Compressed Earth Block Test
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- čas přidán 9. 02. 2021
- In this video I show you a simple test one can do to ensure there blocks have the appropriate amount of portland cement in them. This simple test will help one ensure their blocks are stable for building. Please give this video a thumbs up if you found this video to be helpful.
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After all of the research I've done, the amount of bubbles, the unstabilized brick turning into mud, and the uneven compression of the 5% brick all tells me that your _method_ is the main reason for the failure, not just having less than 10% Portland cement. I can't speak to the soil composition, but the results of your test makes it crystal clear that you aren't using *_NEARLY_* enough pressure when forming those bricks. (They _should_ be compressed to 3000-6000PSI so that all of the air and (almost) all of the water is squeezed out, but I suspect you dropped a zero somewhere along the way and didn't notice.)
Cheers!
What would be the best compression machine psi for the earth interlocking bricks? Thank you in advance for the reply.
@@Antonio-ti2he "What would be the best compression machine psi for the earth interlocking bricks? Thank you in advance for the reply."
You can either use the figures I posted in my comment or look up 'compressed earth block psi building code' for more detailed information.
@@KeithOlson In your research what have you discovered to be the highest hydraulic psi for earth compressed with 10 cement?
Cool Video. But Portland is not the only thing with an impact to brick quality. Soil and aggregate properties, Sieves size, soil grading, clay content, granulometric form, mix proportions, pressure, stacking & Curing. Tthere are a lot of different influences to CSEB Quality. With the same amount of concrete (8% optimum) you can get very poor bricks (
Yes, this video over simplifies. The right sand, e.g., sharp not round, the right clay, and many different additives work as well as Portland. I made blocks using just e-asphalt, poured not compressed. Forty years later, out in the weather, they look the same.
I'm researching on energy efficient affordable building blocks for low income homes. Your video just helped me see firsthand what will happen with 0% Portland. Being in a tropical climate, with all year round rainfall.... it will be a disaster! Thanks a lot for your video!!!
This is a great argument for sealing and painting the ENTIRE exterior of CEBS. I would also recommend to add a fresh coat of paint every 8 to 10 years, depending on your environment. FYI, I would also recommend sealing and painting the interior. Like with any structure, scheduled preventive maintenance will add decades to your home or building.
Seal doesn't provide a moisture barrier.
One of the benefits of using compressed earth blocks is that they breathe - they moderate humidity, therefore comfort levels in a home. This would be negated if the block was sealed. See Jim Hallock earth block benefits video. A lime plaster can be added for appearance if you prefer.
The only kind of exterior paint that lasts (reliably) for 8 to 10 years is lead paint. While you may be able to get certain epoxies and resins that last that long, guaranteed the pigments are not going to in direct uv (most resins and epoxies will break down in UV).
Therefore your argument is invalid.
Actually, traditional mud brick homes are built in stair areas with little rain and hence it's advised to design Ceb structures and walls with extra overhang of eaves.
That was a really fair test you did...ive often used the water plus subsoil or soil in a jar to work out good ratios for agronomy.Ive also worked with some guys in Australia doing rammed earth,and the lowest concentrate of portland they used was 6% up to 10%....and that depended upon the soil type in use,the climate,and the proportions of each...sand ,fine gravel,clay.The basic proportions were 30% of each,with that 10% variable,preferably towards the clay or gravel...so an ideal 30% sand,35% clay,35% gravel.Ironstone soil tended to be the most readily available ideal proportions,basalt tended to need fine gravel,granite tended to need clay.....etc
35% clay is too high, especially with 10% cement.
Excellent video! I am startingto make compressed earth blocks and I am going to test them as you described. I live on a ranch and I plan on building severalthings with compressed earth blocks.
You are a good guy,keep doing this n keep impacting me n millions all over the world especially Africa
Good information. thank you.
Wow!!!! Thank you so much.i just subscribed to your channel
Wow ,this IS very informative, thank You so much for ur video
May have missed this but do you have a video addressing the challenges with local building authorities?
