Once you have established a basic understanding of a simple Concrete Contractor Universal City CA mix you can begin to learn more about new concrete technologies and the true limitations of this incredible building material – hint, there are not many!
By changing the volume and type of aggregates that you use in your cement mix you can create many different types of concrete suited to different applications. In general the goal of substituting aggregates is to have the concrete remain consistently strong as a finished product. Some examples of concrete advanced techniques are:
Even all of these options are just the tip of the iceberg for what concrete is capable of. The extreme limitations of current concrete technology being researched and developed are transparent (translucent actually) concrete which will show a silhouette through concrete that is meters thick! Limitations of concrete strength is self supporting concrete which does not require the mechanical assistance of steel grid work. Concrete strength used to be measure is PSI however mPa or mega Pascals is the current unit of compressive concrete strength referring to the amount of force the concrete can ensure before failure.
Coloured Concrete
You can add powder or liquid pigments to your concrete to achieve interesting and dynamic colors. Common colors would be brown, red, dark grey, tan and other similar earth tones. To get more vibrant concrete colors you can use pure white Portland cement in place of regular cement, as well as pure white sand instead of regular sand. This white mortar mix will react well to more vibrant colors and pigments. The amount of pigment or dye that you use will depend entirely on the brand that you choose. The best method is to purchase from a specialty concrete supply store which will have a far better selection of quality concrete color additives than your local hardware supply store.
Lightweight Concrete
You can replace all or part of the sand in a 3:1 mortar mix with aggregate materials that are much lighter in nature than sand. The result will be a concrete that is much lighter, but also vastly weaker than a 3:1 sand mortar. There are many applications for lightweight concrete with many of them being decorative such as planter pots or garden statues. The most common lightweight aggregate material substitutions for making concrete are:
Vermiculite – which is a mineral and often sold as “pool base” in larger quantities from pool stores which will make a relatively strong, but compressible concrete. The insulation value of vermiculite is very high, more than ten times as high as sand, so vermiculite concrete mixes are often used for sound dampening and insulating.
Peat Moss – Using peat partially in place of sand will result in a concrete that is much weaker than traditional 3:1 mortar and even much weaker than vermiculite concrete. The texture of the concrete is somewhat earthy and finishing and detail work con be slightly difficult by comparison with other mixes.
Saw Dust – This is another readily available and cheap aggregate substitutions used to achieve a lightweight concrete. In addition to providing a rough and inconsistent texture to the concrete, the wood ingrained will often stain and discolour creating an interesting and unique pattern. Too much sawdust can make the concrete unacceptably weak very quickly – more so than vermiculite and peat moss.
Perlite – This is commonly used for gardening and is recognisable in that it is completely white and very similar in texture to styrofoam beads. The main advantage of this aggregate choice is the fact that it is white. It has a similar overall feel as vermiculite however the concrete produced with vermiculite is much easier to work and finish than concrete made with perlite.
