Don’t try this at home.

I wanted to make some custom cement blocks for a yard project that I’m working on. (I’ll post pictures of the completed project later; until then it’s a suprise)

I thought It would be as simple as making a mold and pouring in cement. So I made a mold, which was itself a pain in the neck.

mold

I wanted blocks with a hole in the middle, (which will make more sense when you see my final project later) so I cut 16 pieces of 4×4 8 inches each.

4x4s

Then I spread vegetable oil all over everything to act as a releasing agent.

oil

Then I mixed, dyed, and carefully poured the cement. I favored one side of each block with the 4×4s, but even the smaller wall of the blocks were close to 2 inches; everything was carefully measured. I had Kylie hold each block in place and help me trow the cement.

poured

then I waited a couple of days for it all to set. for some reason I assumed I’d be able to simply take apart the mold and, with a mallet, hammer out the 4×4 centers and I’d have these custom blocks with holes in the middle. Unfortunately, my assumptions were incorrect.

broken

I tried to extract the 4×4 on just three blocks. They all broke. The others are ALL cracked, even though I didn’t even try to take out the 4×4s.

cracked

What an enormous  waste of time and money.  Some quick research on the internet or just a call to my father would have saved me a lot of time and trouble. I called my dad after the fact and he explained the problems. First and most importantly, I used the wrong cement and aggregate. I needed to use Portland cement and probably smaller aggregate. I also should have used some type of synthetic fiber to make it even stronger. I shouldn’t have used wood 4×4s to mold the center hole, since the wood expanded and they were impossible to extract. And finally I should have kept it all wet while it cured.

I spent around 60 bucks on the whole thing, maybe a little more. And that was just for one batch of blocks; I was planning on doing another batch. mason blocks are about $2.00 apiece at Home Depot. I think I’ll just buy those to complete my project.