All About Concrete Weigh | How Much Does Concrete Weigh | Why Does Concrete Weigh So Much | How Much Do Concrete’s Ingredients Weigh

How Much Does Concrete Weigh?

Generally, we know that concrete is the most versatile building material among all other materials. Concrete is the most durable material easy to work with this material.

Concrete is a mixture of cement, sand, and water and when you are adding water to the mixture, concrete starts hardening. After the hardening process concrete needs a 28 days full curing process to gain its full strength. Generally, the strength of concrete is measured in pounds per square inch or psi.

Generally, concrete bags are available in the market with different weights like 40 lbs to 80 lbs. When the water is mixed with concrete it gets heavier than the previous situation because of the weight of water.

The average weight of a concrete slab is near about 4050 lbs or 2 tons per cubic yard or 150 pounds per cubic foot. The weight of concrete varies due to the ingredients mixed with it and the amount of water added to it. Higher-grade concrete has higher strength and they are heavier due to the excess amount of stones added to it.

Concrete weight is also calculated by the volume (length x breadth x height) and it is also calculated by a cross-section of concrete x depth.

Why Does Concrete Weigh So Much?

Generally concrete is prepared with four ingredients, those are cement, sand, aggregates, and water. These four ingredients are made concrete heavier.

Other building materials come from nature directly but concrete comes from natural elements it is a man-made process. Concrete is made by mixing cement, sand, aggregates, and water together and the weight of concrete is basically the weight of all these products.

Generally, concrete does not have a fixed weight because it varies for different batches of concrete due to different mixture amounts of aggregates.

Sometimes, we use more aggregates to prepare the concrete so it is heavier and stronger and sometimes we use less stones and sand and the concrete will lightweight and porous.

So, mainly the amount of aggregates will decide the total weight of concrete. Only quikrete has a fixed value of their weight because the weight is clearly written over the quikrete bag.

Also Read: All About Concrete Mix for Fence Posts

How Much Do Concrete Ingredients Weigh?

The weight of concrete is the weight of the concrete ingredients. The average ingredients’ weight are given below-

• Aggregates– 10 – 15 pounds per gallon
• Portland cement- 12.5 pounds per gallon
• Sand- 12.5 pounds per gallon
• Water- 8.3 pounds per gallon
• We actually calculate the estimate of concrete weight by the following methods, those are following below-
• Portland cement- 6 bags per cubic yard
• Sand- 1.5 tons per cubic yard
• Aggregates- 2 tons per cubic yard
• Water- 40 gallons per cubic yard

Generally, 3500 psi concrete weight increases to 7180 pounds at the time of pouring.

Here are a few things that could affect the concrete’s weight-

• Additives: Reinforcement is the main additive and there are also some fibers, and micro rebar which can increase the weight of the concrete.
• Wire Mesh: Generally, wire mesh is provided in the slabs which can increase the weight of the slab.
• Rebar: Any structural components contain rebar like shear walls, columns, beams, etc. It acts as the major weight inducer material in the concrete. The size of the rebar depends on the structural analysis calculation. It basically adds near about half a ton or more than the weight of a concrete wall.

Why Concrete’s Weight Matters?

Sometimes the weight of the concrete does not matter but in some cases, concrete weight plays a vital role. The weight of the concrete is calculated by the length, breadth, and height of the concrete.

By this, you can find the volume of the concrete and then multiplying it with the specific weight you can find out the weight of the concrete.

Also Read: What Is Vacuum Concrete | Application of Vacuum Concrete | Advantages & Disdvantages of Vacuum Concrete | Process of Vacuum Concrete

Why We Weigh Concrete?

If any building has countertops then it is very much important that how much weight that concrete is because the cabinet has to support the whole weight. Sometimes, concrete’s weight is higher than a stone so précised calculation is needed.

When the concrete is used as an anchor like a fence post then you need to calculate how much load that post is carrying. In recent days, the internal floors are getting more popular day by day so you need to calculate that amount of weight because it can be supported on the adjacent structure.

The weight of concrete is so much that’s why the fireplace, mantle, planter, and furniture need to support by other materials.

At the time of demo work, we need to add the weight of the dumpers along with the concrete’s weight. The general weight of dumpers is near about 20000 pounds. So, you need to take this into your account.

Generally, the 4” thicker slab is lighter than an 8” thicker slab because the weight of the concrete ingredients and the psi rating also indicates the weight of the concrete. To overcome this type of weight, we generally add rebar, wire mesh, fibers, etc.