Concrete pouring in winter: ways to warm up the concrete mix

Negative temperature is a negative factor for many construction works, including for pouring concrete. But not all home craftsmen stop this fact. However, before embarking on such work, it is worth assessing all the pros and cons of such construction. We will tell you about them.

The advantages of winter concrete pouring

Concrete pouring in winter has certain advantages.

They consist in the following:

• Ability to work on loose ground - The soil, which in the warm season simply crumbles and does not allow to dig a trench or a pit, with the onset of cold weather becomes hard. Thanks to this, you can work quite successfully with it;
• Opportunity to save - as a rule, in winter building materials cost a little less than in summer;
• Accelerated pace of work - due to the cold, construction workers are forced to act faster than usual, which leads to a reduction in the amount of time required for the work;

In addition, another point should be considered. In some regions, where there are practically no warm days, there is no other way out than to work with concrete in conditions of negative temperatures.

The disadvantages of winter concrete pouring

Answering the question of whether it is possible to pour concrete in the winter, it is necessary to take into account the shortcomings of this process:

• The need to do all the work in one approach - in order for our structure to gain strength evenly, it must be created at the same time;
• The need to purchase a ready-made composition - this disadvantage follows from the previous features of the work. Preparing all the required volume of the mixture at once is very difficult, so most likely you will have to purchase a ready-made solution containing components that prevent it from freezing;

• Increase cost estimates - heating the mixture requires certain costs, due to which the total price of the work carried out;
• The need to attract third-party specialists and the use of professional equipment - if you decide to apply technically sophisticated methods of working with the mixture, such as electrode heating, you will have to hire specialists who can work with the appropriate equipment;

• Increasing the time for concrete strength gain - even at an ambient temperature of -5 degrees, the material will gain full strength only after 3 months. Therefore, speaking about the temperature at which it is possible to pour concrete in the winter, it should be noted that it is permissible to do this at -20 ° C. However, the resulting product will not gain the required strength even for 3 months. For comparison, we note that at positive temperatures this period is 45 days;
• Possible damage to the concrete - even a slight deviation from the technology of winter pouring can lead to the fact that the resulting product will become brittle. Because of this, it will have to be completely dismantled and then re-filled, which will lead to significant financial expenses.

Summarizing the above, it should be noted that it is quite difficult to prevent the concrete mixture from freezing in winter. In addition, the period of strength of the composition increases. And most importantly, there is a high risk of obtaining a low-quality product.

Tip! In order to dismantle the defective structure in addition to the perforator, scrap and sledgehammer, cutting of reinforced concrete with diamond circles is required. Its application will speed up the process of work. Diamond drilling of holes in concrete can also be useful.

Thus, it is best to abandon the winter pouring of concrete and do all the work with the onset of heat. Another option is to use different methods of heating concrete.

The wayы прогрева бетонной смеси

List of ways

Varieties of concrete heating can be represented as a table. It is listed below.

Of all the methods listed above, manual heating is the simplest and most effective. Consider it in more detail.

Manual warming бетонной смеси

This method is perfect for those cases when frosts are observed at night, and during the day comes a positive temperature. Warming up begins in the concrete mixer and continues after pouring the mixture.

The implementation of this method begins with the following steps:

1. Water is heated and heated in a domestic concrete mixer - while its temperature should not exceed 80 ° C;

1. First, a filler is added to the water, then sand, and then the cement of the grade M-400 or M-500 is gradually poured;
2. Additives are added, accelerating the process of solidification of the mixture;

1. Fill the resulting composition.

 Tip! After laying the solution it should be treated with a building vibrator. This will consolidate the material and remove cavities filled with air from it.

Instructions for further action is that after these procedures, the insulating material is placed on the concrete mass. It can be insulating mats or even ordinary straw. From above the construction is covered with a tarpaulin or polyethylene.

Next is the heating of the solution until it hardens. All the same means are used for this - gas burners or heat guns.

After the concrete has hardened, heating can be stopped. Formwork should be removed only after the material gains full strength.

Conclusion

Before pouring concrete in winter, you should think about the many negative aspects of such work.

In particular:

• increases the time of strength of the composition;
• cost estimates increase;
• there is a danger of receiving defective material.

The advantages of this method include the ability to work on loose soils, a faster pace of construction and savings on building materials. Thus, in most cases it is better to abandon winter concreting and transfer this work to the warm season.

For more information on this issue, you can get from the video in this article.