Considering adding more water will worsen the comprehensive strenght of the concrete mixture, you need little amount of water for the hydration reaction to occur But let us see the result video whether this is concrete proof or not 🧐
For a dry pour, wouldn’t it be an advantage to wet the soil first. So the concrete can pull water from the bottom too. I think I would have also mist sprayed after first bag. Then added second.
@@SitNSpinRecords it doesn’t however. It may seem logical but I assure you it doesn’t because I have done the dry technique and it works great. I’m 42 year old a maintenance supervisor that has worked for a concrete company for about 2 years in my 20’s and that’s were I learned it and have used it too many times to count. But your idea of spraying between bags works very well too. Actually better. Sorry if I misunderstood the first part. I started typing this and couldn’t go back to recheck what you wrote :p
No don't prewet!! you want the water to migrate down, not up!! Otherwise the bottom will actually start curing before watering is done. Rule #1 is to forget everything you know about doing wet pours!! It's why most pro who try it mess it up! They think they know better and keep trying to "fix" the process!
My father is a stone mason. Has been for decades. He said the biggest problem is that you now have no way to know if the bottom is getting any water. He said it’s like when you make cake mix. You don’t just keep adding wet ingredients to the top or the top is gonna get soggy and the bottom’s gonna stay dry. You’re likely gonna have a firm top but a crumbly bottom. No one’s saying you should experiment, but there’s a reason cement is thoroughly mixed. If it takes you 19 to fully mix a wet mixture (which is a long damn time in his eyes), imagine what NOT doing that is gonna lead to with your dry mix.
We recently had to fill in he air vents on our foundation. First mistake was mixing one bag for a job he knew took two. It takes about 90 seconds to mix.
Your bottom will get water it will wick water out of the ground and if you feel you haven’t had any rain there isn’t any there is. But you can mist the ground first, then as long as you keep misting the top it will cure all the way through. I have seen a dry poor 6 inch’s thick you could drive on.
@@lonewolftech trust you? Have you done any work with cement? That top layer is the only layer that is hardened I can guarantee that. That water soaks down but a certain point it stops and starts to dry applying water again will do nothing bc the top is already hard.
I dry poured a 12x12 slab for my little shop, 4 inches thick, was religious about watering and actually kept it wet under plastic for 3 days. Slab has no issues and doesn’t have a crack 3 years later. I used zero reinforcement. Also worth noting, I live in the Deep South. Risk of hard freeze is minimal and I don’t run heavy equipment on it. That said, I have a 125 Gallon Aquaponics system on it and an ATV. It’s holding up perfect
I've done both. The dry-pour is great for little jobs like pavers, very light duty slabs, etc. However, mixing is the most reliable (and sturdy) because you know it's getting the correct moisture at all levels - especially if the thickness is higher.
I work in the cement industry in a laboratory. We test the compressive and flexural strengths, as well as the tensile adhesion of our cement products. I've never tested a prism from a 'dry pour' method. I imagine it's terrible but I'd love to try it and get some numbers.
@@malcymackay6155 Do you know what's in this bag of cement or what kind of product it is? I'm not sure what ratio of materials to use if I was to test it. We usually make premium cement products for DIY and Construction such as self levelling compounds or tile adhesives and such, but I have the means to make anything.
Fortunately this is 10 trillion less the risk & a chesp easy fix if it dont hold up. Stfu grunts. Bunch of 18$ an/hr mudders giving a shitt what a homeowner does.
Theres also bonding reaction that happens. If you look at concrere under a micrscope, when properly cured, the fibers spiderweb out and locks the cement in place. Its actually really interesting to see under a microscope. You dont get the same reaction in the fibers drysetting.
Water cement ratio determines strength. Not enough or too little water lowers the conrete strength. For bagged mixes, the instructions on the bag will give a measured amount of water for that bag which generally hits tje highest breaking point.
I just watched this video and don't know nothing about wet concrete but my opinion is that you follow the instructions thoroughly because the manufacturer engineers already did all the years of R & D in the product and after years of development they know what's best👌
It’s faster in the long run. On a dry pour you’re gonna have to come back to it several times. The traditional way, you lay it and it does all the work for you.
@@lucascoxe1481 Doing things one way because “that’s how we’ve always done it” is a fallacy. If there’s a better way to do it you should absolutely do it that way.
