AIRCRETE Testing PART 1 Strength & Blunt Force Comparison Tests 

It's fun to share what we are learning. Thanks so much! 😊

Thanks so much! 😊

Thanks! Yes after watching other people struggle with making consistent aircrete batches, we were pretty unsure if it would be suitable to build with. I'm thankful for the knowledge others have shared, but we still had a lot of unanswered questions. It's been interesting to try, and we are really impressed with aircrete and it's qualities. Thanks for joining us! 😊

These videos are so descriptive. Probably the best channel for aircrete.

Thanks for watching, it's coming soon! 😊

Thanks! I am excited to show the wall, but am trying to get the test result videos out first. Maybe I can put a sneak peak of it at the end of the next video. Good point, he marked the spot on the floor for the long boards, but not for anything else. Wishing you a wonderful week as well! 😊

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks! The testing has been fun! He really wanted to do some compression tests, but couldn't figure out a good way to do it without spending a lot of money. These tests don't tell us everything, but they do give us a pretty good idea of what makes the different mixes stronger or more brittle. We hope to figure out how to do some insulative tests on the different samples soon.

@@RedandAprilOff-Grid So regarding the insulation tests, I always wanted to try and build a plastic box that is insulated all around, adding a pot of boiling water inside and then putting the test material inside. Vapor and heat will rise amd you can compare the results with the aircrete and have a baseline say with a piece of drywall. You can measure how much water has been lost. Thermal resistance is definitely a tricky thing. I also thought of putting insulation on top of a bbq and putting a baking dial within the opposite end to measure the temperature. That would cover conductive heat transfer.

The samples were kept wet and cured for 7 days. Each sample was tested on the 8th day. It's more of a comparison test between the different mixes than providing absolute strength. We are testing to see if we can find a mix that we would be comfortable to use to build our house. 🙂🏠

@@RedandAprilOff-Grid I look forward to seeing your test with the thickener added. When you do that test please do one test using 6 gallons of water compared to the 5 gallons of water you use. I'm not sure if that will make a difference with the thickener I always us 6 gallons of water when I make Aircrete. Also I add the thickener to the water and mix it before adding cement.

We used our old sample forms and made them into two that are 9 × 4 1/2 × 45 inches tall. We used our regular recipe and poured one sample with the thickening agent and one without. Getting tall forms watertight is difficult, so some leaked out, but besides that, neither sample seemed to sink. We left them in the forms that are lined with plastic for a full week, it's easier to keep them wet that way. We plan to unbox them tomorrow. I'm not sure that it was a great test with them leaking out the bottom, and having to fix it and add in more aircrete, but we'll see what they look like tomorrow, and we'll probably try again at some point.

Yes based on these results we are planning to test a few more variations. We need to fill up the garden wall and keep practicing and learning anyway. We were curious if sand would make aircrete strong enough to use on the floor, it did pretty well, but adding sand made it a lot harder to mix, and it was a lot of work to sift the sand. Definitely a good idea, but it depends on how ambitious we feel, and whether we think one of our other mixes will work for the floor. The denser stronger mixes are less insulating, but still better than regular concrete. Thanks for watching! 😊

Thanks!

That would be interesting, but probably not something we want to buy right now. Based on our results, I think we have some mixes that would make a pretty good floor. We use 5 gallons of water rather than the 6 or 7 that some recommend, and it seems to make a pretty strong product that isn't easily dented. We are posting the video tomorrow that shows the last few test samples from this batch, and the conclusions from our testing.

Yes, but we haven't looked into it yet. We plan to experiment with a few different materials on the garden wall, but have no idea yet which ones we even want to try.

@@RedandAprilOff-Grid I would stay away from polyesters. There have been 1 year studies showing severe breakdown of the fibers in the alkaline cement. I can send you a study if you like with images. The roofing fabric everyone is using is polyester and I have grave concern for the long term strength. I'm currently leaning towards unspun polypropylene as a cheap source - think white packing fabric used on new couches. For me it has to be cheap or free, especially if we are talking multiple layers. Think furniture store recycling. PP weed block may be another source or PP agricultural fabrics. Canvas would be a good strong option but its pricy.

Great idea! We plan to test different plaster mixes on the garden wall. While we are at it, it would be pretty easy to save out some long bricks from our next test samples, and coat them in plaster. 😊

Ya, there are so many variables and mix options! I'd like to know as well, but i imagine it takes not only a lot of time to make them, but then adding the curing time and time to test, then make videos about it. He's doing amazing work for just him and his wife working in a garage!

We tested a few more samples, those will be shown in the part 2 testing video. Eventually we also plan to test adding a few other inexpensive fiber reinforcements. We have two videos of making the samples, here is the first one ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iN3oSbtBr38.html

Mix 94 lb bag of portland cement with 5 gallons water, and fill with foam to 36 gallons.

Yes, glad the bricks didn't fall on him! That would hurt a lot! 😅 Thanks, & you too!

His video on the nature of foam helped us figure out the issue with our the pressure regulator. I wish he would post more videos. His videos are great, & he seems to know a lot. Cool! It takes a lot of thinking and figuring to do something new and different. Our first idea was to do panels, but then decided we would rather try pour in place walls, so that's what we are going with. We'll see how it works out, and figure it out as we go. We are not doing load bearing walls either, we were considering it, but never felt really great about it, because we get some crazy strong winds and didn't want to worry about the roof blowing off. Fortunately we don't get tornadoes here, but high sustained winds and microbursts. Red came up with an idea on how we plan to support the house. We bought the materials this week, and will be sharing it soon. Best wishes on your build, it sounds awesome! 😊🏠

It is a lot of numbers and information about aircrete, that some people might want to know. 😅 I had the videos lined out and in order, so he had to talk fast to keep up. The next video we are working on now is definitely a slower pace, and things are explained a little more. Thanks for watching! 😄

@@RedandAprilOff-Grid please I was not being critical at all

No offense taken, I always appreciate your comments! Thanks for watching! 😊