Spilled a whole bucket of mix and learned a weird trick by accident

I was pouring a small pad for a garden shed last Tuesday and my boot caught the edge of a 5 gallon bucket. Dumped probably 30 pounds of wet mix right onto the gravel I had prepped. Instead of messing with shoveling it all back up, I just shoved a broom handle through it and dragged it around like a giant paste. I ended up using that to patch a low spot near the foundation and it actually leveled out smooth after I troweled it. Has anyone else ever reused a big spill like that or am I just lucky it worked?

2 comments

2 Comments

sean_torres718h ago

That whole 'mistakes becoming improvements' thing seems to pop up everywhere once you start looking for it.

wells.karen1d ago

Three summers ago I dumped a half batch of sack mix trying to move too fast with a wheelbarrow on a slope. I just scraped it into a pile and used it to fill a dip where rainwater used to pool by my back steps. Let it stiffen up for maybe twenty minutes then troweled it flat. That patch is still holding up fine after two winters so yeah you got lucky but it was also the right call. The key is catching it before it sets too much while it's still workable. If you try that with a bucket that's already starting to harden you'll just end up with a lumpy mess.