Concrete – Can too little sand equal weaker concrete

concrete

Often on a bag of cement the instructions will relate the quantities in terms of bags of cement with wheelbarrows of sand and stone. They claim that 2bags cement = 1 wheelbarrow. I found that my wheelbarrow can only take about one and half bags of cement. Therefore I have been using less sand than I probably should have.

Is it possible that too little sand in a concrete mix makes it weaker, or does it simply just yield less concrete?

Best Answer

You will likely find this related question useful.

In general sand is added into concrete for two purposes - to save cement and to reduce shrinking of the concrete stone while it hardens. Shrinking causes cracks and cracks are really bad for most scenarios of using concrete.

You haven't altered the mix much so you likely won't have problems with shrinking and cracking.

Another point is that concrete needs water while hardening (after it has initially cured) and it surely needs more water if you added more cement.