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Can anyone think of a use for old bags of concrete mix?
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Posted by
wertach 7b SC (
My Page) on
Fri, Oct 12, 12 at 13:57
| I have 4 bags of concrete mix that have been sitting on the porch of an old house for about 8 years or so. The bags are still intact but I am sure they have gotten wet many, many times.
They are hard but not solid, when I moved them they broke in the middle but didn't bust the bags.I would like to use it to set some posts but I'm not sure that it would mix well. May be lumpy and insecure?
I hate to just toss them. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Can anyone think of a use for old bags of concrete mix?
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| I've seen people "bust up" old bags with a hammer and reuse the mix, but I wouldn't do it - concrete is cheap. Find somebody who needs some "dirty" fill and let them have the bags. |
RE: Can anyone think of a use for old bags of concrete mix?
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| Put the lumps in a barrel of water, stir up with a shovel now and then and they'll dissolve over time. Use the water as a source of calcium. |
RE: Can anyone think of a use for old bags of concrete mix?
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- Posted by RpR_ 3-4 (My Page) on
Sat, Oct 13, 12 at 23:48
| I have used concrete in that condition and it worked fine for putting posts in the ground. |
RE: Can anyone think of a use for old bags of concrete mix?
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| Concrete will turn water highly alkaline, so I would not advise using that on plants unless you really know what you're doing. If it breaks up into small pieces you can mix it with fresh concrete, but big solid lumps have pretty much gone to concrete already. Probably OK to use for setting posts, but any kind of critical work like a foundation, you want fresh concrete. A construction worker buddy of mine just explained to me last week that chunks of concrete act like gravel aggregate when mixed with fresh concrete. They don't behave like concrete. In other words you're kind of diluting the fresh concrete with extra gravel. But he's used those half hardened bags exactly the way you propose - for posts. Mix with some fresh concrete and it should work OK. Dry concrete mix is always stronger than wet and gloppy, BTW. |
RE: Can anyone think of a use for old bags of concrete mix?
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| Indeed, you wouldn't use the water on plants any more than you would douse them with lime or gypsum out of the bag. The majority of what is in concrete "mix" is sand and gravel, in any case. |
RE: Can anyone think of a use for old bags of concrete mix?
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| i have used old concrete hard as rock from rain smashed it and added it in a new batch of concrete worked just fine. we have also used it as just say sand. breaking it up and pouring it on the ground. it did not even hard surprisingly. it's just like sand really now this one that didn't hard this one was hard as hell it was rained on but you can tell it was rained on good because it was so hardened like finished concrete it must of been activated while in the bag unlike the other one. thus it does not harden again. it is quikcrete as well and that stuff hardens really fast. i would store it and reuse it in a new batch i had no problems like i said reusing it all i had to do was break it up which took very little effort for how hard it was. |
RE: Can anyone think of a use for old bags of concrete mix?
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| You could get a form at a hobby shop / big box hardware store and try making some stepping stones. |
RE: Can anyone think of a use for old bags of concrete mix?
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| I set posts with them Tue. It broke up easily and mixed well, no more lumpy that a fresh bag. They seem to have set solid. |
RE: Can anyone think of a use for old bags of concrete mix?
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| When you break up your concrete and add water, you're not making new concrete. Concrete is not mud. When fresh out of the bag, the cement reacts with water chemically, not mechanically. It incorporates the water into a new compound and that's what makes it hard, and that's also why it's hot when the reaction is taking place and you can get burned by it or by plaster of Paris or similar things. Once the bags are wet, the water has been incorporated into the cement. Mixing that with new concrete and water is like mixing rocks with it. For setting a post, it's OK because the ground is going to be the stabilizing factor. But you should never build with it because it's going to be structurally very weak. |
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