How To Make Concrete?

Making concrete is a straightforward process where it is just a mixture of paste and aggregates or rocks. The paste will be composed of cement and water and coats the surface of small and coarse aggregates.

Through hydration, a chemical reaction that provides strength and hardens the paste, it forms the rock-like mass called concrete.

How To Make Concrete?

Usage of plastic and others

Inclusion of plastic and others

Plastic and durable are solid and stable when newly mixed and hardened. This is why concrete is used to build skyscrapers, sidewalks, bridges and superhighways, dams, and houses.

Proportions

The main focus of the mixture is to make it solid and durable, while the rest is to proportionate and mix the ingredients carefully. Unfortunately, the mixture doesn’t have enough paste, which can fill the voids between the aggregates.

Cement

Cement’s picture comes here in the presence of water. Water and cement form a part, and it acts like the coated particle of stone and sand(the aggregates). Through hydration which is a chemical reaction, the paste hardens and gains strength.

The quality of the paste determines the character of the concrete. The strength of it will depend on the ratio of water to cement. The weight of the mixing water is the water-cement divided by the weight of the cement. Typically, the mix always about 10 to 15% cement, 60 to 75% aggregate, and 15 to 20% water.

Other ingredients

Almost all the natural water is drinkable, odorless, and tasteless, which may be used to mix water for concrete. The mixture has specifications that usually set limits on sulfates, alkalis, chloride, and also solids in mixing water unless it determines the impurity that has on the final concrete. Suppose we add more pollutants while combining them with water. In that case, it’ll not only affect setting time and the strength of concrete but also causes staining, erosion of reinforcement, efflorescence, and also reduces durability. All these things matter when working with the proper concrete contractor. Our friends at Bakersfield Concrete Contractors understand what a mix can do to something like a foundation or even if you’re just pouring regular stamped concrete. 

Hydration process

After all the ingredients are found, aggregates, water, and cement are combined. That is when the mixture starts getting hard. All cement is hydraulic cement that gets more complicated with water in the process of hydration. When a  node is formed, and it grows and expands until it is linked with the nodes from other cement particles or to any adjacent aggregates.

Special techniques can be used for the concrete to cure during hot and cold weather, which can protect the concrete. The rate of hardness and stronger the concrete becomes if you keep the concrete moist for a more extended period.

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