Gene and Dolita Dohrman on sun 23 may 04
We have finished the wedging table and I took a little advice from =
everyone. It is slanted away, a little higher than knuckle height, and =
we used concrete. For Mother's Day my husband poured the concrete in =
the frame while I was working an art fair. Beats the heck out of =
breakfast in bed! Now another question. My husband used a bag of =
Quikcrete, with sand and pea gravel mixed in, 3000 psi. The surface is =
rough, not as smooth as I expected. The main problem is that it =
releases little bits of concrete when I rub my hand over it. Needless =
to say, I haven't used it for wedging yet. Is there something we need =
to do to smooth the surface? Will it always release a certain amount of =
concrete dust and is that OK? Will the bits of concrete eventually =
quit? I have used a concrete wedging table before and it was very =
smooth. =20
Hope someone has an answer as my husband thinks he has screwed up =
somehow and I keep assuring him he has not. Sure won't be easy to start =
over though!
Dolita
dohrman@insightbb.com
Louisville, KY
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on mon 24 may 04
Hi Dolita,
Is sounds as if he may have omitted to agitate the Concrete
mix thoroughly enough before pouring, or, especially, to
have agitated
it's surface anyway, once it was poured...or, maybe had
not enough
water in the mix possibly...
Likely, you could grind the surface untill
smooth and sound, and all should be well then, or well
enough anyway.
With Concrete, has various sized
aggregates in it, if one wants a smooth surface, one must
agitate it at it's surface after pouring, so the finer
particles come to the very top. The top in essence becomes
as a layer of Cement, on a Concrete base...(Concrete is
Cement as contains sand or other aggregate...)
The amount of efforts and troubles to grind it, might not be
too bad, or might
be worth thinking to simply do the pour over instead.
Most stores now-a-days as sell domestic home supplies (
homeclub or buildersvilliage or whatever) have books about
Concrete Finishing,
and you could have a quick crash course in a few minutes on
the method while standing there at the book kiosk.
Good luck...!
Phil
el ve
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gene and Dolita Dohrman"
We have finished the wedging table and I took a little
advice from everyone. It is slanted away, a little higher
than knuckle height, and we used concrete. For Mother's Day
my husband poured the concrete in the frame while I was
working an art fair. Beats the heck out of breakfast in
bed! Now another question. My husband used a bag of
Quikcrete, with sand and pea gravel mixed in, 3000 psi. The
surface is rough, not as smooth as I expected. The main
problem is that it releases little bits of concrete when I
rub my hand over it. Needless to say, I haven't used it for
wedging yet. Is there something we need to do to smooth the
surface? Will it always release a certain amount of
concrete dust and is that OK? Will the bits of concrete
eventually quit? I have used a concrete wedging table
before and it was very smooth.
Hope someone has an answer as my husband thinks he has
screwed up somehow and I keep assuring him he has not. Sure
won't be easy to start over though!
Dolita
dohrman@insightbb.com
Louisville, KY
Hendrix, Taylor J. on mon 24 may 04
Dolita:
I have a small slab of concrete that I use for wedging at times. It was
leftover quickrete from a house project. I didn't have time to tool
over the surface while it was setting up to get that nice smooth surface
you were looking for, but it has not been a problem for me. Sure it is
rough and at first small bits of crete came off, but after a few pounds
of clay was wedged on it, I never noticed it. The rough surface is not
really a problem until you want to clean the surface. That does make it
hard to clean up. If the pieces of coming-off-stuff are small enough,
don't worry about them.
Taylor
Waco, Texas, USA
vivianne escolar.c. on tue 25 may 04
Hi Dolita, I had my brick and cement wedging table finished with a
mixture of plaster and cement, you can also use white cement mixed with
the grey. You lay a coating of this mixture on the surface and then
polish it with a flat wooden palette type thingy, sorry don't know the
english word. This will flatten the grain and the surface will be
smooth, with good absorption, so things don't stick to it. And you
don't get bits coming off. The colour comes out a light grey, which is
a good colour surface to work on. If you want more info. contact me off
line. I can probably find the ratios of materials to use.
Hope this helps
Vivi
Joseph Herbert on tue 25 may 04
Dolita wrote about a problem concrete surface,
There is a thing called thin set grout that is used for tile setting. It is
very strong even in thin layers. If you wet the existing concrete surface
well, mix the grout according to directions, and finish with a steel trowel,
you should be able to make the surface as smooth as you like. Often the
directions for this material caution that a steel troweled surface may be
too slick for normal foot traffic. You should only need a quarter inch
layer to get a smooth surface.
Good luck
Joseph Herbert
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on wed 26 may 04
Hi Joseph, Doita...
Good idea...
Better than my notion of grinding the surface...I was maybe
enthused and
a little vicariously anxious in how I like the look of a
ground Concrete surface,
especially when the aggregate is in section...
But adding something steady to it, to it's disappointing
surface, seems much more convenient...
Best wishes!
Phil
el vuh-eee
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Herbert"
> Dolita wrote about a problem concrete surface,
>
> There is a thing called thin set grout that is used for
tile setting. It is
> very strong even in thin layers. If you wet the existing
concrete surface
> well, mix the grout according to directions, and finish
with a steel trowel,
> you should be able to make the surface as smooth as you
like. Often the
> directions for this material caution that a steel troweled
surface may be
> too slick for normal foot traffic. You should only need a
quarter inch
> layer to get a smooth surface.
>
> Good luck
>
> Joseph Herbert
Steve Mills on wed 26 may 04
We once smoothed a concrete work surface with a paving slab and water;
rotating the slab with a sort of circular motion on the concrete,
lubricated with lots of the wet stuff, didn't take too long to smooth.
Steve
Bath
UK
In message , pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET writes
>Hi Dolita,
>
>
>Is sounds as if he may have omitted to agitate the Concrete
>mix thoroughly enough before pouring, or, especially, to
>have agitated
>it's surface anyway, once it was poured...or, maybe had
>not enough
>water in the mix possibly...
>
>
>Likely, you could grind the surface untill
>smooth and sound, and all should be well then, or well
>enough anyway.
--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK
Martin Rice on wed 26 may 04
What they do here in Costa Rica is to smooth the concrete surface with
Styrofoam. It really works well, they get the concrete as smooth as wall
board.
Martin
Santiago de Puriscal, Costa Rica
On 5/26/04 4:17 PM, "Steve Mills" wrote:
> We once smoothed a concrete work surface with a paving slab and water;
> rotating the slab with a sort of circular motion on the concrete,
> lubricated with lots of the wet stuff, didn't take too long to smooth.
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