southerndownhill.com - Forum

First off, sorry if wrong section, wasn't really sure...

Right, been digging some trails. I've also found a bag of cement in my garage. So basically I want to cement the lips to make them nice and hard.

I'm guessing that the best way is just to sprinkle some over the lip then pack the lip in. Then when it rains again the water will react with the cement and set. Therefore resulting in some nice hard lips.

Anyone had any experience on doing it? I've ridden cemented lips before, just never made any....

might be wrong but wouldnt the cement just get too wet and wash away with the amount of rain were getting :-\


why dont you just mix the cement put it on the lip shape it and put a bag over it so it dosent get too wet

Paul

You need to mix the cement with the dirt add a littel water build lip and leave for a day or 2
1 bag of cement will only be enough for about 1 barrow load of dirt, also must be clay not top soil.
good luck with it buddy

....And then taint the rest of the ground

dirt doesnt help the cement bond....

get some sand (ballast)
cement
and water

in a barrow, mix them up giving a fairly thick, make sure not watery, barra' full o' concerete mon'!

iv done it in the past. all i did was sprinkle on the lip came back.. was solid... perfect for a good 2 seasons. non of this mixxing faf.

if the jump is already shaped.. sprinkle it on.. water will draw it into the soil, making it that much more firmer.

yeah but wouldnt the rain were having wash it all away?

pre mix and all youll end up with is a cement lump on top of a pile of dirt ....

sprinkle it on and it will get into the surface of the dirt and make it tougher than dirt on its own ....

I was honestly expecting a 'I've cemented my lips together' thread then ..  :-\
Knew it was too good to be true!

But the sprinkle method works alright. A mate of mine has done it on a few of his jumps and it seemed to work ok.

we cemented the lips on our old trails as we were trying to stop some f-ing twunt chav from knocking them down. was very sandy dirt (almost to woburn standards) so all we did war lay it down on top of the take-offs and then packed it down. it seemed to work a treat! :D

We found the cement route never worked well on trails that are used a lot, because the rest of the face wears as well , it's easier just to repair the lips every couple of weeks or every time some numpty damages them.

Try poking a load of small holes in the whole take off with a pitch fork - sprinkle cement on - and leave it to absorb the water from the soil (depending on how damp the jump is ) this way it will all go pretty hard - and spread the cement out - instead of just one block of cement ontop of soil - which would not bond ;)

Unless the whole jump is made 100% off a mortar mix, it will never bond. There will be a sliht chemical reaction however you use it as its bound to get wet but it won't last

if you put small holes and sprinkle it over in an even amount, wet it slightly cover it up for a couple of days so that only the moisture in the ground is absorbed then it should work alright for a couple of seasons, but there are allot of factors to take into account like the plasticity of the soil, the PH content, etc... it could be contaminated, you wouldn't know without doing tests (its not a visible state in soils like mould is on woods and other such materials).

if you put a pitch fork in it though you would still be easily able to break it up as it would Pierce the cement bonds around there edges of there reaction point and then crumble, it will also break up in lumps over time as tyre tread gets into little gaps and rips it.

and if you made the whole jump out of 100% mortar mix then you would need a pad footing of some type or a type of pile to hold it in place (dependant on size), plus when it rains it would be susceptible to sink and crack or heave and crack then due to uneven bearing surface and some other factors that are a little more complicated  ;)

good luck with whatever you decide mate, and let us know when you've done and get some pics up mate  :)

you have to pre mix the cement, as i learnt on work experiance, you should use a ratio of 1:4 of cement to sand. then add water (no too much-if it looks like decent cement then you've added too much  ;) )
a sqirt of fairy liquid. then mix until it looks like decent cement. :)
then apply to lip 

its not always 1:4 mate, it depends on the soil construction, some times you made need more cement to stop the soil from eating away at it and. But yes 1:4 is the standard used ratio for mortor mix, i.e laying bricks etc...  ;)