Mixing Cement for your Straw Bale House

Video Transcript

"Right now we’re going to mix the concrete. I’ve already got the sand in here. I’ve got the concrete, which is white concrete. Normally, I wouldn’t use this on a base coat, but for example purposes today I’m going to use it, so I can show you a finished coat and a rough coat. So it’s got the white concrete mix, the sand, and I just threw a little bit of lime in. And you’ll add the lime to consistency to see where it feels good to you. And I kind of hand mix it up a little big, although try no to breathe this stuff- the dry powders and stuff- when you’re mixing it. And I’m just going to mix that up a little bit, add some more sand. I’m just going to mix it up now, and we’re going to add the water, and we’ll tell how much water we need for consistency. You don’t want your, especially your base coat, you don’t want it too wet because it will take too long to set and it will be harder to get it to go into the wire in the bales and kind of adhere to the bales. Mix it a little bit, add a little bit of water, mix it a little bit, add a little bit of water until you get the consistency that you want. Alright, it looks like the concrete’s ready. Again, typically you’re not going to use this color for you base coat, but I’m using it just for example. But this is the right consistency. You can see it’s kind of hanging there in a ball but it’s still going to slap up there and it’s going to suction- you can feel it kind of suction your hand. If it was too dry, it would fall out of your hand; it wouldn’t pull to your hand. If it was too wet, you really couldn’t get it into a ball, it would just kind of go through your fingers. So this is kind of showing you, this is about the consistency that you want it to be. "