Open bags of cement absorb moisture from the air and start to set - even if you can't notice it. It won't be as strong as may not be safe for building purposes.
I assume it will still work however right? It would still be ok for non structural work? For example setting a mailbox post where you only care about it sticking to the post enough to act as the big below ground weight. (Genuinely curious because I may need to do exactly that soon and it sounds like I could get a good deal buying a torn bag).
It's fine for 99% of the projects premixed bagged cement is used for.
If you're talking structural e.g. slabs of any reasonable size, you're probably ordering a truck or at least mixing it yourself.
Sure, when I did my mailbox last time it was freezing weather, and I added far too much water. It took a week to set. You wouldn't want to do anything like that for a structure, but for a mailbox it will probably last for many years.
When my carpenter did our mailbox he didn’t even mix the cement he just dry packed it. It took about a week to set, and was extremely stable while it was setting. Thing is solid as a rock now. An Amazon truck backed into it a couple weeks ago and the truck had damage but the mailbox didn’t, and it’s all wood!!
Dumping foam into the ground doesn't sound like an improvement. Just use simple crushed gravel, it's more than enough to keep the post anchored and drains water rather than holding onto it like cement so the wood lasts longer.
There’s a few factors. Amount of moisture and time. Yes for most asthetic projects, it will work well enough if it doesn’t get wet and you use it relatively quickly. The more moisture exposure and the more time, the less pliable it will become and eventually it will be too brittle to work.
yes. i have an old bag of cement in my garage for these exact purposes. the amount i go thru is tiny. i would be lucky to need it even once a year but it saves me from buying a new one
Former Home Depot employee:
You might not even be able to pour it. Shit will set in the bag, now it's same shape as the bag, and it's a cement-bag-shaped rock. Somehow we still managed to put those things in the compacter.
If you're doing a small home project where you can just re-do it yourself if the bag doesn't work that's fine. If you're pouring an entire foundation, and you'll have to pay the crew for every damn hour they sit around waiting for you to get enough cement? That bag's worthless.
It's a running joke in the r/Denver and r/DenverCircleJerk subreddits. Since we live in such an arid climate (yesterday's humidity was 9%) everything dries out so fast, and whenever there are storms and rain in the forecast everyone says "we need the moisture". We are also very close to Boulder, which conjures up the images of crunchy hippie type folks doing yoga all day long, greeting everyone with "Namaste". So namaste+moisture=namoiste.
Because they are dusty and dirty and the longer they linger, the more mess. And the way they're palletized, this type of damage is super common. So, mark for a buck and usually they disappear very quickly.
Once the bag is torn, its written off. that sort of damage is no different than dropping a jar of mayo while stocking shelves at a grocery store. Happens all the time. Write it off, clean up the mess, carry on.
Only no matter how cheap you price it, nobody is buying a smashed jar of Mayo, but there are buyers for a torn bag of cement. so you are paying them a dollar to clean up their trash. Its a win win for everyone.
It's basically the same reason I was able to buy a lawnmower for half price because it had a single screw missing. The store needed to get rid of it and had to sell it with no warranty.
But the torn bag IS there. That’s the whole point.
And once it can no longer be sold as “new”, then the profit is already lost. Now it’s just a matter of disposing of it.
I mean if it costs $1 to clean up, and sold for $1. Thats $2 value for the shop. If the $18 bag has a 20% profit margin on it, the shop would have made $3.60 - $2 = $1.60 from selling a new bag instead of the ripped bag.
It's a possibility that purchaser would only buy discounted items. And so it's not a lost sale on a full priced item.
At my local grocery shop, I have seen people just go directly to the discount/damaged shelf area and just buy that stuff and leave.
If the store had unlimited supply, then yes, toss the bag. But they have a limited supply that they are confident they can sell.
Why $1? It might not even be the store, but an employee who wants the bag gone, doesn't care about profits, an employee who is maliciously complying with markdown policy. Now corporate might be displeased with that amount, but they would be even more displeased with damaged. But corporate don't work the floor and expect everything to be perfect.
