Johnny pulls out his tools and sets about to install a new mailbox that he just bought, a 6 month project in the making. He digs his hole and neatly trims the edges so it is almost perfectly round, thinking to himself, “I am not really OCD”.

He fills the hole with about a third of the bag of concrete that he just bought from his local hardware store, sets in his post and then adds the remainder of the bag. Continuing with his pursuit of excellence he levels the post one way, then the other and each time making sure that the bubble is smack bang in the middle of the window.

All looking good and to his satisfaction he proceeds to water it in just like the instructions said. He then opens up coldie and sits back to admire his handy work.

OH NO!

Three months after the installation date, Johny rings up devestated at the inferior quality of the product he bought and that he was so meticulous on installing and which now lays prostrate on the ground. “It has just rusted out at the base and fallen over, this is not acceptable and I want you to come and install a new mailbox!”

Having had this incident occur on a few occasions we have had time to try and perfect our spiel:

“Johnny, that is terrible and we are so sorry to hear this, did you by any chance use a rapid set concrete to install this?”

READ THE SMALL PRINT

Unfortunately the small print is not always that evident. With Cement Australia and their website promotion of Rapid Set, the LIMITATIONS they list say nothing about the unsuitability of their product and aluminium products. However, follow the link at the bottom of LIMITATIONS and you will see the statement “Rapid Set Concrete is not recommended for use with aluminium posts”

Rapid Set has a chemical in its composition which eats (corrodes) aluminium and can do this fairly quickly. 

For installation please use you standard type post mix concretes.

INSTALLATION OF MAILBOXES

For installtion details of mailboxes please vist our website or click here.