On today's video, we're going to show you how to run a concrete slump test. Alright, Hussein from Holt Engineers is actually performing the test for me on the job site. But here's what we're doing. We're basically going to pour concrete into this steel cone.
This slump test, this is about a $250 set right here. There'll actually be a link to this in the description below. But Hussein, if you would go ahead and perform the test for us and I'll talk everybody through it. So he's going to go ahead and fill this cone. Now this is 12 inches tall.
What you saw was he put the cone in water first just to make sure the concrete wasn't sticking to it. He also put a little bit of water on the bed so the concrete wouldn't stick to the bed of this. He's got it on a level surface, which is this plywood that he's using on every job. Now, he's a third-party testing company that we use so that our clients know for sure I can hand them a third-party certification as to what my slump tests are.
And he's doing some other tests for us, but this is a test that you could do on your own house. No matter what you're doing, this is a good test. And what we're generally trying to figure out here is how much water is in the concrete. Now, first off, you want to check what the engineer has specified for the mix.
And he's usually going to put a slump value on that. And then also the ticket from the concrete company is going to say what the slump is. So in this case, we've got a five slump mix coming from the concrete company.
And we're going to be able to test that with this cone. And basically, when he gets this thing all the way filled, we're going to pull the cone away and see how much that concrete has fallen. Now you can see he's doing this in lifts and he's done it in about three or four lifts and each time he's using a piece of rebar.
He's got a fancy rod here but you could use a piece of rebar to do this. We're making sure all the air is out. You can see some bubbles coming out of the bottom.
Making sure that concrete's in there nice and good. And then he's going to level it off in a second here and pull this out. Okay, so that's it.
Looking good, Hussain. And again, you could do this on your own. I know a lot of builders that keep a slump cone in the back of their truck.
I know a lot of concrete guys that are doing this themselves as well. You could even do this if you were a homeowner doing your own job or pouring your own job. Now, he's got a couple of fancy holders here to hold that cone down.
He's going to pull that off, and here's where the money happens right here. He's pulling that off gently and you can see we've got still that cone shape. This is a good sign.
I think we're going to do well on this test. And this cool thing about this is it actually has a measure already. So this is 12 inches from the base to there. And what do we got, Hussein? Looks like it's about four and three quarter.
So we're right where we need to be. This is perfect concrete. Yeah, this is perfect. A couple tips for you as we close out this video.
You know, you might see concrete with a really low slump, maybe a three slump. You might see really soupy concrete. If we're getting down to like seven, eight, that's when we need to think about not adding any water on the job site because that's going to be too low.
And ultimately, you're not going to get the mixture that you're going to expect from the plant and your clients are going to end up having. potentially more cracking in their foundation or other things. Remember, there is a great margin of safety, though, when these foundations are designed and poured. So even if we had an inch more to slump or potentially even an inch and a half more to slump, two inches, it's not a huge deal, but we want to make sure that everybody's testing and knowing. And believe me, that accountability of knowing that you've got your slump cone on the job and you're testing concrete, it's going to keep everybody accountable and everybody's going to do the right thing.
Thanks for joining me, guys. We'll see you next time.