What are some of the hurdles and roadblocks?
Appreciate you sharing these kinds of information relating to building with this method.
Also appreciate the camera focused more on the topic than the presenter, like at 2:30. Many don't seem to understand this basic aspect of presentation.
Yoooo thank you for this 👍 👊
10% cement will allow a less precise mix, but it is expensive compared to other options. Start with 70-30, sand-clay, compressed, and less cement, 5%. Or, no cement and use emulsified asphalt throughout the mix, or, soak the outside of the block in it. Also, lime/flyash will act as cement. Or, half Portland, half flyash, saving a little on expensive Portland.
Yes a combination of Lime and Portland would be cheaper and could dry faster
3% lime 3% cemet is best according to a test, it gives the best strength outcome for a variety of soil qualities, and if you get your soil tested and is consistent then you can check the report online to find the most cost effective formulation
lime works better with clay.
cement works well with .low clay mix
This is a great video. I was thinking of maybe granite stones for the first 1 meter of the wall, followed by compressed rocks for the rest of the structure if that could work?
I like your idea
Good Job
I appreciate your efforts - there are few people showing this type of information - how about some long term information on your energy usage
Great suggestion, I have been looking at my wood consumption this winter and it has been tremendously lower. I will see what I can do.
Bill...my wife and I are preparing to build a combination rammed earth, compressed earth block Earthship Biotecture style home in Northern Nevada. I am utilizing a Hydraform Compressed earth block machine to make the CEB. I am hoping to get the same results as Michael Reynolds at Earthship Biotecture.
@@rongray4118 thanks for the info - I’ll look into it
@@rongray4118 In northern nevada while you do you site work consider adding this supplemental heating system an ondol...or as the civil war documents indicated a croation oven...which was the best application on this ancient tech...here is a link to the army corps of engineers documents it puts your earth mass on steriods www.notechmagazine.com/2014/03/crimean-ovens.html With very low wood consumption and the install is as simple as dropping in a few compressed earth blocks and a 3 inch steel pipe for horizontal fluing inside the earthen block duct work...placing a thiner duct work in direct contact with the steel capped flue turns the system into a 40 to 60 foot long heat exchanger and radiant heat is gravity fed in to the home directly keeping all fires out side and the mess as well ...here is a link to the department of army engineering documents...www.notechmagazine.com/2014/03/crimean-ovens.html
@@rongray4118 Be sure to use interlocking block design, no mortar needed. Test the blocks to make sure you have the right mix.
Thank you something big help
Have you considered doing a compressive strength test comparing between wet vs dry blocks? I know the stabilized blocks won't visibly degrade with water exposure but I'd like to know how much strength does it retain after a wet-dry cycle.
Good thought
thanks for the info
You bet!
Hi thanks for this information at what ratio do we mix sand , clay and Portland cement.
Thanks for the experiment.
Whats Portland????
Nice one
Did you consider building using the cob method or why did you choose the block approach?
What was the soil structure of the bricks used ? Would be nice if it was explained esp. in the beginning of the video.
What was your mix design for the 10%, other than portland?
Nice
I love your house man, I wish I could build a house like yours in India.
I've been watching your videos and I really appreciate the shared knowledge. I realize you have an Earth Tech press. And I can somewhat guess what model.
But can you tell more about which one you have and how it performs?
And if you would change up or down on that choice. I'm looking at doing several structures on my homestead and don't want to waste $ on overkill or time and $ with cinva ram.
