Can You Make Lightweight Concrete?

Can You Make Lightweight Concrete? The short answer is yes. The long answer is that while you can make lightweight concreete, there is a balancing act between the weight of the concrete and the strength of the concrete that you need to be aware of. The weight and the finished strength of your concrete are essentially inversely proportional which means that as one goes up the other goes down. The lighter your concrete, the weaker it will be.

It is useful to add lightweight aggregates to concrete mix as long as you don't compromise the finished strength too greatly for its intended purpose.

So what is the purpose of lightweight concrete anyways? Primarily, lightweight concrete is used for decorative applications like ornamental for the lawn and garden or concrete planter boxes. It can also be utilized for its insulation value and this is a very useful function of lightweight concrete. A vermiculite concrete mix can have 10 times as much insulation value as a sand and gravel based mix.

Lightweight concrete aggregates can be anything from perlite to vermiculite to pumice or even soap suds. Universally the challenge remains the same with any lightweight mix - use too much lightweight aggregate and you can compromise the strength too greatly. A combination of some sand mixed with some lightweight aggregates can result in a usefully strong but lighter weight concrete.

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[danawd]

Hi! Is it a possibility for you to make and test concrete with expanded clay pebbles? Very nice channel by the way, i have probably watched absolutely all your videos😁

[poolbuoycorp.leakdetection]

Great video! Lots of excellent info here!

[DCGdesign]

Have you tested adding Sika fiberglass synthetic micro fibers into the lightweight mix to strengthen it? They use the fibers in the mix for concrete topping surface under finished floors. Works great as a binder.

[calholli]

Bro, stop turning your head back and forth when you talk. lol

[LightGesture]

Curious to know if vermiculite would react as a thermal break. Im trying to pour over concrete to add radiant heat. Dunno if doing this would be worth it.

Great video

[ayushmaanathley]

Sir, can you give mix proportion of light weight concrete.

[rhianchumroo]

Will adding waterglass( sodium silicate) in the water make the lightweight concrete stronger?

[DDDD]

I am wondering if clay pebbles/hydroton could be used to mix with cement, instead of perlite.

I want to make a rocket stove and I have those pebbles and a low budget. So it would save me money on buying perlite

[OllieBabaSan]

You don't replace the sand, you replace the gravel. Still a strength tradeoff but not near as bad as concrete without sand. I don't even think the name concrete applies to a sandless cement mix.

[davidhalfaday]

Have you made a lightweight concrete with fiberglass fibers to increase the strength?

[derrickparker]

hello im from jamaica and i don’t know what to use to get the concrete lighter

[heatherjane]

How about papercrete? That’s strong and lightweight? I think 😂🤔 I shall investigate☝🏼