How to make Concrete Powder and Concrete in Minecraft

Build anything you want with this versatile and colorful block

Table of Contents Table of Contents

Building in Minecraft just gets better and better with every update. The more changes are rolled out, the more new, colorful blocks are added, and the build possibilities become even more endless. (Though, there is still a glaring omission to the Minecraft inventory, but we’ll get to that…)

One of the best blocks with which to build in Minecraft is Concrete. Introduced in the World of Color update in 2017, concrete comes in all 16 standard dye colors, in both Concrete and Concrete Powder forms. Thanks to the choice of colors and textures, a lot can be done with Concrete. The downside to this block, however, is that – even five years on – there are still no stairs, slabs or other full-block alternatives in the concrete collection. These part-blocks, as builders will know, give players the option to add depth to builds, and there are actually relatively few choices when it comes to stairs, slabs and walls. In addition, Concrete Powder is affected by gravity, a feature held by very few Minecraft blocks. This again limits your options with Concrete Powder as there has to be a gravity-defying block beneath it in your build.

However, if you’re still looking to build with some colorful concrete, we can’t blame you. And you won’t see it in your Crafting Table recipes. So if that has you stumped, here’s everything you need to know about making Concrete in Minecraft’s Survival mode.

How to make Concrete Powder in Minecraft

The first thing to know is that you need to make Concrete Powder, even if you are just looking to use Concrete itself. You’ll find out why in the next section. For now, let’s look at how to craft part one – Concrete Powder.

For a start, you’ll need a Crafting Table. One of the first things players build in Minecraft Survival, a Crafting Table is simply made from four wooden planks. You’ll need a Crafting Table as the full 3×3 table will be required to make Concrete Powder.

From here, the ingredients you will need to craft 8 blocks of Concrete are:

• 1 x colored dye of choice
• 4 x Gravel
• 4 x Sand (NOT Red Sand)

Since there’s enough information for an entirely separate article, we won’t get bogged down with dyes here. Instead, check out the specific guide on how to craft Minecraft dyes.

As you can see above, eight blocks is the minimum you can craft – and from there you will only get multiples of eight – because it takes the eight blocks you put in and turns them all to Concrete Powder. The great thing about this is you only need one dye per eight blocks of Concrete Powder.

And that’s pretty much it! Easy, right? Another thing to note about crafting Concrete Powder is that the nine different items can go into the Crafting Table in any order. So, if you’re feeling particularly quirky, you don’t need to follow the pattern above.

How do you make Concrete in Minecraft?

So, you don’t want to build with the gravity-obeying Concrete Powder or you want a bit of both? Then it’s incredibly simple to turn Concrete Powder into Concrete – and you don’t even need to craft anything. All you need is some water. And if you’ve come straight down here without reading how to make Concrete Powder first, then go back a step – you’ll need it.

In order to turn Concrete Powder into Concrete, it has to come into contact with water – and, again, not in a Crafting Table. It can be a pond, the ocean, a waterfall or in a bucket, but you need to find some way to soak your powder.

*This brings us to a side note. A warning even. If you do build with Concrete Powder – DO NOT GET IT WET. Thankfully, Mojang Studios thought about this, and rain won’t affect your Concrete Powder.*

Anyway, we have a couple of methods for turning your Concrete Powder into Concrete, but really there are endless possibilities. If you’re a redstone fan, you could even create some fancy contraption for bringing your Concrete Powder into contact with water. But we’re not that clever, so our methods are a bit less convoluted.

One is to simply build with it, then drench it. This could be in the final form you want, that way you don’t have to break it and rebuild, or simply straight up in towers, along the floor, or in a big block. However you do it, make sure you have a bucket of water to hand (you don’t want to be stranded at the top of a 200-block tower), empty the bucket onto your mass of Concrete Powder and watch it transform. Again, if you haven’t built the Powder into the final shape you want, you will need to break it again with a Pickaxe.

Another method, which sadly only works in Java Edition, is by using your off hand. As you can hold and use items in your other hand in Java Edition, you can place Concrete Powder in it, and hold a Pickaxe in your other. Head to a pond, the ocean or any other infinite water source, place the Powder with your left hand, and mine with your right. Be careful to make sure you pick all your blocks back up, but we find this a nice quick way to create and mine Concrete Blocks.

Have you got another fun way of making Concrete from Concrete Powder? Let us know! Otherwise, we hope we’ve been some help in getting you closer to that mega-build. And when it’s done – we want credit, OK? And while we’ve still got you, don’t forget we have masses of other Minecraft guides in our growing Minecraft hub, including how to craft another colorful building block, Terracotta!

More Minecraft Crafting Recipe guides

• All you need to know about the Minecraft Crafting Table
• How to craft and use a Blast Furnace
• How to craft a Fermented Spider Eye
• How to make and use a Minecraft Armor Stand
• How to make a book in Minecraft
• How to craft a Shulker Box in Minecraft
• How to make and use a Fletching Table
• How to craft Minecraft Fireworks
• How to make green dye in Minecraft
• How to craft, find and use Minecraft Lanterns

And head over to our Minecraft hub for even more news, guides and how-tos!