The machine we used was a BLM-12-8A2, this is my friends machine. He built his house that is around 6000 sqr ft. He did a double wall on his house to create a dead air pocket between the two walls. He was shooting to really stabilize his temperature. My point is that this machine has built basically three house and some small structures and the machine is holding up. The cylinders inside the machine where the press is will eventually wear out from my understanding. Obviously if the machine is greased and maintained one will get much more life. From my understanding these machines should make many homes. My wife and I are looking at purchasing our own machine soon so when our children get older we can help them build there own home and start life right, debt free. We are going to go with the BLM-12-8MB, the manual model. We can not see the reason to pay and extra $6k for the machine to be automatic. Also for a side note on the BLM-12-8A2 (auto press) if you are making the blocks in the summer like we did, the hydraulic fluid would get hot after a few batches which would in turn throw off the auto pilot and the machine would just stay pressing due to the hot oil. So one would have to manually operate it any ways to get the block up to pressure. One could build some kind of cooling reservoir or some mechanism to cool the oil. You can see the dilemma, so we will purchase the smaller one do these issues with these smaller scale auto pilot features. Good luck, let me know if this helps.
Your awesome and that was exactly what I was wondering. I've been in contact with Dan and just waiting for a day I can work up enough nerve to take big plunge.
And being a man of integrity is what is really selling me ☺️ haha
It's a crazy world and God bless, keep on keeping on.
@@howardwick6463 I bought a machine from Dan. I love that he is always responsive to my questions. He's a good man.
@@Somewhere-In-AZ thanks
@@SustainableLiving What manual machine would you buy?
Definitely good to know. Do you sell your blocks locally?
lowes sells cebs at 3.00 a block but i suspect the production costs are much less ...if you have the correct soils onsite and the labor to make them...not adobe which are easier but less strong and the family operations often use tractor loader tillers for soil prep...but the ceb machines are a must as the hydraulics are required for higher comparison rates and strengths to exceed ansi standards for load bearing blocks
many cebs exceed these standards by a thousand pounds per square inch over cement blocks made from massive amounts of portland and sand like aggregates
Building is hard, but going cheap on stuff that makes it hold up, priceless. Can't afford to have to tear it down and do it over. Do it right the first time.
100% agree
What's the highest percentage of Portland that you can add to your blocks?
Why not use Quicklime instead of Portland cement? It dries(or cures) faster, with no need to keep spraying it with water.
Better still wouldn't Portland & Quicklime combination work best as a cheaper and faster drying alternative?
expert rammed earth guy told me to use 15% clay and 10% cement. This is for rammed earth in big forms. he says minimum 30cm but I think here in the tropics where temperature does not vary as much as in a desert a 16 to 20cm thick wall is enough.
It also depend on your machine pressure ... The machine that can pressure both side at 80 tonnes of pressure will make a big difference... Also you process of curring can also influence the hardness of your block
How does using Portland in the block affect the ability of the blocks to "breathe", allowing air with moisture through the wall?
Hay here's a thought... how about you include a load bearing test.
Have you ran a test with 15 percent Portland mix performs vs the 10%? Would 15% Portland be more like a concrete paver and impervious to water after it's cured?
Good question
You’re saying that the black should be 10% Portland is that by weight or volume?
how fine should the screening mesh be? 3/8 4/8 or 5/8 inch or 10mm 13mm or 16mm?
Are there machines out here that can make interlock blocks, so the average person can easily build straight and leveled construction walls?? Thanks...
Yes there are, but these machines are very expensive, you may want to check out Earth Tec presses.
Thanks a ton for the live demonstration of test. How about using 15% or 20% Portland cement?
That would be more expensive and increase the carbon footprint
@@Jeffrey314159 Thanks for your wonderful response
@@Jeffrey314159 carbon footprint 👣 increases when walls fail too.
A little off topic, but how big is your propane tank that’s in frame at 5:00?
500 gal
Is "portland" regular building cement?
Please let me know the price for the mashing that make the blocks
I’m debating wether to go with lime or Portland cement. Why did you choose cement over lime and do you know the what the pros and cans are of each? There isn’t a lot of information on the subject. I appreciate you videos!!
