Concrete: great, but sloppy

With the exception painters, masons probably are the messiest craftsman on the job. Mixing and working with one of the worlds oldest, and most reliable, building materials all day is messy business. I think things just got a little cleaner and easier.

Now that bagged concrete mixes have taken over that lonely aisle all the way at far end of the home centers, all the DIYer needs is to add the water and mix. I’ll be filling the crevices of some cinder blocks that I exposed just underneath the sill. If left unfilled, they’d be a safe haven for water to infiltrate the foundation. There are also a few minor cracks in the foundation wall.

Buy a bag of concrete and add water, sounds easy right? But mixing concrete gets tiring, folding the heavy material in on itself with a shovel or a hoe. I have a wheelbarrow, but it’s pretty shallow. My dad can’t stand to part with his treasured mortar pan—something about having it longer than I’ve been alive. Jeez, think he’d get over my ‘misplacement’ of his hammer back in ’93.

I’m going to try and mix my concrete with a bag. A thick mil, clear plastic bag, that ties off at the end. The concrete mixing bag looks sound enough, check out the video. Dump the concrete into the bag, add the water, tie it off and slosh everything together for about a minute. The bag is reusable and there are no additional tools to clean up after mixing. Do you think this is going to work?