Building a stone...

[Mike Westerling]

Well I just finished filling a mold I made last nite for a 55" atlas stone. I followed the instructions by Jason Keene I found on the net. NOT the easiest thing I've ever done but certainly not the hardest. Anyway, I used quickrete 5000 and the first bag mixed okay but I wound up using almost double the amount of water suggested on the bag. The second bag had a ton of gravel in it but it was too late to do anything about it because the store is too far away for me to shoot over and exchange it. The rest of the bags also had a lot of gravel in them as well. So I just kept mixing and filling until it was done now I just wait.

A couple of questions:

1. Will using the extra water make it a lot weaker?

2. Will using the mix with so much gravel make it weaker and/or too rough?

I noticed in one set of directions portland cement was mixed with sand and in the other (jasons) he used quikrete Q5000. I went with jasons because they seemed simpler. However, the store only had quikrete 5000 not the Q5000 with reinforcing fibers he mentioned. So, am I screwed? What do you guys think?

[Rob Okey]

The extra water may make a difference to the strength but it should still be ok. Leave it a while to cure, a couple of weeks at least. My first stone used too much water, so much that it was seeping through the plaster but that stone has been dropped from shoulder height several times and no problems.

The gravel will make it rougher and your forearms won't thank you :) shouldn't make it too much weaker, indeed, varying sizes of aggregate is what makes concrete strong.

I use sand, cement and granite dust and my stones are tough. The granite dust has some larger particles in, I try to pick out the biggest ones. Next time I may use the reinforced stuff.

[james rude]

I would recommend avoiding the fiberglass reinforced stuff, it really makes you itch. I haven't had any problems with any of the ones that are just quik 5000

[Rob Okey]

Hell I never thought about the itching thing. Good call.

[Mike Westerling]

I was a little worried all that work was for nothing. I'll let you know it turns out.
-Mike

[DaneGarreau]

I use Quickrete 5000 for my stones, and so far they have come out great. The gravel isn't going to make it smooth as glass, but it won't too bad either. If you mold is flat and smooth then the stone should be too, at least in theory.