10 Tips for Working with Concrete

Concrete is one of the most common building materials available out there. When you are working on a construction project, you will often come across the need to work with concrete. But before you do anything with concrete, make sure that you follow these tips. Then you can end up with getting perfect results at the end of the day.

• Ensure your safety

You need to ensure your safety when working with concrete. For example, you will often come across the need to lift heavy objects. This is where you need to take appropriate measures to protect your back. You should also wear proper clothing, so that you can stay away from chemical burns that happen due to concrete.

• Pick the right concrete mix

Depending on the project, you should be careful to pick the right concrete mix. This is where you need to take a look at factors such as setting rate, strength, and thickness. When you are aware about your needs, you may proceed with purchasing the right concrete mix available at hardware stores and home centers.

• Develop perfect concrete form

Regardless of the nature of concrete project that you work on, you will need to develop perfect concrete form. In here, concrete form refers to the mold that you use for concrete. It should shape the sides of concrete.

• Mix right proportions

When you are mixing concrete mix with water, you need to stick to the right proportions at all times. In general, 50 pounds of concrete that mixes fast would require around three quarts of water. Likewise, 50 pounds of concrete that offers high strength would need around two quarts of water. You can find more details about this on concrete product packaging.

• Use an admixture

You can use ready-mix concrete right out of the bag. However, we encourage you to use that along with admixtures, so that you can push the parameters of concrete. This will help you to improve flow, change the setting time, and change strength as per your needs.

• Add colors to concrete

Concrete surfaces shouldn’t look boring. You may think about adding color to concrete, so that you can enhance visual appeal of the surfaces. In most instances, people add earthen colors to concrete, such as black, brown, and red.

• Float concrete to end up with perfect results

You should level concrete, so that you can get perfect results. This is where you need to pay attention towards filling voids and smoothening out ridges. You should prepare the concrete surface for hand troweling as well.

• Screed concrete

Screeding concrete will help you to overcome edges of concrete surfaces. This will help you to level out your concrete surfaces as well. This is where you can seek the assistance of magnesium or aluminum made screed tools.

• Keep it wet

Once you are done with applying concrete, you will need to leave behind the surface damp. In case if water evaporates too fast, concrete surface will become weak. Therefore, you need to keep water as much as possible, so that you can end up with achieving maximum strength.

• Cut control joints

Cutting a freshly poured concrete surface, such as a slab can be a smart thing to do. That’s because it will help you to minimize cracking quite effectively. If you do this, you will not end up with getting any visible cracks at the end of the day.

Keep all these tips in mind and work with concrete, so that you can end up with getting amazing results.

Yelloph.com offers different cement mixes, you can check our cement page for details.