Mixing Concrete for a Garden Bench

Video Transcript

"Now we are ready to mix the concrete to make our concrete bench. We start by opening up the bag. You could use your trowel or knife. Lift up the bag and gently let the concrete out of it. It is nice not to make too much mess so lift it gently gently then the bag is done with a little bit of mess. Now we are ready for the water. You could make a place for the water here and go ahead and start adding water to it. You could always add more water but you cannot take the water away. It is like cooking you know, salting, you can always add salt but you cannot take the salt away. So let's see if that is enough. We will take our hoe and start mixing it, getting all this concrete in with the water and it seems like we need more water but we will keep going. Add a little bit more. Now it is getting going. Pretty much with the concrete we are looking for consistency that is not crunchy and not soupy like what you see now it is a little bit soupy here. You'll see you will have to take a handful of concrete, squeeze it and open your hand and if it crumbles it is too dry and if it squeezes out it is too runny so it has to take the shape of your fist. So we'll keep going ahead and mixing now. You still have some dry area in it but go ahead and mix it more. Again, try to scrape the bottom everywhere, add a little bit more water. Later you will develop the feeling of how much one bag of concrete will take of water. Now this is almost done mixing. I think this is the good consistency we need for the garden bench and to tell how good it is you grab a fistful, squeeze on it and open your fist and it doesn't crumble, it doesn't squeeze out it takes the shape of your fist so that's good."