An Easy Guide to DIY Cement Pots

It’s worth using cement in making pots at home, especially if you want to invest in flower pots that are durable and long-lasting. Even if you work from home or on-site, designing your own space with low-cost materials could help boost your surroundings and even lift your mood to be more productive.

Photo Courtesy: Piqsels

In this article, you will learn how to create your own DIY Flower Pot in less than an hour.

Prepare the materials

To design your Cement pots, you will be needing materials that you can also find around your house. Listed below are the things that we need to make your D.I.Y. Flower Pot.

1. Two (2) containers in different sizes

2. PVC Pipe for a drainage hole

3. Portland Cement

4. Sand or marble dust for white cement

5. Gloves

6. Oil

7. Water

8. Sandpaper

9. Disposable mixing container

Use a molder

Use the two (2) plastic containers to form and mold your cement pot. The one will shape the pot outside, and the other one will create the space to hold your plant inside. Keep in mind that that the other container is approximately one inch smaller than the larger one.

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Apply lubricant oil

Begin coating the inside corners of the larger container as well as the outside corners of the smaller container to prevent the cement from sticking – take note that any mineral oil will not work. As for the wooden containers, you can use paste wax.

Cut a PVC Pipe

The 1-inch PVC Pipe will be used as a molder to create a drainage hole in your cement pot that should be 2 inches long (5.1 cm). 

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However, the size of the cement pot that you will be making will determine how many holes you need to properly drain excess water. For pots that are 12 inches (30.5 cm) or smaller, at least one drainage hole is enough.

If you do not have a pipe, you can manually create a hole under your made cement pot at sufficient size, but make sure that you do it only after 24 hours of letting it dry seeing that the cement will most likely be harder.

Mix the cement

Put together the cement and sand at a 1:2 ratio using gloves in another disposable container. Mix it all well before adding water. 

Note: You can use marble dust if you are using white cement to enhance its color instead of sand but with only a 1:1 ratio.

For the straight cement process, you can use a 4:1 proportion or until you achieve an oatmeal-like texture. 

You can also use a Cement mixer for a large volume, but with the recommended aggregate mixture to create stronger pots after asking for a consultation. 

As for the Cement price, it ranges from ₱210.00 to ₱220.00 per 40kg based on the survey conducted by PinoyBuilders. 

Place and pour

After mixing, place the 1-inch PVC Pipe at the bottom of your outer container. 

Pour at least 2 inches of your mixed mixture into the outer container to ensure a solid base for your pot before placing the inner one on top of it. You could also put something heavy on it to help keep the weight down and prevent the inner container from being pressed up. 

To successfully create a hole for your drainage area, leave the pipes open.

Filling the container

Start filling the containers in between your primary and secondary containers using the mixture that you also used from the previous steps. Make sure to move your container lightly to flatten the cement mixture before adding up.

Cement curing

After filling, let your cement pot dry for at least 24 hours before removing the inner pot. The lubricating oil should help the container from the inside to slide off from cement. 

As the outer pot remains, wet through your concrete pot with water for seven (7) days while covering it with plastic.

Finishing

Using sandpaper, clean and remove the excess cement from your pot after ensuring that all of the cement has dried.

Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

With that, we’re done! You can now fill your D.I.Y. cement pot with your favorite plants. These pots are also useful for placing keys, accessories, and other personal stuff which you could also use in the bathroom. All you have to do is design it or paint it in any color you want. Just remember to clean the containers that you used to make more cement pots. Have fun!

CITATIONS:

Shamita’s Garden. (2020, April 25). How to make cement pots at home easily | Make a beautiful cement pot at home |. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_ybVJVhHwE

wikiHow. (2021, January 3). How to Make Concrete Flower Pots. https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Concrete-Flower-Pots

Skyler, H. (n.d.). How to Mix Cement Without Sand. Hunker. Retrieved September 28, 2021, from https://www.hunker.com/12569526/how-to-mix-cement-without-sand