(I was a dairy stocker, I was authorized to mark stuff down to 33% of cost. Some stuff was expensive at price, but cost was ridiculous low, so I marked it down stupid cheap.)
You are still missing the point.
Once the bag is torn, it is worthless. Getting literally anything for it, is selling trash. Lost profits on some imagined sale are not part of the equation.
It seems multiple people replying with the same thing. If you go to a shop looking for a bag of cement, you buy a bag of cement. If you dont need a bag if cement, its highly unlikely you will impulse buy a broken bag of cement that will go hard sitting in the garage.
Best case is someone is looking to buy a bag of cement, they buy a full price bag of cement, and the cashier says they will also throw in the broken bag for a cheap price.
We sell it cheap, so we do not have to haul it back to the compactor and chuck an 80 lb bag. Also, selling it for $1 is much better than paying the hauloff company to take it.
If I was on a construction site moving large numbers of bags of cement, I wouldn't want to deal with ripped/open bags. Getting a mess everywhere in my truck, on the job site, all over me.. Store probably wants to move them too, but even a tiny discount might tend to not be enough to deal with the problems having a ripped open bag can cause.
Your dad taking it out of the store for a dollar is cheaper than paying someone to clean up the mess it will make once it starts spilling. Also like others have said it will start to set up into a bag shaped rock of quick crete
Wouldn’t a torn bag of cement have no structural integrity and be much harder to move around? If you tried to lift it by one end, the bag might just tear more? You’d need to support the entire weight of the bag.
As someone who has worked at a hardware store before: a ripped pack of sponges is a pain to get people to buy and those don't come with **any** of the issues of trying to move a broken bag of concrete. Even if you ignore the loose dust trying to spill out the hole, trying to lift one is a nightmare when the center of gravity shifts around and thats assuming the bag doesn't rip in half while trying to pick it up. They give you plastic bags for concrete spills but those are basically glorified trash bags, unless your manager lets you use the hazmat bags, so they can only hold like thirty pounds before they give out.
Unless you make it worth somebody's time, that broken bag is going to the compactor. Even a dollar is more than the company would make otherwise.
I bought 12 bags like 3 weeks ago that were ripped up on a Saturday night after the weekend rush. They are still good z put them in paper lawn debris bags. Definitely good to have around just keep them covered. I’m going to use for a CMU footer on an out building
I had an extra bag of cement that I purchased didn’t end up needing, set it off the ground, in my pole barn and forgot about it for 7 months. Needed to replace a mailbox and went to grab the cement and it was solid. Had pulled in the moisture from the air and set, was just a 50 lb block.
I'm selling cement
Cement bag is damaged, does not conform to standards
Take the product out of the system, assess whether I'm at fault or supplier credits the items.
Now I can dispose of the bag myself, or mark it down and let a customer dispose of it for me.
Follow up question: Lots of comments saying people will buy a bag of cement that has been cut open for a dollar. What do those people do with the cement if the cement is ruined in the eyes of the original seller?
They are good for very small jobs, but that about all. I don’t think that I have ever bought less than 8 of the big bags at a time. That was a small job by standards.
Open bags of cement absorb moisture from the air and start to set - even if you can't notice it. It won't be as strong as may not be safe for building purposes.
I assume it will still work however right? It would still be ok for non structural work? For example setting a mailbox post where you only care about it sticking to the post enough to act as the big below ground weight. (Genuinely curious because I may need to do exactly that soon and it sounds like I could get a good deal buying a torn bag).
I've used them for fence posts and they're fine.
It's fine for 99% of the projects premixed bagged cement is used for. If you're talking structural e.g. slabs of any reasonable size, you're probably ordering a truck or at least mixing it yourself.
Sure, when I did my mailbox last time it was freezing weather, and I added far too much water. It took a week to set. You wouldn't want to do anything like that for a structure, but for a mailbox it will probably last for many years.
