The next several articles will be dealing with common questions that are asked of the staff, and their answers. They will also be dealing with past articles and questions e-mailed or phoned in.
Q. I need to put in a sidewalk and temporary walkway to go from the garage to the house. What are my options?
A. How temporary do you need to be? For something to last only for a few weeks, come in and purchase some bulk gravel or rock and spread it over the ground. If it is too soft and might sink below the surface, lay down some ground fabric first, then lay down your rock. Or purchase some stepping stones. We have a gray 8x16 block that sells for under 80 cents. Place them on the dirt, averaging 18-20 inches of spacing between the blocks. Thirdly, buy permanent stepping stones for about $1.25 to $1.50 each, and lay them continually end on end. Fourth, you could lay down natural slate, averaging anywhere from $2.20 to $5.50 per square foot (not lineal foot). Fifth, pour your own sidewalk (when it stops raining), with either redi-mix concrete or make your own concrete mix. We also sell interlocking concrete pavers, which make beautiful and strong sidewalks and patios. They vary in size, shape and color, and are priced from $2.40 to $3.40 per square foot. As you can tell, we have lots of options for your temporary or permanent needs. Diagram your situation, along with your dimensions, and bring them in to either store, and one of our staff will give you an idea of product and cost options available.
Q. I am a contractor and I am going to pour some concrete, but how can I keep it from freezing? What products are out there that I can purchase?
A. There are two options for you--chemical products or natural. Natural methods entail using warm to hot water, and heating up the aggregates. Talk to your batch-man at the redi-mix plant. Traditional cold-weather concrete has used calcium chloride, but now we can get a product called Tri-Mix NCA by Sonneborn. There are other products available, but you need to make certain before purchasing that your product is not going to effect the rebar or any steel by contributing to any corrosion; that it will not take away from any strength characteristics both in the short as well as long term.
Q. What is calcium chloride? Is it an accelerator or an antifreeze, and should I or shouldn't I use it?
A. While it is true that calcium chloride is used to lower the freezing point of water, the amount used to accelerate concrete is not enough to lower water's freezing point, so let's get really technical for a moment. When cement hydrates, that process uses up some of the mixing water when it combines with the cement paste. By the time that the concrete has reached 500 PSI, enough mixing water has combined with the cement so that the mixing water fills only 90% or less of the pores. That amount then leaves enough space available for the water to expand in freezing without damaging the concrete. The use of calcium chloride will increase the chances of corrosion in concrete, to the point where it is not recommended in applications using concrete or mortar. Personally, I wouldn't use it with so many other non-calcium chloride-based products on the market today.
Q. What is the difference between cement and concrete?
A. What we at Cascade Block call cement is plain Portland cement. Concrete is concrete mix, where the cement is already added to the sand and rock. So if you come in and order some cement, expect to get just the plain Portland cement, not concrete mix.
Q. What is the difference between motor and mortar?
A. Actually, a motor is something that is in your car or truck and powers it, where mortar is cement, sand and lime blended together, and used to adhere a masonry product to a cementitious surface. (Actually, I wanted to see if you were really awake and paying attention.)
Due to space considerations, we will be continuing with this for the next couple of weeks. Please call or write any questions you would like to see answered in the paper. Until next week then, see ya'!
Originally published in the Daily Courier Febuary 3, 2000