Concrete is a man-made stone building material. You can make it yourself or buy it ready-made from a concrete factory, which reduces construction time.
Concrete is granite, gravel and dolomite (lime). Consists of aggregate, water, binders and additives. This is a solution of cement, sand, filler and water, sometimes a plasticizer is also added. Cement binds all components of the concrete solution. Sand is best used river coarse-grained, sometimes it is replaced with slag. Before kneading, the sand must be sieved to get rid of excess debris. Crushed stone is often used, because it is the best filler, sometimes it is replaced with gravel or expanded clay.
There is also such a thing as the crushed stone fraction, it is determined depending on the size of the particles. The smaller the stone, the lower the fraction number. For the foundation, usually use from 20 to40 is the average. The plasticizer is used to impart frost resistance and water resistance to the finished solution. Rarely, reinforcing fibers of polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride are added. Concrete is mixed in a ratio of 1:3:6: cement + sand (crushed stone) + water.
Types of concrete
The following types of solution are distinguished:
- As intended. These include conventional and special solutions. The former are used for the construction of industrial and civil buildings, the special ones are used for the construction of hydraulic engineering, road and other structures.
- According to the binder. These include cement, gypsum, silicate mortars, etc.
- According to placeholders. There are concrete on dense, porous and special additives.
- According to the conditions of hardening. Divided into curing in the natural environment, under conditions of moist and warm treatment at normal atmospheric pressure, and when treated with heat and moisture at atmospheric pressure above normal (autoclave curing).
How many cubes of concrete do you need for the foundation?
To calculate the number of cubes of concrete, many people use an online calculator. But you can also do it yourself, using the formula for the volume of concrete to calculate. First you need to consider what foundations are, and, based on their composition, choose a specific formula.
The foundation happens: tape, pile and slab, there are also many other types of foundation, but it is in these three that they usefor pouring concrete.
Formula for strip foundation. Before making the calculation, you need to know the width and height of the foundation tape. After the width is multiplied by the height and we get the volume of concrete needed for pouring. It looks like this: V=SL, where V is the volume of concrete, S is the cross-sectional area, L is the length of the foundation tape. To get the S value, you need to multiply the width of the tape by the height.
For example, given values: 50 cm - width of the tape, height - 180 cm, length - 49 m. Solution: V=490, 51, 8=44, 1 cube of concrete.
Formula for pile foundation. S=3, 14r, S – surface area of one column, r – pile radius.
V=Hn, where H is the height of each pillar of the foundation, and n is the number of pillars. For example, the diameter of the column is 20 cm, the length is 2 meters. Requires 0.0628 cubes of concrete.
Formula for slab foundation. V=SH. S is the total area of the entire slab and H is the thickness of the slab. For example, for a slab 5 m long, 5 m wide and 0.15 m thick, you will need: V=550.15=3.75 cubes of concrete.
Calculator calculation
There is a special program: online concrete volume calculator. You just need to fill in the data in the table, there are explanations for each action. You can calculate how many materials you need for concrete, sand or gravel, for example.
A convenient way to calculate the volume of concrete and its binding components. It is also possible to calculate for one batch or even a bucket. Of course, this calculation will be approximate,definitely, you need to try kneading and look at the result.
This is about hand-kneading all the ingredients. With production mixing, all indicators are, of course, more accurate. Using a calculator, you can also save your time, you do not need to display all the calculations using formulas yourself. In addition, the margin for error is minimal in online counting. Nobody wants to overpay if the error is in a big way, and then look for a place where this concrete can be determined. And when counting down, of course, you don’t want to call the concrete mixer several times and once again pay for the delivery of concrete. Many calculators have hints.
How to calculate the volume of concrete for the floor?
So, for the floor screed, you first need to make the necessary calculations. The formula for calculating the volume of concrete cubes for floor screed: V=SH, where S is the surface area of the screed, H is its thickness. For example, the area is 10 square meters. m, and the thickness of the screed is 0.5 m. V=100.5=5 cubes of concrete is needed for floor screed.