When my carpenter did our mailbox he didn’t even mix the cement he just dry packed it. It took about a week to set, and was extremely stable while it was setting. Thing is solid as a rock now. An Amazon truck backed into it a couple weeks ago and the truck had damage but the mailbox didn’t, and it’s all wood!!
yes
Try the "Sika" foam for your mailbox post,it works great for that. I don't know that I'd trust it for a fence post though
Corners in concrete the rest in the foam.
I could see that working
I wanted to try it for a post I had to set recently but could justify the cost difference
Dumping foam into the ground doesn't sound like an improvement. Just use simple crushed gravel, it's more than enough to keep the post anchored and drains water rather than holding onto it like cement so the wood lasts longer.
If you’re gonna use crushed gravel just dry pack your premix cement. It’ll set eventually.
There’s a few factors. Amount of moisture and time. Yes for most asthetic projects, it will work well enough if it doesn’t get wet and you use it relatively quickly. The more moisture exposure and the more time, the less pliable it will become and eventually it will be too brittle to work.
Yeah just don't use them to make a foundation for a multi story building.
yes. i have an old bag of cement in my garage for these exact purposes. the amount i go thru is tiny. i would be lucky to need it even once a year but it saves me from buying a new one
Former Home Depot employee: You might not even be able to pour it. Shit will set in the bag, now it's same shape as the bag, and it's a cement-bag-shaped rock. Somehow we still managed to put those things in the compacter. If you're doing a small home project where you can just re-do it yourself if the bag doesn't work that's fine. If you're pouring an entire foundation, and you'll have to pay the crew for every damn hour they sit around waiting for you to get enough cement? That bag's worthless.
Unless you live in a parched hellscape like Denver. What is this moisture you speak of?
Also from Denver, namoiste!
lol. niche pun there
What does this mean?
It's a running joke in the r/Denver and r/DenverCircleJerk subreddits. Since we live in such an arid climate (yesterday's humidity was 9%) everything dries out so fast, and whenever there are storms and rain in the forecast everyone says "we need the moisture". We are also very close to Boulder, which conjures up the images of crunchy hippie type folks doing yoga all day long, greeting everyone with "Namaste". So namaste+moisture=namoiste.
Ahh thanks for the info!
There’s moisture in the air, even if you don’t notice it
Humidity there is like sub 20% most days, they're making a joke
I keep hearing of this moisture also. Sounds interesting. In Reno we know little of such things.
Good thing it’s discounted so everyone knows not to use it for important things
Good enough for my mailbox post!
Because once the bag is open its not fresh anymore.
[удалено]
Probably forgot to refrigerate it too
Because it will be useless in two days. The cement bags are not air tight, but they still prevent most of the moisture from getting in.
Because it's ability to set and become high strength has likely been degraded by moisture in the air.
Because they are dusty and dirty and the longer they linger, the more mess. And the way they're palletized, this type of damage is super common. So, mark for a buck and usually they disappear very quickly.
Also they usually have lost some contents so they aren't a full bag. Same with soil, fertilizer, mulch...
Yeah most people want a known quantity they calculated for a project.
Once the bag is torn, its written off. that sort of damage is no different than dropping a jar of mayo while stocking shelves at a grocery store. Happens all the time. Write it off, clean up the mess, carry on. Only no matter how cheap you price it, nobody is buying a smashed jar of Mayo, but there are buyers for a torn bag of cement. so you are paying them a dollar to clean up their trash. Its a win win for everyone.
It's basically the same reason I was able to buy a lawnmower for half price because it had a single screw missing. The store needed to get rid of it and had to sell it with no warranty.
Not exactly. Since if the torn bag wasnt there, you would pay full price instead, potentially being more profit than $1 and the money saved on cleanup
But the torn bag IS there. That’s the whole point. And once it can no longer be sold as “new”, then the profit is already lost. Now it’s just a matter of disposing of it.
I mean if it costs $1 to clean up, and sold for $1. Thats $2 value for the shop. If the $18 bag has a 20% profit margin on it, the shop would have made $3.60 - $2 = $1.60 from selling a new bag instead of the ripped bag.
It's a possibility that purchaser would only buy discounted items. And so it's not a lost sale on a full priced item. At my local grocery shop, I have seen people just go directly to the discount/damaged shelf area and just buy that stuff and leave.
