Saturday to remember: performing Concrete cube test for pile foundation construction.

As widely recognized, construction plays a pivotal role in our economy which holds such significance that any shortcomings in its execution can pose significant risks to human lives. Therefore, every aspect of the construction process must be constructed with honesty, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to excellence in performance.

Today, I had the privilege of gaining a remarkable experience by conducting a concrete test, specifically the well known cube test widely utilized in the construction sector when concrete is going to be used during construction and it turned out to be the best thing yet during my internship in the company because this was the first time i am seeing it happen in the real world.

Before diving into all i did today, i will try to summarize everything i did today and one of which was the important of concrete cube test in construction: testing of concrete is a standard method of assessing the strength of the concrete which is mostly the compressive strength. since we are constructing a foundation that would carry the building load and weight of the entire structure, so we have to make sure that the concrete has the capacity to do that. This summarizes the importance of testing of concrete.

Today started like every other Saturday which includes coming to the construction site for just a short meeting and if there is nothing important to do, we all disperse back home. but, today there was something important to do and we had to wait back with some workers that are needed for the cube testing to be done.

The instruments needed to complete the cube testing were basically

1. cube shape metal
2. freshly molded concrete following the standard specifications which was given by the structural engineer.
3. motor oil: this was used to rub the inner part of the cube shaped metal for easy removal of the concrete after which it has molded the shape of the metal.
4. finally a metal to compress the concrete into the metal and this is done to not allow any spaces in the metal.

The process looks easier while writing but it is complex and took our time while doing it because of how important it is. i will summarize how the process went and it goes thus:

1. the first thing we did was mixing the concrete well following the specifications which was given to us which is 1 cement, 2 sand, 1 granite which is quantified with a bucket.
2. while the mixing of concrete was going on, we rubbed the oil around the inner part of the metal to act as a lubricant and prevent the metal from sticking to the concrete.
3. we then poured the concrete into the cube stage by stage and instantly we used a metal to keep compressing the concrete into the metal to fill unnecessary pores below.
4. finally after which it has filled to the brim, we covered it with the top layer of the metal and we left it in the sun to allow it to cure.
   
   the image above is how the concrete will be after curing. (this is an old concrete cube test that was done but i haven't started my internship then)

finally, we were done for the day because the concrete can not cure within a day, so we had to wait till Monday and by then it would have fully cured before finally moving it to the testing industry around our construction site for them to approve and perform the integrity test on it.

Today was really awesome and i am grateful for every moment and opportunity coming my way because it has not been easy and learning something new is absolutely amazing for me and finally, i can't wait for Monday to see how the cube test will be done.