Can you lay concrete in the rain?

[code monkey]

mybrainhurts said:

Parrot of Doom said:

I remember something on telly about 2 gay blokes, 1 of them shoved some wet concrete up the other's arse, I don't know, some kind of 'lets make it a perfect fit' adventure.

Only the concrete set.

And it wouldn't come back out.

And they had to go to the hospital and explain how it got there.

Thanks for that little anecdote...

I'll use it next time the vicar drops in.....

I am not sure you should be saying you vicar likes that sort of thing on a public forum.

[autonotiv]

King Herald said:

danielgray said:

King Herald said:

sparkythecat said:

About 10yrs ago, I built a single storey extension on my last house a 1960's semi. IIRC the extension footings were about 30ins deep. I thought that seemed excessive at the time as the existing house footings were only about 15 ins deep.

I guess it all depends on the local soil. If you live in a swamp you're going to need the 3 metre footings mentioned earlier, but if you have clay just below the surface I'd think you have to dig a lot less. Mine was into clay type stuff some 18" down, and it got reeaal hard work digging then.

The 3 metre footings were in clay, dad had 14 redimix lorry's that day to fill it all and it cost a fortune.

But why would you go 3 metres deep??

Humour me here, but I'm pretty sure it was not because you're dad liked digging. There has to be a reason for such monumental footings.

I recently watched them build some two storey flats near my house, and they dug down maybe 5 or 6 feet.

[quote=autonotiv] hard clay or soft?
I can picture this, King herald will be posting a pic of his new garage, then a week later he will be posting a pic of his flat garage! lol

good luck

because it all depends on soil conditons, if its soft clay, then you will be going deep, but hard clay not so deep!

[danielgray]

autonotiv said:

King Herald said:

danielgray said:

King Herald said:

sparkythecat said:

About 10yrs ago, I built a single storey extension on my last house a 1960's semi. IIRC the extension footings were about 30ins deep. I thought that seemed excessive at the time as the existing house footings were only about 15 ins deep.

I guess it all depends on the local soil. If you live in a swamp you're going to need the 3 metre footings mentioned earlier, but if you have clay just below the surface I'd think you have to dig a lot less. Mine was into clay type stuff some 18" down, and it got reeaal hard work digging then.

The 3 metre footings were in clay, dad had 14 redimix lorry's that day to fill it all and it cost a fortune.

But why would you go 3 metres deep??

Humour me here, but I'm pretty sure it was not because you're dad liked digging. There has to be a reason for such monumental footings.

I recently watched them build some two storey flats near my house, and they dug down maybe 5 or 6 feet.

[quote=autonotiv] hard clay or soft?
I can picture this, King herald will be posting a pic of his new garage, then a week later he will be posting a pic of his flat garage! lol

good luck

because it all depends on soil conditons, if its soft clay, then you will be going deep, but hard clay not so deep!

And it was quite close to a line of massive hardwood trees (well 15m or so away).

[albundy89]

Concrete will and does set harder in the rain,as long as you take the top 10mm of scum off before building everything is hunky dory.Concreteing on clay is a different matter altogether,as too deep a foundation can put more stress on the underlying strata due purely to the additional weight of concrete,better to go wider than deeper.Of course up here in good old scotia where everything is far more stable,building regs only look for a mere 450mm of cover to your founds,far more civilised.

[southpaw]

gasblaster said:

Someone left concrete out in the rain
I don't think that you can fix it
Cause it took too long to mix it
And you'll never get those foundations laid