How to make a cement mortar

In many homes, wall surfaces are far from ideal, and they often need to be leveled, for example, before pasting wallpaper. Today, the offer of a variety of leveling compounds on the market is very large, which is good news. But the price for mortars does not suit everyone. To level the floor and walls of a small room, sometimes more than 15 bags of dry mix are needed. Agree, this is not cheap. This is where cement comes to the rescue, and since childhood we all know the familiar sand. Before embarking on decisive batching operations, it is still necessary to study how to properly make a cement mortar of the required quality.

It is important to know

Like any building material, cement has a shelf life. Consider that cement is extremely afraid of moisture. It is recommended to store it in a dry place. Only in this case, the cement will be able to retain its properties for six months. But it is best to buy it literally before use, so that the cement during long storage could not absorb the moisture contained in the air or in any nearby source of moisture.

If you need to make repairs in a high-humidity room, then use for this purpose hydrophobic cement, which is not afraid of contact with water.

The cement grade defines such a parameter as the strength of the mortar (ability to withstand the compressive load, which is measured in kg per cm²).

Types of cement mortar

Cement mortars are of the following types: fatty, normal, skinny. The quality of the solution can be determined using the paddle, which is used to knead the solution.

Honey There is a lot of aggregate in the solution, so it is not very convenient in operation and does not have high strength. The resulting solution does not stick to the oar, but only stains.

Normal. This solution contains a sufficient amount of binder and aggregate. The mixed solution adheres to the oar in separate bunches.

Fatty. In solution, the binder is in excess, so it cracks when frozen. Cement mortar quite envelops the paddle.

Typically, the binders are added to a lean solution, and the aggregate is added to a greasy solution.

Preparation of the solution

In order to achieve the best quality of the batch, all materials are sieved beforehand through a sieve. To prepare a cement mortar suitable for plastering, it is necessary to use a sieve with small cells (5x5 mm), for performing stone work - with larger cells (10x10 mm).

First, you need to prepare a dry mix (depending on the brand of cement, for 1 part it takes 2.5-6 parts of sand), and only then you will already mix the mortar. If you have cement grade 200, you need to add 3.5 parts of sand to one part of the cement. For grade 400, keep a 1: 5 proportion of cement to sand. Used sand should not have any extraneous inclusions and impurities. You can prepare the mixture in a bucket or box, but it is better to do this on a wooden board. Load cement into the container with sand in layers: first a layer of sand, then cement. Such a layered download will help you to make a quality solution.

When mixing the solution, it is necessary to observe the exact dosing of materials and water using scales and special dishes. So, the process of preparing cement mortar is as follows:

• as mentioned above, cement and sand are poured in layers in the form of a “bed” with a height of about 200-300 mm,
• The resulting "bed" shut water
• all mixed several times with an oar (shovel) until a homogeneous mass,
• The resulting mixture is sifted through a thick sieve with a mesh size of at least 3x3 mm.

In case of excess water, you can get a liquid solution, which after drying will not be as strong as a thick solution of a similar composition.

If the mixture is prepared correctly, then it will result in a homogeneous composition of the solution, which should be spent within one and a half hours. When calculating the required amount of cement mortar, it is important to consider the moisture content of the sand, since the solution mixed with dry sand retains its consumer qualities for three hours. And if the used sand is very wet, then the prepared solution must be consumed within one hour - the cement and too wet mixture smoothly decreases the strength and binding properties.

Cement mortars are often used in laying foundations and other structures. They are also used for laying and leveling walls, for floor screed. Cement surfaces are quite durable and smooth, but at the same time very cold.

By adjusting the amount of binder and aggregate, you can get a cement mortar of the desired quality to perform one or another type of construction work.

Video

Features of the preparation of cement mortar for laying in the video format: