Footing, Foundation, and Mud Sill
The four layers between a house and the ground, and the load path that runs through them.
Split a Concrete Bag Into Two Liftable Halves Over a Piece of Rebar
Technique: Split a Concrete Bag
The Problem
A bag of concrete mix is 25kg or more of dead weight in a floppy paper sack. Emptying one into a mixer means picking the whole thing up, holding it above the drum, and cutting or tipping it while it sags in the middle and shifts as it pours. The bag ends up heaviest at the moment you have the least control over it, and if the drum is at chest height you're lifting the full weight to get there.
Cutting the bag open on the ground first doesn't help much either — now it's an open bag of loose mix that has to be lifted anyway.
The Technique
Cut the bag in half while it's still on the ground, and use a length of rebar to do the folding.
- Lay a length of rebar on the ground and set the bag across it, so the bar runs under the middle of the bag at right angles to its length.
- Slit the bag across its width, directly over the bar, cutting through the top face only.
- Lift the rebar by both ends. The bag folds in half over the bar, and the cut you made opens downward on each side.
- Carry it to the mixer on the bar and let each half tip in, or set it down and lift the halves separately.
You never lift the full bag, and each half is roughly half the weight.
Pro tip: Cut only the upper face. Slitting all the way through means the mix runs out on the ground the moment you lift the bar, and the point of the fold is that the paper still holds the two halves together until you want them open.
Pro tip: Any straight bar long enough to grip outside the bag's width works — a length of pipe, a digging bar, a scaffold tube. Rebar is what's on a fencing site, not what's special about the method. Whatever you use wants to be long enough that both hands are clear of the bag when you lift.
Safety note: Dry cement mix is caustic, and cutting and folding a bag raises dust right in front of you. Wear a dust mask and eye protection, and stand upwind if you're outside. Wet cement on skin causes burns that develop over hours rather than immediately, so wear gloves and rinse off anything that lands on you.
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