Wasted $150 on those fancy pre-mixed concrete bags for fence posts

I bought a pallet of the quick-set pre-mixed concrete bags from the supply yard thinking it would save time. Turns out they were clumped and stale from sitting on the pallet, so the posts had zero hold after a week. Anybody got a trick for testing bag freshness before you haul them home?

2 comments

2 Comments

holly_brown1mo ago

My buddy Tom bought a pallet of those quick-set bags from a big box store last spring and had the same issue. He figured out you can squeeze the bag gently near the bottom - if it feels solid or rigid instead of powdery, the moisture already got in there. Now he always buys individual bags off the top of the pile where they're fresher.

jennifer_west521mo ago

What? Tom bought a whole PALLET and just figured that out after the fact? That's insane to me, I would be SO mad if I had a whole skid of concrete that turned into a bunch of rocks before I even got to use them. But that squeeze trick is GENIUS, I'm totally using that from now on. I always just grabbed the top bag without thinking, but now I know to check the bottom every single time. Concrete is way too expensive to mess around with bad stock like that.