

Requirements for cement

The main ingredient of concrete is cement. The following grades of material are suitable for the construction work:

• M100;
• M200;
• M300;
• M400;
• M500.

The most suitable option for the construction of the foundation under the house is the M500 brand cement. You can use the M400 material. The only difference is the service life.

For supporting supports, jumpers and swimming pools Cement M300 is suitable. In this case, the design created is necessarily reinforced. For the device tracks, screeds, scene, light fences can be used cement brands M100 and M200.

Requirements for work with cement:

• it is not recommended to carry out work at a negative temperature;
• the material should be dry and without lumps;
• store cement can only be in rooms with low humidity;
• it is necessary to spend it in a short time (within two weeks from the date of purchase).

When buying a material, you should pay attention to the integrity of the packaging container and the availability of the product marking. In addition to the cement brand, there is a designation in the form of the letter "D". The figure near the letter "D" indicates the number of impurities available in the cement. The best cement will have a M500-D0 marking.

Sand requirements

The best material is river sand. This is explained by two reasons:

• the material does not contain clay and or orst elements;
• it has the optimal size of grains.

The maximum adhesion of the concrete solution with gravel should be ensured. Therefore, to make concrete qualitatively with your own hands, it is not recommended to use sand containing loam. Or will have to additionally do the washing of sand, which complicates the process of preparing the solution.

Sand requirements:

• the optimal fraction size is 1.5-5 mm;
• approximately the same grade grade (discrepancies of no more than 2 mm);
• the absence of extraneous impurities, garbage and plant residues;
• to clean the material, use the sieve.

Requirements for gravel

The most durable concrete is obtained by adding gravel. Lightweight porous materials (for example, ceramzite) are quite solid demand. The most acceptable option is the presence of aggregate of different fractions.

This is especially true when the rambling of a concrete solution will be carried out without professional equipment. As a result of the dense fit of the material, therefore, the occurrence of large voids can be avoided, which will significantly reduce the coating strength and increase the consumption of the solution.

Requirements for gravel:

• maximum roughness, improving adhesion;
• the material is 8-35 mm in size;
• lack of garbage, dust and clay compounds;
• gravel storage is made on the site where the land is tamped, or on tarpauline.

Requirements for water

One requirement is made to this component of the concrete solution - water should be clean and not contain acid or alkaline impurities.

The best solution will be the use of water that is suitable for drinking purposes. It is forbidden to use river water, since the concrete solution made from it will begin to prematurely collapse.

Requirements for additives

To improve the qualities of concrete, various additives are applied. The most famous are:

• plasticizers;
• reinforcing substances;
• slaked lime.

Plasticizers make a concrete solution more plastic. It increases its fluidity, which contributes to better filling of voids and branches. This will significantly reduce the time of concreting and improve the final result.

Reinforcing substances include polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride fiber. Their addition makes a concrete solution resistant to frost, fire, mechanical loads and moisture. Such a concrete surface will last longer, and it is not afraid of the effect of an alkaline medium.

Haired lime applies when pouring the porch and similar structures. This material will facilitate the surface leveling process. Although, you should not overdo it. Lime negatively acts on the density of contact with gravel concrete.

It is possible to improve the plasticity and adhesion qualities of the concrete solution by adding a conventional soap or PVA glue. The use of liquid glass leads to a decrease in voids in the solution and increases its moisture resistance.

Summary

Now directly to how to make concrete. When using cement M400 or M500 grades, all components are mixed in the following proportions:

• 1 hour cement;
• 3 h. Sand;
• 4-5 h. Gravel;
• water is approximately 1 l / 2 kg of all components;
• plasticizer - 1l / 100 kg of cement;
• reinforcing substance - 0.9-1 kg / 1 m³ of solution.

The process of preparing a concrete solution includes the following steps:

• 2-3 gravel shovels are poured into the concrete mixer;
• water is poured to 80% of the required quantity;
• cement is poured;
• sand is added;
• for 3-4 minutes, the mixture is thoroughly mixed;
• additives are fused into the solution;
• there is a final faint of gravel;
• water is added.

For a cement mortar, a measuring bucket should be used. This amount of concrete is mixed so that it can be spent at a time. The solution itself must be uniform and have the same color.

When adding to the sand solution, it is necessary to consider that there is moisture in it. Therefore, you need to choose one of two options:

• dry sand;
• pour a smaller amount of water.

For the manufacture of concrete with your own hands, you will need about 10-12 minutes. The solution is not recommended to mix for a very long time, since the cement will begin to "grab". When getting too dense mixture, it must be diluted with water. The prepared material for consistency concreting should be similar to liquid clay.

If the cement mortar is carried out manually, then this process consists of the following steps:

• at the bottom of the container, sand is embanked;
• the cement is uniformly distributed in the sand;
• with the help of the shovel, everything is mixed (until a gray mixture is obtained);
• gradually added water;
• the solution is mixed;
• additives and gravel are added.

Video about concrete knee do it yourself: