FreeShip- Brown River Sand, Fine/Medium, Works for Concrete- (Prompt rebate on orders with 3 or more FreeShip items!)

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This is "ordinary river sand" being sold for use in concrete/mortar (but it can be used for many things). What is ordinary sand? It's partly a judgement call. The main property for this kind of sand is that it's made of a rock or mineral, the second property is that it's made up of "fine" particles, and the third is that it is free-flowing when dry. If you remove the 1st "ordinary" property it opens up a lot of other materials like sugar, brass powder, or acrylic grain (those being an organic sand, a metal sand, and a plastic sand). If you remove the 2nd "fine" property, then it opens up gravels, chunks, or powders. This one is trickier, when do small rock particles become small enough or too small enough? It's a judgement call, there's no set mesh size that determines what "fine" is, but we know it when we see it. If you remove the 3rd property "free flowing when dry", that one is easy and hard at the same time. Gravel is free flowing if the container it's tipped enough, but on the other hand, (very fine particles), you have powders, particles of which clump together rather than slide past each other. It's evident that there's some overlap, especially with the sand/powder boundary- it will depend on how steep an angle they have to be before they become free-flowing, and that they be dry. Wet sand doesn't flow freely. Perhaps a good example that we can imagine visually is the sand that flows in an hour glass.

Before going further it may be a good idea to define terms. I'll use the traditional definitions with some modifications. "Cement" is not the same as concrete. Calling concrete "cement" is very common, but it does interfere with defining the ingredients. Cement refers to the binder which holds together the sand and gravel aggregates. We'll be using Portland Cement as the type of cement used in this description, there are others like CSA, or Gypsum cement. 99% of the time when someone mentions concrete they mean Portland Cement concrete. To save some space when "cement" is referred to in this description, what I mean is Portland Cement, a fine gray or white powder. "Aggregates" mean various particle sizes of sand and gravel. Since we'll assume you're making relatively small objects like small sculptures or jewelry, you won't be using what's usually meant for "gravel"- it's too large. The largest "gravel" we'll be referring to is so-called "pea gravel" which is usually larger than peas (more like lima beans). In place of gravel will be "large sand particles" or "tiny stones", which function OK in small objects for the gravel. If smaller gravel is not used but only "fine sand" plus cement, the resulting material is "mortar", not concrete. Mortar is a fine to medium grainy paste that's used by masons when they're constructing brick or block walls. It's the glue that holds the blocks together. Usually a 3rd ingredient is added, lime, which makes it stickier and smoother. Lime is not always used though. If you're using a fine sand that's mixed with medium particles, it's actually closer to mortar than to concrete, but we'll allow it to be called concrete. To that end, I'll quit using the terms "concrete/mortar" that specify a material dependent on the inclusion of minimum size gravel. I'll just use the term "concrete". In other words concrete = concrete/mortar

This listing is supposed to describe the least expensive sand you can add to Portland Cement to make "regular" concrete or mortar. The kind they lay down for sidewalks or to make solid concrete walls. Since this site sells materials for art, you may want a different type of concrete or mortar. If you want to be able to say that the material you're making for your brand of jewelry (for example) is concrete, you'll need to keep the cement the same as for heavy duty construction, namely Portland Cement. You do have two choices, either the standard gray or a white Portland Cement. You could vary the type of sand and still say it's concrete. This listing focuses on the "regular" sand that builders use, however. Just an ordinary sand that we defined above that is used for standard concrete, sometimes called River Sand (found in several grades at a home depot or masonry/building supply).

River Sand is the least expensive aggregate that you can use for a concrete mix. You can buy this in several sizes at Home Depot or any building/masonry supplier. It will be washed but not completely clean. It will contain dust, whether it's silica dust or organic dust, you won't know. It has a very wide particle size (depending on what kind you buy) but it should all be way less than "pea gravel" size. Its color is mixed but overall brown or gray. This is a good aggregate for two reasons: it's almost as cheap as dirt, and it's not tightly graded (into a narrow range of particle sizes). That's a good thing because strong concrete is easier to make with aggregates that span a wide size range (from fine sand to more or less "coarse" particle sizes.

The color of aggregates doesn't matter that much if you're making 'regular' concrete. The outer surface of whatever you're making (probably a casting, but it could be a free form sculpture or a troweled flat or wavy surface) will take on the color of the Portland Cement, which will be an off-white or a white white when completely cured and completely dry. If you seal it or coat it with something when it's completely dry or before, the gray cement will be darker and the white cement will be whiter.
There are many surface finishes you can do with concrete, however. It can be brushed and/or washed when semi-set, it can be acid washed, it can be ground and polished with diamond tools, and so on. Then it becomes a special color that will show the color of the aggregates you used. It's call "exposed aggregate". Diamond tools have come down in price over the last 15 years, because of new technology in making them. It's easier than it would seem to do a smooth "exposed aggregate". The easiest and least expensive method is to brush the surface before the concrete is fully set and then wash the surface with clean water. This will allow the aggregate to show through the portland cement. It does result in a bumpy surface though.

If you're making a "pozzolan" concrete, which is a good idea if you're making small objects, then the color of pozzolan additives probably won't change the color of the concrete much (calcined clays like metakaolin may slightly modify it). But you're free to add pigments to the mix which will change the color of the cement matrix (but not the aggregates of course). It can be difficult to achieve a specific color with pigments. Number one, the alkalinity of portland cement tends to change colors unless they're specified for use with cement, and portland cement is highly opaque, so it tends to make tints rather than saturated colors (the amount of pigment has to be high and approved pigments are expensive). Also, adding too much pigment can weaken the concrete.