“Let’s Start At the Very Beginning, A Very Good Place to Start”

Huzzah! With the posting of these very words, I do believe Learning to Play With Concrete and Stone surpasses half of the blogs ever created.  That is to say, I have penned a second installment.  I have this (self-created and completely unfounded-in-fact) suspicion that many people begin a blog and realize they have nothing to say and it dies.  It’s not only my suspicion, it’s my big fear.

But here I am, typing again.  I don’t know a lot about blogging.  There are none that I follow regularly. I bump into a few certain blogs every once in a while.  I don’t know all the customs and social mores of this blogosphere. In fact, I don’t even like the word blog.  So, I will from here on refer to Learning to Play With Concrete and Stone as my installment-based discussion and commentary on my interest in designing and creating both useful and decorative objects using various combinations of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and certain cementitious materials.  Too bulky?

The Pantheon in Rome, completed in AD 125.  As concrete domes go, it is winner and still champion.  (Photo by Dave Gagne)

So, in the beginning, there was concrete and it was good.

I am going to start on the concrete side of things.  My desire to sink my hands into some concrete and shape it to my will has been brewing longer than my interest in stonework.  Though not really sink my hands in.  There is something in the mix that isn’t good for your skin.  Cured, rough concrete may be a great (or brutish) exfoliater, but its liquid form doesn’t help to keep skin looking young and can cause burns.

I’ll spare you the in-depth history of concrete.  Of course the Romans are famous for their early use of concrete.  The Pantheon in Rome still holds the record for largest unsupported concrete dome.  A quick glance at the Wikipedia shows ancient Egyptians were found to have used concrete in their Pyramids.  Since those primitive structures in Egypt and Rome, we’ve come a long way in improving our concrete architecture, reaching the pinnacle in 1968 with Boston’s City Hall, perhaps the ugliest building in the world.

The aforementioned Boston City Hall, completed in 1968.  (Photo by Bobak Ha'Eri from Wikipedia)

How good were the Romans?  Just to show off, they added a 27-foot opening called an oculus at the very top of the Pantheon.  Scholars point to this as an early example of architectural trash-talk.  (Photo by Dave Gagne)

So if you are going to hang around this here blog thing, I need you to know the one nit-picky little detail about the semantics of concrete and cement.  Anyone know what the difference is?  Hands please.  If you already know, then skip down to the section titled “Things You Don’t Yet Know.”  Okay, concrete and cement are not interchangeable terms.  Same ballpark, same team even, but they are different positions in the batting order.

Let’s start with cement.  No.  Let’s start with concrete.  Concrete is the end product we are here to discuss.  Concrete is the hardened, stone-like substance holding up our highway bridges, damming up the world’s rivers and giving you a basement to store all the crap that you just can’t throw away.

Concrete is made from a mix of various ingredients.  There are some rocks in there, some gravel, sand, sometimes coloring agents and perhaps even various chemicals for strength or improved workability.  The two important ingredients, however, are water and cement, or more specifically Portland cement.  Portland cement is a magical combination of goodies ground into a fine powder.  We don’t really need to know much more than that.  When it comes in contact with water, a chemical reaction called hydration begins, causing the mixture to harden and ironically become waterproof.  Concrete doesn’t actually dry.  The water is used up in the chemical reaction.

To the water and cement we add fine aggregates such as sand and course aggregates, usually gravel and small rocks but sometimes glass, shells or other decorative materials.  These aggregates give the hardening cement something to bond to, giving the resulting mixture more strength.  Metal mesh, iron rebar, tiny fibers and other materials are also used to make a concrete object stronger or more resistant to cracking.

Don't go to your big box store and call this a sack of concrete.  Actually, they may not even know the difference.  And sorry fellow Mainer's, it's named for its similarity to a stone quarried only on the Isle of Portland, in Dorset, England.  (Photo by Dave Gagne)

Admixtures.  Admixture is a funny word and frankly, I don’t like it much.  It refers to various other powders and liquids that are added to the concrete mix to give it certain superpowers, like color, frost resistance and my favorite, water-reduction.  The latter is accomplished with plasticizers, which reduce the amount of water required in the concrete mix.  It is my understanding that the less water used in the chemical reaction, the stronger the resulting concrete will be.  That said, there has to be enough water to make the mixture workable.  You have to be able to mix it thoroughly and actually pour it into place.  Plasticizers are also known as water-reducers, as they magically make the water you are using more awesome.  I believe that is a technical description of the process.  A concrete guy once tried to offer a chemistry-based explanation of it all, but I had to laugh at him for thinking you can explain magic with chemistry.  That’s just silly.

Oh boy.  I hooked some of you with the first post, but now I’m pretty sure I’ve bored everyone nearly to tears.  Actually, I believe the Interweb has abolished boredom.  If one enters the state of boredom, the Interweb is instantly ready to whisk you back to videos of skateboarding dogs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CnTeMCU8SU).  Bam!  No more boredom.

“But Dave, why concrete counters?”  Because it is cool.  Because you can make it into any shape that you can create a mold for.  Because we can do it ourselves!  And that’s why I work at home, making a little less money than you bastards hitting the cubicle everyday.  With the little less money comes a little more time (now that I kicked my MafiaWars on Facebook habit).  More time plus some handy ability and a cement mixer equals opportunities for fun!  I know it says stone at the top as well, but I’m not running out and making my own granite or marble counters.  I could add that marble pastry block you’ve always wanted or a solid wooden butcher block to a custom concrete counter though.

I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself though.  You can research the wonders of concrete counters on your own.  It’s a big Internet.  Start here (http://www.concreteexchange.com/why-concrete.html) and let industry pioneer Fu-Tung Cheng wow you and astound you.  Feel free to mix in enough skateboarding dogs or even a little OMG cat watching the double rainbow (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2EKUjgeIvY) when it suits you.  You know, to keep from getting bored.

We got some basics out of the way today.  Let me know either by comment below or email if you have any questions beyond my cursory explanation.  In the next episode, I really will explain what our first project will be.  Sneak preview.  It’s going here:

Wouldn't a concrete counter just clean this up nicely?  (Photo by Dave Gagne)

Talk to you soon.




dave