You claim this, but he had to come back to it it took like 10 seconds each time. He poured this slab, misted a few times, it cured all the way through and he was able to jump on it with no issues.
I was told from inspector there is nothing wrong with dry pour as long as it’s not structural. If you are doing dry pour saturate the ground first, and go in layers-concrete, spray,concrete, spray etc.. top layer do as this guy did
Ive done dry pour multiple times. Just depends on what your doing it for. If its nothing crazy, you got good dirt and its not structural you should be fine.
@@kenburrell3825 that can work. A neat thing ive seen a few times is where people make walls out of concrete bags that they just pour water on. Its not the most structural thing ever but if thats not a problem the aesthetic is actually kinda nice. You can google some good examples.
Indeed. I bought a house with a shed full of quick set concrete that was likely two years old. I used it for fence posts where gravel would have likely sufficed. I certainly would not have used it for anything else.
Yeah, the wet mix might have taken you longer to pour, but once poured, leveled and smoothed, you were done. For your work shop, you clearly stated you had to return for several days after to add water to the surface of your slab. That time adds to the job as well. With the mixed concrete, you know that water has evenly saturated the concrete all the way through, once the top hardens on your dry poor, wetting it down a few days after doesn’t guarantee water will make it down to any unsaturated powder below the surface.
100% spot on. Also, constency matters during the pour. Want it stiffer if you're on a slope. I dont see the dry pour method working well at all on a steep driveway. At all.
The reason a dry pour works well with fence posts is that the ground surrounding it can transfer enough moisture from rain or watering to penetrate the three or four inches of concrete mix that incases the post. When you pour a sizable slab, the ability of ground moisture from rain saturation or watering, may not be enough to wick its way to the center of the slab.
The reason you keep wetting slabs with the wet pour is to keep the top from hardening up first. Because then it makes it difficult to evaporate the water below the surface. The idea is to mist the top just enough to keep it from curing. You don't want to add too much or it will never cure because you are adding as much or more than being evaporated. This method helps the concrete cure more evenly. It can take years for concrete to cure fully sometimes.
With a wet pour its all activated evenly. With a dry pour the top layer activates first and the concrete underneath takes longer. To see which is faster you need to see which is totally solid first! The water doesn't dry out as such, it bonds with the mix!
thanks for showing the result and verifying how the faster method turned out just as sturdy as the mix method. and how you didn't have to spray it multiple times
I think the issue is with how you're measuring the time. You're counting the time you're actively doing something, everyone else is counting the time until you don't have to do anything. The wet pour takes 30 minutes. The dry takes hours.
@@AnarexicSumo Oh? So, when someone asks, "how long will it take to build the house?" You don't tell them the date the house should be done, but the number of hours of actual work it should take?
@AnarexicSumo "how long to drywall this room"? "About 2 hours including finishing" "So it'll be done today, right"? "😅" "So... it'll be done today... right..?" Since it seems you have limited understanding of these jobs I'll explain, it'll only take about 30 minutes to hang it, then another 20-30 to mud, then you have to let it dry, typically giving it almost a full day, then come back to finish and touch up, let it dry again, come back and give it the final dust off on the 3rd day.
Look… cutting corners to get things done faster can cause shoddy work that can fail, or not last as long. Its better to take extra time to do the job right the first time to make your investment of time, money and effort not be wasted. I would not want to have dry pockets of cement powder that stay that way under that sealed surface. Thats the big issue. If you are bent on using that dry pour method, consider really soaking in the ground and forms in the pour area first so that the cement can pull in that moisture and mist the surface frequently so that the water can seep in from the surface more too.
There is what is called a slump test. It one of the the parameters it tests for is water content in the concrete. It's why concrete isn't poured dry on high rise and is mixed with water. Your dry mix may be faster, but when you add up how many times you have to replace that slab because it broke up, I think mixing with water will win out in the end
I like dry pour concrete because I don't have to mess up any buckets, wagons, totes, containers, etc. It's also quicker. When my sister and I needed to get a mailbox up, dry pour set in 30 minutes after a little portion of water. 🎉
The spraying takes at least 1.5 each subsequent spraying because want to soak the top, which has hardened. Said took 10 more sprays=15 min. + the initial 3 = 18. Saved 1 min ONCE at the hose each time, but you arent accounting for 10 MORE DAYS OF IT ON YOUR TO-DO LIST, mindshare, etc. saved a min, extended project time by over a week. So overall, the cost is more.
The dry pour has zero strength 👈👎👎👎 no thing to do with TIME 👈🧚♂️ Speak to an engineer and he will explain it in simple , Terms !!! Leave Construction to Construction workers as Shortcuts means major Structural Failures 🎉
The dry pour is definitely faster but it unfortunately isn’t as strong and suffers from air holes making parts of the slab weak, this happens as the cement drys and is the reason for the wet mix being the more common method as this minimises it. Like most things in life the easy way usually isn’t the best way.
@@fizzinsoda being that you can’t see how many air holes there are it will most likely crack over time regardless of weight. But 2000 pounds will destroy either.
If your way was better or preferred, rest assured that it would have been printed on the bag! If the strength of your concrete surpasses the factory methods, I would be extremely surprised. Faster is not always better!
Eh I’ve never met anyone who mixes fucking quickCrete for non structural products…. They always put it and satiate it with water and I’ve never seen it have any issues. Takes longer to dry but works just fine. There literary isn’t much difference…
Faster isn't always better, but it could be good enough depending on application (very limited & not load bearing or expecting decades of life out of the slab).
He’s not saying that dry is faster in regards to it should be the standard, just testing the theory to see which one would be actually stronger and time efficient.
@@HunterBidenscrackcan you get monkeys to design and pour concrete foundations for buildings? Footings for bridges? Reinforced concrete beams? It’s not at all easy, especially when you consider the effort put into designing and laying forms. Vertical components you need to get creative on. Crawl back to your hole at least this guy builds infrastructure that we all use. What do you do?
Don’t know why you got me scrolling down all these comments but the fact you acknowledge each one shows a very respectful, caring and humble person. All the best my man much love
What he said .. and thanks for the step by step adding links to see all of it I've been thinking about a dry pour and like you everyone swears it won't work ... Thanks for making the decision easier for me ... I'll add rebar for longevity and threat the concrete when it's done 👍
I do see where this could be useful, something fast in front of a shed not a lot of weight on it or no structural concerns but should consider laying in 2" wet it good then 2 on top to make sure it all gets water.
@@chrisstockwell9235 Wouldn't it be easier to just wet it ALL first, pour it, and then leave it forever ?! Ya know like , mix the cement as it's supposed to be done ? Doing 2 inches at a time and having to "rinse and repeat" is the literal definition of RETARDING something.
I build a fence with dry concrete. Posts are leveled and straight in minutes. Tamped. Build fence in a day. Moisture in ground sets concrete. Done in a day
I am a concrete man. The only thing I dry pour is fence post footings. I still add the amount of water it tells you on the bag. Then rod it. Wet pour with rebar is the best.
Well I just watched the series and although slightly weaker when drilling and chipped slightly more when hit with the chipping hammer it still supported being drove over with an F-150
Listen, I’ve tried both. And used both for different reasons. One time a client asked for “semi-removable”stepping stones in her pathway. So we did the dry concrete and sprayed water on top. This was strong on the top and sides for the most part, however the center was not as strong as the ones we had premixed. It came up easier than the ones we premixed too. I would assume that the top solidifies and dries before the center/bottom has a chance to get decently wet and stick to the other powder particles
Concrete is porous and water will soak right through. The usual problem with partially mixed concrete, is that the powder is not weight bearing, the the set concrete will crack. If you leave the pad long enough it will eventually entirely harden. If you want to do your weird trick, use gravel, or sand, instead of uncured concrete. As to the idea of powdered concrete on top of a foundation, why would you do this? The foundation is intended to protect the wood and other materials of your structure from the earth. To do this, it requires a secure connection wherever the two meet. Powdered concrete would interfere with that mechanical connection, imo.
@AZ-zn9lgFunny... Been dry pouring for every job for over three years now and have been doing it for 15+. Shocking, those slabs are still there with no cracks or breaks other than normal chips from tools etc over time. Never had an issue. Not once. 😂 idk what you thought you were doing with that comment but its not as big of a difference as your little brain thinks it is. For this job, it doesnt matter how you pour it. But it does matter how fast it dries.
