DEBUNKING the Roman Concrete Hype

The ancient Roman Empire is renowned for many things, including its impressive architectural feats. The Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the aqueducts are just a few examples of the engineering prowess of the Romans. One material that is often credited with making these structures possible is Roman concrete. However, a closer examination of the evidence suggests that the hype surrounding Roman concrete may be overstated. The first thing to consider is the fact that many of the ancient Roman structures that we admire today have not stood the test of time as well as we might think. The Colosseum, for example, has undergone extensive restoration and repair over the centuries. The Pantheon, meanwhile, has been rebuilt several times since its original construction. Even the aqueducts, which are often cited as examples of the durability of Roman concrete, have required significant repairs and maintenance.

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[Draconatus]

So what I’m hearing is that it’s not as good as modern concrete because it’s not modern and they didn’t use modern ways to make it

[Svetacus]

Yeah dude totally, my concrete driveway is starting to chip and crack after not even 5 years while Roman concrete roads paved thousands of years ago are still standing strong and self repairing cracks every time it rains ...but keep telling me how advanced our tech is with it's built in obsolescence 🤦‍♂️

[bkucinschi]

I just returned from Italy, where we visited Rome, Florence, Venice, Pisa and Lucca. Of course I went to the Pantheon, the oldest unreinforced concrete structure in the world. Yes, it was maintained over the centuries, but the main cylindrical building and especially the dome on top cannot be structuraly repaired, still held for two millenia. It was building skill and intuitive understanding of material properties that gave us this architectural marvel.

[par]

MIT's research seem to indicate that it was not poorly mixed at all, it was heat mixed. Some research also suggests that concrete used for important structures was set in sea water for many weeks after the heat mixing and molding.

[MisterBones]

If we used the lumps of quicklime *WITH* modern precision and structural support, we can have the best of both worlds possibly.

[skyetaylor]

I'd like to see you build a concrete dome that lasts 2000 years. Bro is delusional

[kaptainkraken]

While i appreciate your tamping of everyone's expectation of roman concrete to be somewhat useful in modern times, we do know more now and this will undoubtedly be another tool. The real usefulness is the self baking property that can really help in the 3dprinting aspect.

[snotnosewilly]

Modern ocean piers made out of modern concrete fall apart after about 50 years, while some of the 2, 000 year old Roman concrete harbor structures still exist.
Roman concrete is much less damaged by salt than modern concrete.

[hdwblade]

Title a video as is it's trash then say good things about it as if they're a bad thing. Then make unsupported comments about their lack of engineering knowledge and how it's just used as a face material and how it can't be used with rebar... But no explanation as to how you might be right. Because you're not. And then you say it's poorly mixed like that's a bug, but it's literally done on purpose. It's a feature, not a result of poor mixing 😂. And multiple types - cool, for different applications, no? And to say our tech is better but it fails after 50 years and fails ALL THE TIME after fresh pours in garages and foundations... Yet the Roman concrete is still standing 2, 000 years ago and we haven't been maintaining it like THAT. Smh, poor video, man.

[mc_lovin]

You’re just kinda dissing on it as an invention because of its hype and then don’t really give any substance into the reasoning why it’s not so great;it just doesn’t really make sense, I don’t understand the point of the video.

[MawoDuffer]

They will probably do research on the optimal quicklime lump size and mixing ratios then keep it a trade secret :/

[RaiseDennis]

I agree we can learn from Roman concrete. Also you mentioned that it had several restorations done. But I have to disagree. Yes in the past 500 years maybe but I think it had several long periods without maintenance. It’s difficult to think it had always good maintenance

[LoLErMan]

We're gonna need to start watering our houses with salt water 🤣

[manndduck]