I chose cement because the studies that I have read were using cement and were suggesting 10% to stabilize the block. I do not know what the ratio would be if someone chose to go with lime over cement. I do know that cement cures faster than lime and that may play a factor in your curing times of your block. We were usually laying blocks within 24 hours of making the block with cement. I do know that lime is more Eco friendly however everything that I have seen has been cement based. I did use lime in my interior mud plasters to help reduce cracking but I know that is irrelevant to block making. If I were to do it again I would use cement as I know it works. Lime may work, but I have not seen anything either. Something I may consider checking into more in the future and do some tests on. Thanks for the great question.
Thanks for the reply! I’m leaning more towards using cement myself. I was also wondering when you talk about using 10% is that by volume or weight?
@@brytonatwood9637 Volume, great clarification.
Volume usually,because the different aggregates vary from rock type in weight,age,density and wether theyre wet or dry....thats why volume is more applicable.
Lime and silicates was called roman cement....portland is lime,silica,alumina,iron oxide....and some impurities.The chemical reaction that happens in portland with water,is a lot stronger bond than roman cement.
That's a good test but my guess is the cement will become brittle over time and the blocks will crumble. Earth bricks have been used worldwide for centuries and none of the oldest buildings have cement in the bricks. This test is relevant for flood prone areas, in which case you probably shouldn't build with dirt. Stabilized bricks are good for the first few courses in case the floor floods. I suspect cement laced earthen blocks don't perform their water wicking duties as well as clay blocks either because once cement gets wet it doesn't dry out. That is a collapse waiting to happen. Clay breathes, cement doesn't. Just a thought.
10% cement by weight or by volume?
What is the Last block name
How it was made
Which materials used in last block?
have you tried just quicklime instead of portland?
For how long did you leave the bricks curing before you put them in the bucket?
the blocks tested were over a month cured, the block that held up, was over 2 years old.
You mean the block with 10% Portland it was over 2 years. So was the block with only 5% Portland cement only a month cured?
@@Jeffrey314159 yes, when we decided to make the video we used what we had, how ever when we tested these blocks when we were building they only cured for about two weeks and got the same result
So if concrete contains 10-15% cement, what do these earth blocks accomplish? On a carbon footprint level, using 10% cement in the CEB formula would have the same carbon footprint as a house made of concrete wouldn’t it?
But the other 80-90% in a CEB is arguably better for the environment than mined materials.
Concrete can use up to 25% Portland cement and 75% aggregates. Use a Lime & Portland cement to be cheaper, and with less carbon footprint
Nice video. I wish you would of ran them over with your car or something to show how durable it was after water. How much was your machine? I see a company selling them for around 70k. That's a little high for compressing dirt and portland, but one of these would be great to have, no doubt.
So to get a perfect red clay block = 20% concrete mix with 80% deep clay mixed and compressed into a mold
Can we plaster with cement to make water resistant In this blocks
All right, it is needed some small proportion of cement or lime, but we forget that these bricks won't be totally exposed to rain : if they happen to be so soaked in water would be due to a collapse of the roof, that is, normally these blocks won't never be so soaked because they are protected by a roof of tiles and its eaves. Earth with its little proportion of cement (and a good roof with its projection ) is enough to avoid too much moisture.
Are we maybe negotiating the ratio of cement? 😂 Maybe, I'm wrong but It sounds familiar to me that the ratio of cement in these kind of buildings is less than 10%.
We use lime in india insted of Portland..and baked clay block. Or mud wall of one and half feet
Using Lime only to stabilize these CEBs will limit their application to one-story structures only.
What is the difference here between fired-brick and baked-clay? Is the latter like terra cotta?
What if you don't use Portland concrete, but use wet lime?
Portland isn't the only stuff that'll seal your blocks.
So the 10% cures out to basicall be the same as the red bricks we use here in the eastern US. I need to do the soil test on my property. I know I have high clay content from when I was digging my koi pond and actually had to pump water out of it before we put the liner in. Great videos. Keep up the awesome informative work.
Can you make a brick with lime?
5 % Portland land can burn..?
Is it increases bricks hardness/Tuffness... ?
What's the difference in load bearing? What if the 5% is used in sections of the house where they won't come in contact with water?
