Help please: A huge hole right thru my cladding

[Wiley]

gummz, I agree with you concerning the properties of the final product being determined by the qualities of the aggregate. That is why I suggested crushing/smashing the basalt pebbles to create the fines and medium sized aggregate of the repair material.

As for getting the bubbles out, there are two options as I see it:

Option one, pour the mix wet and vibrate it to bring the bubbles to the surface. This would reduce /remove the voids caused by entrained air, to remove trapped air (between the form and the mix) one needs to move a tool along the surface of the molds/forms. However, this has the downside in that wet mixes have problems with shrinkage and cracks and usually have less final strength.

And option two: have somebody assist you to mix and hand to you a fairly
stiff mix in a pail and you place the material in handfulls/trowel fulls and tamp the material in small "lifts", tamping the material as you go with the butt of the trowel. They would do the mixing and you would do the placing. This would be slower than a simple "mix and pour in the forms/mold" but you would be compacting each lift so that the chance of voids etc would be small. The downside is the need for a second person who is clever enough to pick up the flow of the work so that they can supply you material as you need it so that you can work continously.

The second is what I did with my WFO except I was working alone.
I mixed and placed each bucket of mix with the idea of creating polygonals designed to separate along the joins. You might want to check out my thread "Steel Dome Oven" under alternative types to see some pictures. If someone were assisting and handing you mixed ready to place buckets so you only had to place the material and not mix you could perhaps create a continuous pour. It should have less voids and fewer problems with shrinkage.

Hope this helps,
Wiley

[Faith In Virginia]

what strength properties are you concerned about? This is not a bridge that your going to drive 40 ton trucks over. You have more steel in there then a house foundation. don't mix in too much water and you won't have a shrinkage issue. Think about it if you put a stone facade and grout in the stones how much shrinkage do you see...none. If your worried about a small hole like that affecting structure then how do you think a window opening in a poured foundation will affect it's strength. If it were a problem then everyone's basements would look more like a bomb shelter no doors or windows.

As for the top it looks like you will need at least some side forms along that rebar. once you get your concrete in take a thin stick and stab it up and down in the concrete like your making butter in a butter churn and that will get the bubbles out. over the top just take your trowel and work it in well and you will be fine