My dad built a fence and poured dry concrete in the hole and sprayed it. The fence stayed there until we tore it down almost 20 years later. But when we pulled the posts up, they were separated from the concrete and the bottoms were basically clean. The 2 posts my brother poured where he actually mixed it were stuck solid. The dry method is probably great if you aren't putting any stress on your pads, but I wouldn't trust it to hammer an anvil on man. I hope it works out for you though bro
@rkizzle6126 yeah, we had like 2 feet of post hole that he filled with concrete iirc. I just remember him flooding it with water once and calling it good, but I was a kid then, so I mightve missed a step or two lol
You said in the original video that you sprayed it 10 times. Make sure you add that time into the equation. Then test the samples and see which slab is stronger, higher quality concrete. Factor that in as well.
I set about 25 4x4 fence posts dry. 3 days later, I took off the braces, and half of them moved. I had to clean up and start over. Cost me 3 days labor x2 guys. Never again.
Dry set/pour works better when working on pitched areas, other than that, and fence post holes, it mainly just provides a lot more work time, and the ability to make a flat surface on a pitch.
It'll never be the same as mixing it. Concrete is supposed to dry from the inside out. Hence the cream on the top. Without that heat it won't be the same... I've done dry pours on posts and when you pull them out they aren't even half as strong as if you did it correctly and you did it to a 4" slab. No bueno. Not at my house that I plan on having last my whole life.
The hardest concrete can be found on boat ramps that cure underwater. Concrete undergoes a crystalline process when hardening, and must be wet. Many architects specify spreading burlap on a troweled slab and sprinklers kept running on it for at least two weeks.
I've never done concrete but I'm thinking the dry. If you're using the mist setting which won't disturb how perfectly flat it is. The mist is not going to get several inches deep into that concrete to fully cure all that stuff into. Basically rock. It's going to have the top solidify on top of a bunch of powder is what I'm thinking the complaint is
Multiple hours?? Come on man, don’t be delusional! wetting it takes how long??? Maybe 3 seconds! Try and count, you literally see him wet it on the video! Even if he wet it over 10 times it’s still less than a minute! You got to use your head! Your argument is INVALID!! lol!!😆😆😆
Large and small aggregate and sand should be completely covered with the portland cement paste to form a continuous matrix. Wet mixing is the best way of assuring this. BTW, concrete needs at least 21 to 28 day moist cure to reach optimal strength. Don't let it dry. Once set, keep it moist as long as you can.
I'm no cement expert but with how thoroughly you smoothed the top of the "dry pour" gently misting the top seems like it wouldn't allow the water to penetrate all the way through the slab to allow the firming agents to activate. Mixing the cement seems more tedious but it allows you to ensure that the mixture gets most or all of the firming agent activated and creates a solid foundation.
I am with you he honestly didn’t really do anything in his so called dry poor. I’ve poured concrete for just around 5 to 7 years now and I can tell you right now just by sprinkling a little bit of water on top isn’t going to make the concrete cure and do what it supposed to do so I can expect him to be redoing that concrete in about five or six months
I think the water will not pinitrat down far enough. So, the concrete slab will only be the very top layer. You can flip them over to check this out. The one you mixed the water will be solid.
I saw the pressure test on both of them and, wet is definitely better than dry. I thought about doing a dry pour but why not have the real strength of wet concrete.
It depends on what you need the slab for. If this is for a path, or to hold a landscaping feature it should work fine, but if you are consistently moving anything over a few hundred lbs on it the dry pour is going to crack way sooner than the wet mix.
What was the compressive strength from a cube test, and cost per m3? I imagine that the conventional wet mix with appropriate aggregate and vibration would win.
You forgot the part where it takes hours because you have to keep going back out every half hour to re-wet it. With the wet pour, it takes twenty minutes and the job is done. You can go shopping for some flannel jackets, new boots, a new shotgun, take your ol lady to a movie, go fishing with the fellas, go hunting with the kids. Hell my point is you don't have to sit there all day going back and forth every half hour to re-wet it. I live by a simple ol school motto "if it's not broke then don't fix it".
CONCRETE SETS UP 80% HARDER IF IT'S KEPT WET FOR DAYS. BOTTOM SIDES TOP SEALED. IT SETS BECAUSE OF A REACTION WHILE WET, NOT DRYING OUT. IT WILL SET UNDER WATER.
