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Posted

Hey!

 

As I needed so many of these and to save some ££££ I bought a plastic mould and made my own.

As they needed to be very light in colour I used white cement with some sand and dye agent.

Once made they looked great!. Now after about 18 months of being in situ they have thousands of little hair line cracks and indeed I can see they are literally falling apart!!!

Why is this??? - did I do anything wrong!?

 

Cheers

Posted

The last ones I did I used the coloured sand and cement to coat the face of the mould, maybe 6mm thick, then I filled the rest of the mould with concrete. How did you make yours?

Posted

You made a mortar capping rather than a concrete one. 

 

I would go with what @Triassic said - thin coat of coloured mortar preferably made with waterproofing agent in it and then a strong concrete mix with some ballast in it too. 

  • Like 1
Posted

Frost damage?...

 

http://www.makersgallery.com/concrete/faqs.html

 

How can I make my concrete more frost resistant?

Make a high quality crack-free concrete. Cracks allow moisture penetration; the water can then freeze and crack the concrete even more.
The main thing is to use as little water as possible. In a wet mix, some of the water does not get chemically combined. This water can freeze and crack the concrete from inside. Also make the concrete as dense as possible (vibrate to get the large air bubbles out if it's a casting).
Also, use an air entrainer. When added to concrete, then mixed (either in a concrete mixer or with a power drill - hand mixing doesn't work), the air entrainer creates tiny air bubbles in the mix which allow expansion and contraction when freezing. Also, use a good quality sealer to prevent as much water penetration as possible.
Posted

Why not put some fibres in?

 

They are designed to prevent cracking.

 

And it is annoying me (sorry) - could you remove the extra p from the title.

 

Ferdinand

Posted
26 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

And it is annoying me (sorry) - could you remove the extra p from the title.

 

Done. SWMBO  always said the only thing I did well was taking the p out of things.

  • Like 1

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