Makes me want to make a sorel cement block
Tropikal bolgeler icin tavsiyeniz nedir.👋
Traditionally clay lump buildings in Europe would be built on a base of fired brick or stone and have a decent overhanging eve the taller the building the wider the eve. Good hat and boots is the saying used here if you have that you can forget the portland.
Deterates?
Pls give ratio of raw material and if we Pour 2 parcent lime ......what will be ?
interesting
Affordable building materials. 😉
especially as prices go up in this current market for materials
It would be even stronger if you just use premix concrete in the whole block 🤔
what if instead of portland you put lime? will it hold?
I am not for sure on that one, sorry.
Using only Lime in creating stabilized CEBs will only make them strong enough to build single story structures
Really missed out on "the proof is in this pudding"
When a compressed earth wall can stand up to a pressure washer, I'll consider using it. There's a reason why we invented fired clay brick.
You can you lime instead of portland cement.
I'm thinking that if I were to do this that I would go with 15% Portland. Just to make sure. I think it would be worth the money.
That's the way I think too, we probably added a little more in our batches
That will increase it's carbon footprint and it's cost. Try a Portland cement and lime combination.
@@Jeffrey314159 For the small amount. It would be more like carbon toeprint.
At 10-15%, you're just making concrete...
I need or someone needs to try Sorel cement Earth Blocks (magnesium / Zinc) for the beneficial property of moving water out of the wall and bonding better to wood. Also better health benefits.
So unwater absorbing bricks is good like a stone, concrete.20 year's before bricks heated in high fire for bricks strongness.now that stopped by Fire wood cost
Use chines or korian system to make mud.thats more sticking results for long lasting brick shaping
I'm guessing it could be stabilized with other tings like oil, but I'm guessing that would have it's own problems.
What about 15%?
Excellent experiment. I would do 20% Portland for a house build.
What is portland ?????
Portland cement
What is portland
do you know of any company that rents a earth block machine?
I do not, sorry.
How can I buy blocks and make sure they will pass the 10% test ?🤨✅
You mean cement, right?
I think cseb would be much better when adding with super Bond
what about lime block?
cement or lime both breath but concrete recipes portland cement comepletely cures and then starts the break down in 60 years as tested in India where some tombs were restored with cement but those who use lime get ten times the life from adobe....If so why?
Great question about lime, I don't have an answer about the lime, my experience has been with cement. Something I will be looking into more, thanks for your question.
I am from India 🇮🇳🐂🚩
lime very useful 😊👍🌿natural strength 🚩🌺🙏
@@SustainableLiving my research kicked up this today...some one recently did some test on old roman concrete that last for a thousand years the volcanic pumice and lime make a unique mix but only if blended with sea salt...they form a molecule called aluminum tobermite. This molecule slows the cure for 1000 years...still get hard but takes 1000years to completely cure...instead of curing out and starting to deteriorate after 60 years like portland cement alone
No alt text provided for this image
Mix a stronger batch of concrete
@@MyLevelheaded thanks for the info
I based my final mix after a 51year career in construction being a builder...I started at age 9 with my father building residential neighbor hood communities.Some things i just never questioned ...However as my certifications increased so did my questioning attitude. from being a master electrician to water treatment certifications potable water through black water treatment...Now i am 60 retired and have one last residential build for myself personally...
How about 10% good old lime powder?
When adding ash and limestone content will definitely make it strong if you can't get Portland. But why not use AI chatbot and ask for Portland cement recipe. You will see mostly limestone is used at 40-60% the rest being ash and other clay and components. But I did see a native dude use ash and clay and he had something worth while ;-)
16x8x8 cynder blocks are 2.05 at Home Depot, your giant Lin was probably 10,000 so why not use cynder blocks?
I'm a little onfused. 40% clay, 60% sand, and 10% Portland cement. Doesn't that add up to 110%? What I think you mean is 4 parts clay, 6 parts sand, and 1 part Portland cement. By the way, that would be 36% clay, 55% sand, and 9% Portland cement.