In addition to the volume of concrete, you can determine how much cement you need if you pour the floors yourself. The resulting amount should be multiplied by 490. That is how many kilograms of cement should be in one cube of concrete. You can calculate the amount of sand, for which you need to multiply the resulting amount of cement by 3, and we will get the exact result.
Reinforced concrete rings
What is reinforced concrete? These are reinforced concrete. Concrete rings consist of reinforced steel and concrete. The purpose of these rings is to buildwells, this is its frame. You can also calculate the volume of concrete in reinforced concrete rings by referring to Internet resources, using various online calculators for calculating. You only need to know the height, diameter and thickness of the ring.
But there is also a formula for self-calculation. It looks like this: V=HS, where H is the height of the ring, S is its area. To determine the area, you need to calculate the parameters of the outer circle, for this, one-half of the "pi" number is multiplied by the diameter and by 2. It looks like this: S=1/2πD2. Then you need, using the same formula, to calculate the inner circle, and then the area of the outer circle is subtracted from the area of \u200b\u200bthe inner circle, and we get the parameters of the ring.
Weight of 1 cube of concrete?
To answer the question of how much 1 cube of concrete weighs, first you need to know the density of the solution. Of course, the higher the density, the greater the weight of the concrete.
Usually in construction they take the value of 490 kg. This is the amount of concrete in one cube, but to be more precise in this matter, it all depends on its type.
By weight, solutions are divided into light, heavy, extra light and extra heavy.
- Extremely light weigh up to 500 kg. These are cellular concrete. They include only sand, cement and foaming agent. Used to make slabs and blocks.
- Lungs weigh between 500-1800 kg. The filler is usually expanded clay, but there are also porous structure fillers. Used for pouring screeds, block products, fences.
- Heavy from 1800 to 2500 kg. They have such a weightfor heavy fillers such as gravel, crushed stone, coarse sand. This type is used for screeds, load-bearing structures.
- Extremely heavy from 2500 to 3000 kg. Heavy concrete has a slightly different structure, it largely depends on the brand of cement, the differences in weight, although small, are still there. And they make this type only in factories.
That's how much 1 cube of concrete weighs, depending on its composition and application.
Concrete quality indicators
There are 5 indicators of concrete quality, they are indicated by letters and numbers. The first indicator is the brand of concrete, for example, M100 - M800, where the numbers indicate the strength of the material. The second indicator is the class of concrete, for which the manufacturer gives a guarantee, for example, B3, 5 - B60. The third indicator is the level of frost resistance F (25–1000). The fourth indicator is the water resistance coefficient, denoted by W (2–20). The fifth indicator is the mobility of concrete. Designation “P” (1–5).
Concrete grade. Application
M 100 is used before reinforcement.
M 200 (B 15) - this brand is used to fill the foundation.
M 300 (B 22, 5) - in demand for the construction of monolithic structures and strip foundations.
M 350 (B 25) - produced for the manufacture of concrete products, pools, piles, etc. are made from it
M 400 (B 30) - build bridges, build hydraulic structures.
M 450 (B 35) - sets quickly, therefore it is used only for the construction of subways, dams, dams.
M 500 (B 40) and M 550 (B 45) - high-strength gradesconcrete. They are designed for special construction and hydraulic structures.
How to protect concrete
In construction, waterproofing helps protect concrete. There are concepts of primary and secondary protection. Primary protection refers to a set of measures taken for the initial rational protection, for example, this is the choice of the correct form, material, thickness of the concrete coating layer, etc. This type of protection also includes the impregnation of concrete with special waterproofing mixtures, for example, penetrating action.
Secondary protection includes measures for additional coating of concrete. To do this, various means are used, thin-layer impregnations, highly filled coatings and self-leveling floors. Foundations, for example, are waterproofed first with roofing material, and then, when it is fully prepared, with bituminous mastic.
It's not so difficult to calculate the volume of concrete on your own, having all the parameters at hand, and knowing the formula. It is even easier to do this with the help of special programs. The concrete volume calculator will greatly simplify the task.
