hello. i'm constructing a fence and have standing water (3-4" deep) in
the holes for my posts. anyone know if i can still continue work? i'm
thinking of mixing dry concrete mix with the water and continuing from
there. any suggestions? much appreciated.

wrote:
hello. i'm constructing a fence and have standing water (3-4" deep) in
the holes for my posts. anyone know if i can still continue work? i'm
thinking of mixing dry concrete mix with the water and continuing from
there. any suggestions? much appreciated.

You should probably post in alt.home.repair

thanks.

It would be much better if they were dry. I don't know how much water
is in there, but it may affect the cement mix and make it more prone to
cracking. It probably wont, but I would still make sure it's done
right. Can you get the water with a shop-vac or something similar?

Continue to work - Just dump in some dry mix or mix you crete stiff and pour
away. The water will just slow down the cure, which is a good thing. No
worries. I dumped in dry mix into a 4' hole that had 2' of water. Lots of
bags later I had the pier for the corner of my cottage. If you were using
redi-mix you could just probably get away with just pouring and not worrying
at all.


wrote in message
oups.com...
hello. i'm constructing a fence and have standing water (3-4" deep) in
the holes for my posts. anyone know if i can still continue work? i'm
thinking of mixing dry concrete mix with the water and continuing from
there. any suggestions? much appreciated.

On 23 Jun 2005 10:07:44 -0700, someone wrote:

It would be much better if they were dry. I don't know how much water
is in there, but it may affect the cement mix and make it more prone to
cracking.

Bull****. And DO NOT "dump in dry mix". PROPERLY mix your concrete,
and then PLACE it in the hole. It will displace the water. NO
PROBLEM AT ALL.

Professional, engineered construction projects, especially bridge
work, often involve placing concrete into standing water. The
concrete being heavier it will force the water out. As long as you do
not stir or mix it, the water will not appreciably effect the concrete
mixture. OTOH if you use dry mix, there is a substantial risk that a
shell of hardened concrete will form around a core of dry powder that
will never become actual hardened concrete. Now, lots of people DO
put up fence this way, but they only get away with it because a fence
post actually doesn't "need" to be in hardened concrete, but only in
closely packed surroundings, which even dry powder should provide.

So yeah you can use dry but in that case you are wasting the concrete
mix. If you really want concrete bedded posts, mix your concrete and
go from there.


Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.