Im a building and welding inspector. Ive tested, casted and broken tens of thousands of concrete cores (cylinders). The dry way if perfectly fine for the applications here. Quick crete is literally designed to hydrate throughout with minimal mixing and minimal hydration. Because its mostly concrete fines and not much if any super hydrators (fly ash, porous aggregates, coarse sands, etc.) Thats why post hole concrete works. "Add post. Add dry bag. Add water. And enjoy". Its cement hydration ratio is so low because its not meant to hold up a tower, for yard slabs its totally acceptable. Hence why there are no building codes for it as long as its a non structural or non post tensioned slab or load bearing. Using add mixtures such as plastacizer, water reducer, transmission fluid (air). Has little to no effect because the average batching for concrete, is meant for large, structural and load bearing pours. Thats why they use concrete trucks and pumps or conveyers, not 20 guys carrying 50lb bags of quickcrete. Cmon now guys, common sense here lol
Yeah the dry pour is a horrible idea for slab dry doesn't cook evenly and will cure unevenly causing strong and weak spots cracking is a assured. Also the core depending location may take ...or never see moisture leaving dry powder just cause it can be done definitely doesn't mean it should
I built some ghetto retaining walls in the same spirit. Take entire bags of concrete and stack them up. Water them down and let rain do the rest. In a few weeks with nearly zero effort and no tools, you've got a workable structure. Probably not the best strength and certainly not professional. But it is simple and I don't care what the neighbors think. Good at ya! Work with what you have.
Dry pour is not as strong same as if it’s too wet once wet then dries there will be tiny air voids if it’s mixed wet but not too wet when it dries there is no tiny bubble voids. Try it and cut it with a diamond saw and see the internal structure but look close they will look the same from a distance
Cool, you been doin it for forty years, awesome, arguements from authority hold no weight....... All it does is tell me you know how to follow, thats like my dad tellint me he can easily machine parts, ok cool machines can do that now so what use are you?
@themanwithnoname1839 It wasn't an argument. It was a statement, not from authority, from experience. Go back to the basement little boy . Maybe your father had something to teach you. Maybe not.
You should be soaking the ground first. It will draw much of the needed moisture from the surrounding soil. This method works especially well in areas that get frequent rainfall. If you’re in an arid area, I would recommend a wet pour. Also, this is for a slab that won’t have heavy objects in it… like a picnic area or possibly a shed.
The relative humidity in the area where this is done will affect the outcome considerably. I don't think this would have the same results in Arizona as someone in Alabama. Places where humidity exceeds 70% daily (tropical) will probably have the success as the ground is often damp. Bags of quickset turned hard, without rain, under a tarp in 2 weeks in my backyard. Couldn't be broken with a hammer, so whatever is dry inside is safe at this point. Been walking on those "bags" for years now. Put them to use as stepping stones.
so dry pour is faster, but you have to wait weeks for it to get rained on, and then cure? but wet pour is slower, but it is cured in a week? make it make sense
The speed issue is in how long till it is usable IMO. The wet pour will have most of its strength by day 7. The dry pour will probably take nearly a month and probably won't get as strong permanently. I have never seen test data for it though. The quality will be hard to control too as you don't know how wet the inside gets. That makes testing it difficult
@@SamuraiDuck735yep here in America we can say whatever we want and we the people decide what’s true to us or hopefully if you’re smart you research yourself. So yes. Thank god for free speech or we would have people like you trying to censor Ya damn democrat
For fast cheap mixing, Use a home depot bucket and a spade head drill with a paint mixing attachment. If you think your drill is tough enough, you can do that on a low setting too. Did it for years with fence and deck posts.
Bet if you knock it open you'll find powdered cement. Might set completely in a year depending on how much rain you get. Would you suppose that would cause an irregular lift at the bottom core?
As soon as it rains once it’ll saturate it fully and harden to stone…. You cannot seriously think the power will not find moisture over time? Because it will
Start to spray. The mixed concrete is actually all wet through the entire pour. The dry will take longer for it to entirely seep through and properly mix.
When you start to mix the concrete in the wheelbarrow, I immediately went back to the early 60s and "helping" my dad mix and pour concrete in the backyard. The sound of the shovel in a metal wheelbarrow and the shopping of the concrete is rising my ears.
