Determine how much the cube weighs

At numerous forums dedicated to the repair andconstruction, with surprising constancy there are new branches in which the question of how much the cube weighs is considered. Although often, instead of a practical answer, a person who is interested in this is mildly ridiculed or translated into a joke.

Indeed, building concrete is not the material that is measured in kilograms. As a rule, in this case the unit of measurement is a measure of volume - a cubic meter.

In which case is it necessary todetermine how much the cube weighs? First of all, this question interests those who have to perform a certain amount of work with this material by hand - knead in a trough or carry a solution in buckets, since it is impossible to use a concrete mixer. For example, if you need to fill in some form, and the equipment in the place of work there is nowhere to place (the basement of the house with a hatch that opens into the room). In this case, the question of how much the cube weighs in concrete is far from idle.

Material Differences

Unfortunately, precisely to answer a simple question andthe figure can not be called, since the concrete is different. It differs by classes, taking into account a number of factors - composition, strength, mobility (fluidity), etc.

Concrete is called building material,obtained by mixing in a certain proportion of crushed stone (crushed rock), cement, water and sand. Also, other components, for example, plasticizers, are sometimes added to the mixture. To answer how much a cube weighs, you need to know the ratio of all the components.

Depending on this indicator, there are five grades of mixture (sometimes three):

- Classic or heavy concrete.They are dominated by crushed stone, and cement-sand aggregate serves only for the initial bond of stone grains among themselves. The standard composition of such a mixture includes 250 kg of cement grade 400; 0.7 tons of washed sand; about 160 liters of water and 1.2 tons of rubble. It is possible to change the proportions, which allows you to get a more plastic (but less durable) or even more dense concrete.

In general, the weight of a cube of such a mixture is a little more than two tons;

- a superheavy brand is obtained by addingadditional inclusions - barite, metal impregnations, etc. With such mixtures it is more difficult to work, therefore their main application is military installations and nuclear power plants. The weight of the cube is from 2.5 tons;

- lightened. Of the heavy differs slightly. Obtained by reducing the amount of heavy fractions. Weight varies from 1.8 to 2.2 tons;

- easy. One of the popular now.So, foam concrete - this is one of the varieties. Weight reduction (1.8 tons is the limit) is due to the fact that porous components or foaming agents are added to the mixture;

- ultralight.The mass of such a mixture rarely exceeds 500 kg. Such a significant reduction was achieved due to the large number of air bubbles enclosed in the mass of the material. It has high thermal insulation properties.

Nevertheless, the sale of ready-mixed concrete is most oftenassumes the classical composition of the mixture. So, if you order the machines, and do not interfere with the components yourself, then the mass of the mixture will be from 2.2 to 2.5 tons per cubic meter.