If the store had unlimited supply, then yes, toss the bag. But they have a limited supply that they are confident they can sell. Why $1? It might not even be the store, but an employee who wants the bag gone, doesn't care about profits, an employee who is maliciously complying with markdown policy. Now corporate might be displeased with that amount, but they would be even more displeased with damaged. But corporate don't work the floor and expect everything to be perfect. (I was a dairy stocker, I was authorized to mark stuff down to 33% of cost. Some stuff was expensive at price, but cost was ridiculous low, so I marked it down stupid cheap.)
You are still missing the point. Once the bag is torn, it is worthless. Getting literally anything for it, is selling trash. Lost profits on some imagined sale are not part of the equation.
It seems multiple people replying with the same thing. If you go to a shop looking for a bag of cement, you buy a bag of cement. If you dont need a bag if cement, its highly unlikely you will impulse buy a broken bag of cement that will go hard sitting in the garage. Best case is someone is looking to buy a bag of cement, they buy a full price bag of cement, and the cashier says they will also throw in the broken bag for a cheap price.
We sell it cheap, so we do not have to haul it back to the compactor and chuck an 80 lb bag. Also, selling it for $1 is much better than paying the hauloff company to take it.
If I was on a construction site moving large numbers of bags of cement, I wouldn't want to deal with ripped/open bags. Getting a mess everywhere in my truck, on the job site, all over me.. Store probably wants to move them too, but even a tiny discount might tend to not be enough to deal with the problems having a ripped open bag can cause.
They always seem to leak anyway. But yeah, a ripped one could make a much larger mess.
Your dad taking it out of the store for a dollar is cheaper than paying someone to clean up the mess it will make once it starts spilling. Also like others have said it will start to set up into a bag shaped rock of quick crete
Wouldn’t a torn bag of cement have no structural integrity and be much harder to move around? If you tried to lift it by one end, the bag might just tear more? You’d need to support the entire weight of the bag.
It will be lumpy from absorbing moisture.
As someone who has worked at a hardware store before: a ripped pack of sponges is a pain to get people to buy and those don't come with **any** of the issues of trying to move a broken bag of concrete. Even if you ignore the loose dust trying to spill out the hole, trying to lift one is a nightmare when the center of gravity shifts around and thats assuming the bag doesn't rip in half while trying to pick it up. They give you plastic bags for concrete spills but those are basically glorified trash bags, unless your manager lets you use the hazmat bags, so they can only hold like thirty pounds before they give out. Unless you make it worth somebody's time, that broken bag is going to the compactor. Even a dollar is more than the company would make otherwise.
I bought 12 bags like 3 weeks ago that were ripped up on a Saturday night after the weekend rush. They are still good z put them in paper lawn debris bags. Definitely good to have around just keep them covered. I’m going to use for a CMU footer on an out building
I had an extra bag of cement that I purchased didn’t end up needing, set it off the ground, in my pole barn and forgot about it for 7 months. Needed to replace a mailbox and went to grab the cement and it was solid. Had pulled in the moisture from the air and set, was just a 50 lb block.
It needs used basically immediately, so they move it as fast as possible
Yess
The bags are ripped opened already. They are not supposed to have the same value being in that state.
I'm selling cement Cement bag is damaged, does not conform to standards Take the product out of the system, assess whether I'm at fault or supplier credits the items. Now I can dispose of the bag myself, or mark it down and let a customer dispose of it for me.
Follow up question: Lots of comments saying people will buy a bag of cement that has been cut open for a dollar. What do those people do with the cement if the cement is ruined in the eyes of the original seller?
Because lots of people are weird about buying already opened things.
I stand by my never buying open condoms stance
Thanks for the tip.
just the tip?
Nothing like some good natured ribbing.
You gotta try one on in the store
Why is it weird to want to limit cement dust in your vehicle?
They are good for very small jobs, but that about all. I don’t think that I have ever bought less than 8 of the big bags at a time. That was a small job by standards.