Cement Mixers Birmingham

Mixing concrete and mortar by hand is fairly easy to do and offers a good amount of control over the consistency of the mix. However, if you have a large amount of concrete or mortar to mix, it is often worth hiring a small cement mixer to make things easier. Cement mixers, both electric and petrol-driven mixers, are available to hire from most good tool hire shops and should not cost more than about £15 per day of hire. It is worth shopping around to find the best deal, but http://www.hss.com/ is a good place to start.

Planning, as ever with DIY, is the key. Set up your cement mixer as close to where you are working as possible. Be sensible here! You need room to work around the mixer and will need to be able to get a wheelbarrow easily to and from the mixer, so don’t sacrifice room to work for the sake of getting the mixer 5ft closer to your job.

Place a piece of board under the mixer (or under the drum at the very least) to catch any spills and to help stabilise the machine. If you are using an electric mixer, make sure that cables are protected and not going to trip you or someone else up.

You should already know what type of mix you will be using for the DIY task at hand, but if not you can check out our guide to Concrete and Mortar Mixes . A common concrete mix is one part cement, two parts sand and three parts coarse aggregate. If using combined aggregate, this mix would be 1:4, one part cement to four parts combined aggregate.

Load half the mix into the drum and give it a dry mix by running the mixer for a minute or two without adding any water. Now gradually add water until the mix is l...