Concrete Mix

The word "concrete" comes from a Latin word, concretus, meaning to grow together—
and that's exactly what it does when you combine its three ingredients, which are:

1. A mixture of coarse and fine aggregates (sand, gravel, stones, larger bits of
crushed rock, recycled glass, bits of old recycled concrete, and pretty much
anything equivalent)—typically 60–75 percent.
2. Cement (the everyday name for calcium silicates and aluminates)—typically 10–
15 percent.
3. Water—typically 15–20 percent.

Concrete is mixed by adding together Portland cement, sand, and coarse aggregate
(gravel) together in a ratio of 1:2:4. Water is added to the dry mixture to bind all the
components together.

In a concrete mixer, add the determined amount of water and then the concrete mix.
You can also mix this in a wheelbarrow with a shovel. Use as little water as possible.

Water makes the concrete more maneuverable but it also weakens the constitution of
the final product. A drier mix makes the concrete more crack resistant. Turn on the
machine. The mix will become smooth and consistent. Shut off the machine.

Modern concrete fails through what's informally known as concrete cancer or concrete
disease, which involves three interrelated problems. First, alkalis from the cement react
with silica in the aggregates from which the concrete is made. This makes new crystals
grow very slowly inside the concrete, which take up more room than the original
"crystals," so making the concrete crack apart from the inside out or flake away ("spall")
from the surface, letting in water from outside. On something like a highway bridge, any
water that gets in might also be alkaline because of the salts used to treat the road in
winter. The second problem is that the water that gets in will eventually come into
contact with the steel reinforcing bars inside, causing them to rust and decay, possibly
expanding so they cause fatal weaknesses in the structure. The dirty brown stains you
see on concrete with "cancer" are often caused by rusty water draining through the
cracks. A third issue is that water that has seeped inside concrete through cracks can
freeze in winter, which means it will expand and cause further cracks through which
even more water will penetrate, causing a vicious circle of degeneration and decay.