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I'm going to show you the actual batch plant ticket they give me when the concrete
trucks show up on the job and we pour the concrete.
My name is Mike Day. I own Day's Concrete Floors, Inc. My company pours concrete
almost every day of the work week. We use the 4 mix designs shown above for most of
our projects.
What is the concrete mix ratio for 3000 psi concrete (also
20MPa concrete)
The concrete batch plant ticket you see below is for an 8 yard load of concrete.
On the bottom of the ticket it shows you the actual weight of cement, sand, aggregate,
and water. It also shows the air-entrainment (Master-air) and a water reducer (Master
Glenium).
Air-entrainment is used in climates that have freeze & thaw cycles to help keep the
concrete from scaling.
Water reducer is used to help make the concrete mix more workable without adding
water to the mix.
On the ticket you can see the actual weight of 8 yards of concrete:
THIS GIVES YOU A BASIC 3000 PSI CONCRETE MIX RATIO OF:
1 PART CEMENT
3.25 PARTS STONE
2.93 PARTS SAND
A sack or "bag" of cement weighs 94 pounds so this tells us a 3000 psi concrete mix is
also equal to a 5.5 sack mix of concrete.
1 Part Cement
3 Parts Stone (or aggregates)
3 Parts Sand
1. Cement = 301.2 kg
2. Stone = 978.1 kg
3. Sand = 882.3 kg
On the concrete ticket you see above, there was 216 pounds of water added to the 8
yards of concrete when it was batched into the truck.
That = 225 pounds of water per cubic yard (27 x 8.34) rounded off.
This is a pretty dry mixture based on my experience. We usually add some water to the
mix when it shows up on the job-site to make it more workable.
The same will go for the examples below. You can see how much water was added to
the load of concrete when the concrete was batched, by looking at the ticket.
If you're mixing concrete by hand and are trying to achieve a stronger concrete
mix, you can use the ratios on this page, but only use enough water to make the
concrete workable for what you need it for.
The actual weights used to make this 10.5 yard load were:
THIS GIVES YOU A BASIC 3500 PSI CONCRETE MIX RATIO OF:
1 PART CEMENT
2.95 PARTS STONE
2.66 PARTS SAND
If I break the weights down per cubic yard of concrete it comes to:
There are 94 pounds of cement in a "sack or bag" of cement. That means 3500 psi
concrete is called a 6 sack mix or 6 bag mix of concrete. (#'s are rounded off).
1 Part Cement
3 parts Stone
2.5 parts Sand
1. 326 Kg of Cement
3. 867 Kg of Sand
The actual weights used to make 4.5 yards of 4000 psi concrete are:
THIS GIVES YOU A BASIC 4000 PSI CONCRETE MIX RATIO OF:
1 PART CEMENT
2.93 PARTS STONE
2 PARTS SAND
If I break the weights down per cubic yard of concrete, it comes to:
There are 94 pounds of cement in a "sack or bag" of cement. That means 4000 psi
concrete is also called a 6.5 sack or bag mix.
1 Part Cement
3 Parts Stone
2 Parts Sand
1. 368 Kg of Cement
2. 1081 Kg of Stone
3. 737 Kg of Sand
THIS GIVES YOU A BASIC 4500 PSI CONCRETE MIX RATIO OF:
1 PART CEMENT
2.26 PARTS STONE
1.73 PARTS SAND
If I break the weights down per cubic yard of concrete, it comes to:
1. 702.5 pounds of cement
NOTE: This load of concrete only had 3/8" stone (aggregate) in it. Some of the other
ones had 3/4" or a mixture of both 3/4" and 3/8".
But, there's 511 pounds of cement used to make 1 yard of 3000 psi concrete and
there's 624 pounds of cement used to make 1 yard of 4000 psi concrete.
The ratio of cement to stone stays about the same but the ratio of cement to sand goes
down with less sand being used as the strength of the concrete goes up.
1. Foundation footings
2. Foundation walls
3. Residential (house & garage) Interior concrete floors
4. Small commercial buildings interior concrete floors
5. Some larger commercial buildings interior concrete floors
Sometimes we'll substitute 3500 psi concrete for these applications but mostly use
3000 .
MPa's means Megapascals, this is how concrete strengths are labeled in the metric
system.
It also refers to the concrete's compressive strength and it's ability to handle "loads" put
upon it.
How do I achieve these strengths if I'm mixing the
concrete by hand?
Just use the mixing ratios above as a guideline. However you're measuring the cement,
stone, and sand, just understand it takes a little more cement to achieve a stronger
concrete mix.
If you're mixing concrete by hand, there's probably no way you'll be able to tell if it's
3000 or 4000 psi concrete.
Keep the water to a minimum, just use enough to make a "workable mixture". Using too
much water will weaken the mix and it'll be more likely to crack.
DISCLAIMER: All the concrete mixing ratios above are from the Ready Mix Concrete
Company I use to place and finish my concrete projects.
I only specialize in placing and finishing concrete flatwork. I don't make, batch, design
or sell concrete.
Use these concrete mixing ratios at your discretion. I only wrote this page to help you
understand the differences in mixing ratios between 3000, 3500, 4000, and 4500 psi
concrete.