What Is Concrete Bleed Water Video

Hi, I'm Tim Carter of AsktheBuilder.com and I want to talk a little bit about bleed water in concrete. I'm pouring some concrete for a little trench drain. I just poured the concrete and I know it is hard to see in the video, it is almost impossible. But there is some water sitting on top of the newly poured concrete. You might be able to see the reflection of it in the sunlight.

Here is what bleed water is. Concrete is made of four ingredients - stones, sand, Portland cement and water. So, what is the lightest ingredient in this mixture? Water! The other ingredients are heavier and sink down into the water.

When concrete is poured, the water naturally comes to the surface. That's called bleed water.

Here's a mistake you can make. You do not want to trowel the bleed water back into the concrete. That will dilute the cement at the top of the slab. If you live in a cold climate, the top of your concrete will eventually peel off if you trowel the bleed water back into the mixture.

Just leave the bleed water alone, it will dissipate on its own. The sun and wind will evaporate the water. Once the bleed water is gone, then you can trowel the surface of your concrete.

Tim Carter

Tim built custom homes and did ultra-custom remodeling for 20+ years before launching his Ask the Builder media presence. He was selected as one of the Big 50 by Remodeling magazine in 1993. This award gave birth to Ask the Builder in October 1993. Tim also operates https://DrawPlumbingPlans.com. His @askthebuilder YouTube channel was the first home improvement channel on YouTube.