Concrete

Let the cement set up for awhile, here it was about 1 1/2 hours. This depends upon the amount of cement used, shape, humidity and temperature. Remove the forms carefully as you can break the cement. The reason this is done, if you wait until it is dry you cannot shape the concrete. It it dry and hard like .... concrete should be.


	Pouring Concrete

After deciding upon which kind of concrete pour I want to make I then make a form.

You can make a slab, piers, walls and footings and, do it on site, so it blends in with the scenery. It has glue in the cement and sticks to just about every thing you touch it with.

I use a plastic tub and spoon, which are disposable. I let the overage dry in the plastic bucket, Qt size, and it will break out very easily and not damage the bucket for many uses.




		The product is Anchoring cement. Here is the brand I use as it was in the hardware store. There are several different brands and should all be the same.


	I found that plastic strips work best. Wood will be glued more to the cement and is harder to remove. Here, I glued the plastic pieces together and make sure they fit what you are going to use the concrete on. If you want lines or designs on the concrete reverse engineer the form to include them. Add small strips of plastic for layered effects of concrete.


	Either make a form and then put it in place as a whole piece, or as I have had to do on several occasions, piece it together on site such as a side of the hill with the trestle piers in it. As long as the sides of the form are stiff, the form will not bend out of shape. Be aware they must be stiff enough as gravity will force the cement sideways. I have poured a footing around a building already glued down. It was a thin pour but created a very convincing slab. Looking at the Trestle page on this web site you can see where the forms were made in place and then poured around the wood pilings on a hillside.

		I use several methods of attaching the form to the scenery. Using a glue gun also makes lateral movement of the form very minimal. I have found that my low temp hot glue gun will create a seal between the form and scenery so the cement will not run out the bottom, but will not stick enough to rip out any scenery I have laid down already. Minor repairs may have to be made, but minimal. Masking tape will work also as shown in the picture. I am using both methods here.


	Make the sides of the form higher than is needed. Do not be overly concerned with leveling the forms. When the concrete is poured it will seek its own level and is perfect for slabs. Here you can see where the ground on the closest side is lower in elevation than the back. More concrete is flowing forward but will seek a level and stay there.

After the concrete sets up and the forms removed, you can scrape the edges down. The cement will ride up via capillary action on the forms slightly. It is level already. Using your artistic license make cracks, chips and breaks. I use a soft brush to clean the concrete from the scrapings as if you leave them they may dry hard and cannot be easily removed. After it sets up more I rub the surface with a cloth rag and remove the skim that is on the concrete, It will turn into a powder when dry. Also I can use a spray bottle to squirt a high intensity stream of water at the exposed edge and if it hasn’t dried too much yet will remove small amounts of cement so the aggregate shows through, neat effect.




		If I have left over cement I pour it is some pier forms I have made from latex molding compound. I always can use these.


	The final concrete slab under a shed. It still needs to cure for a couple of days but it is hard enough now for use.