I always dislike hearing that ancient people didn’t know what they were doing when they invented something. They didn’t stumble into their inventions, they engineered exactly what they needed from the resources they had access to like we do today. Just because we have a more thorough understanding of chemistry and whatnot doesn’t mean our understanding is superior at all. Shit, it took us forever to find out exactly what was going on from technology from Ancient Rome. In a thousand years they will say that we stumbled into the technology we have now but I garuntee you that we thoroughly engineered (ideally) all the technology we have today. Also they weren’t that far off from where we our today. If slavery had died out in the core of the Roman Empire and Rome focused more on internal stability then expansion, then they would have industrialized… IN ANCIENT TIMES. If they kicked off the industrial era back then, their armies and government would have been overpowered and I garuntee you they would have invented everything that we have invented but just ya know, a thousand years or more than they were invented as we know it. They had began industrialization but there was just no demand for it since slave labor was so cheap. As well, I think their engineers are remarkably more talented then modern engineers since they had to do all of the work without modern conveniences. Minimal access to blueprints, comprehensive overhead views were done via looking, measuring, and drawing even on a city wide scale, non power tools, lack of steel, etc. Today our engineers typically get to choose what tools they will need for a big job. Back then if you needed a crane, you designed and built the crane. A lot of their advanced tools had to be built and modified on sight more than what most people do nowadays. Their society was able to keep up with a resemblance of modern society not through luck and manpower but through great thinkers and engineers who were able to comprehend a problem and the solution they create from the resources they have access to. Shit, there are even inventions that were thought of by their greatest engineers that weren’t able to be built due to lack of required technology or resources just like we have nowadays.

[videozoom]

I have a hard time buying into the poor mixing idea. They had understanding of advanced mathematics and would argue they understood calculus. To go through all of this understanding just to not mix something well doesn't settle well with me.

[Tripolar_]

Ancient engineers amaze me. They didn't have the knowledge at hand like we do, , , , but came up with the most amazing things by trial and error.

[hughgrection]

I think much of what our problems with modern concrete design is its reliance upon rebar and steel to hold it together.
Modern designs insist upon maximized living space for more profits. This makes it so they look for ways to make it span further and further, with less and less support. To do this they add more steel. Adding more steel makes it more likely to fail due to corrosion. To make the buildings lighter and taller they find ways to add yet even more steel to make the slabs thinner. Therefore making them even more susceptible to corrosion.
Now every inch of the buildings are at thier edge of being too delicate. They crack alot due to not enough reinforcement and now water can get into the concrete and destroy it from the inside out.
I think buildings would last alot longer if they simply used arches and more columns, and spanned things less. If and when rebar is needed make sure it's slab in that area is extra thick to protect it from the elements.
In a perfect world where costs didn't matter I think stainless steel would make better rebar. It's far too expensive tho. I've seen fiberglass added to concrete to make it stronger. But.. it rots the concrete very fast in some mixtures I've noticed. It acts like a wick and draws moisture inside the concrete and decays it faster. So if it is used I would maybe encase it all with a non fiber cement to prevent that. That would require either manually applying the coat or a 2nd forming process tho.
Overall yeah I think we ask too much of our modern concrete. While yes concrete doesn't hold up well when bent and is strongest when under compression, simply build so that isn't an issue. Just use more columns and arches, and domed ceilings.
I think a mix of modern concrete with older proven architecture would be the perfect marriage for if you want something to last

[gweedo]

The Romans didn’t mix there concrete Poorly they hot mixed it was done on purpose

[piyispiy]

Your right roman concrete by itself is crap when dealing with heavy loads.
That being said it's perfect as a kind of adhesive for those massive structures due to the fact that said structures would likely warp before breaking because of the concretes reconstructive property's.
Also as a lover of history and to further make a point these structures have been around for 2, 000 years and although yes they have been reconstructed multiple times that doesn't mean there wasn't a huge amount of time it wasn't being reconstructed which is way more than what can be said for modern day concrete hints to why there's so much talk about Roman concrete.
And before you argue "then why are we repairing said structures so much now" just remember there 2, 000 years old and most materials from 2, 000 years ago are now so brittle that extensive care has to be taken in order for said material to not break.
I also want to point out that the Romans where incredibly clever people for there time so it is possible that there method of concrete mixing was more so by design rather than a half hazard mixing of materials.
I mean these where the people who invented the first steam engine, basically built a computer, strategized militaristic tactics we still use today, made massive structures without powered tools, and lastly off the top of my head an extensive understanding of math and geometry to the point in which they made perfectly structured buildings that where also like one giant illusion due to the way there built...

[TheRedkid]

They have actually done research although roman concrete is not as strong it is far more durable. The "imprecise" mixing of quicklime was actually intentional. They would " hot mix it" with their other ingredients and when finished they created a self healing concrete. Studies showed that when cracks reach the quicklime casts and moisture got into it the cracks would fill with the quicklime and be fully sealed within a few weeks. Just because we don't initially understand the design of things we cannot dismiss it as inferior. Roman's spent centuries building magnificent buildings and infrastructure so its safe to say they had tons of trial and error when perfecting their concrete. Meanwhile modern concrete has not been around nearly as long but give us a millenia we will probably yield a self healing concrete as well.