We used the ratio 60-40 as a rough estimate, we tried to keep this ratio around this but we understood that working with raw material that we had a variance in the material so even with the calculations that you question about we tried to stay with and ten to fifteen percent variance and it worked out well for us. As to the Portland mixture I understand that it calculates around 9% however 10% is a easy round number to remember. On another post I explained that before building our home I purchased an engineered study that did study Earth blocks and in their study they recommended doing 7% Portland so when we built our house we rounded to 10% which in all actuality is 9% which is still 2% above the engineered study. So we figured going a little bit more would be better than going less. Don't know if this helps or not but I hope it does. The engineer study is copyrighted so I'm limited on what I can talk about but maybe I can provide you a link so you can purchase it for yourself if you desire.
60% clay 20 to 30 % sand and the rest is portland cement or as many are going to 10% portland with additional 5% lime for long term curing the portland sets up very quickly but the additional lime gives the block a longterm punch and stuccoing with pre clay and lime additives and believe it or not cactus juice gives the plastering a slow cure which is good ...the longer it takes the lime plasters to cure means additional longevity with less cracking and deterioration over decades
Its just a ratio based on the active ingredient which is cement....so yeah it makes 110%......most recipes are like that..eg flour100%,eggs25%butter20%...etc..with the ingredients being a proportion of the flour weight....they do it that way because a recipe can have a desired result,using % of flour weight,so you can know what a completely new recipe will do,having never made it......cements the same principle.
@@erikmilburn51 Any recipe or mixture of multiple components regardless of their units like moles or volume or weight can ever add up to more than 100% of the mixture. Percent means parts per 100. It is a not so useful a metric for recipes. Parts is a useful metric as it can be anything like moles or pounds or cups as long as it is the same for all components. The brick material recipe was reported erroneously which is not surprising.
Good test. Thanks for sharing the test. By the way, it's "deteriorate", not "deteriate".
thanks spell correction is absent conveying good ideas
often quick comments are from old research and not said for grammatical relevance
5% looks like premix is not properly mixed
Your blocks should not to contain air in side it. wich is make water get in and destroy it from inside. Your blocks dosen't have the needed compression .the problem is in your machine. It has a bad conception where it cant allows you to did a first compression to free the air.i mean your blocks have the same volume but not the same density.
Your English needs work, but I think I agree with you. If the blocks were compressed better so that they contained no air, the block without cement would have held up better, but it'd probably turn to mush in a few more hours. I am trying to build a rammed earth house without any cement.
Its still a bit disappointing that the 10% portland is stoll melting. I also do compressed earth bricks and I put my brick in sea water for 6 days, then dry it. The water remained clean and the brick, solid. Here's the link
czcams.com/video/l_AjsjyoCNg/video.html
If you followed the guidelines you would know that pure compressed earth blocks need 28 days to set. Convenient that you failed to mention that, nor the PSI that you compressed the earth block.
Ok, nice vid, but what happen if insted of a 10% ratio, you make a 20% ratio, will it be better? That way you can be sure that you blocks are solid.
Try it and make a video.
No Portland is 100% natural bricks you can put asphalt hardeners ,they are not organic you can make a lot of chemical stuff but 100% natural bricks are compressed earth then you put a stucco coat on the outside to waterproof or many different waterproofing methods. They made dirt bricks for 10,000 years they didn’t need any Hardner or chemicals.
If you're adding 10% cement what's even the point? At 14% cement content you can make and pour concrete without any of the hassle of compressing the bricks.
Forget the tree hugging and just pour a concrete wall.
I have never found myself to be a tree hugger, but I have found that this material is very cheap compared to concrete, plus both materials have different thermal properties. Earth block retains heat and cooling, thermal mass better than concrete. Thanks for your response.
concrete only seems easier..but the thermal properties suck...The way the concrete reacts to earthen blocks are vastly different
making cement the loser big time