I was sitting and thinking about whether one could create a homemade version of EPS concrete by mixing ordinary polystyrene beads with water and cement. I thought about experimenting to find the right proportions.
Both EPS concrete and thermisol claim that their beads have some kind of special coating to prevent them from "floating up," but as far as I know, this material is not directly liquid but more dry and formable. I have done similar casting with lecabeads, and it worked perfectly. And the EPS has significantly better insulation values. However, the drying time will likely be much longer than EPS concrete unless the beads are mixed with a quick-setting concrete. Apparently, polystyrene beads can be purchased in bulk bags.
This is what thermisol says about their cellular concrete:
"At the concrete station, ordinary
Portland cement is mixed with water according to the recipe.
The polystyrene beads are then mixed with
the slurry in the concrete truck. This can be done
either at the concrete station or at the construction site. The easiest way is to blow up the polystyrene beads in the concrete truck with our special
blower"
http://www.thermisol.se/pdf/Cellbetong A4_6-sid.pdf
What does the expert panel think?
Both EPS concrete and thermisol claim that their beads have some kind of special coating to prevent them from "floating up," but as far as I know, this material is not directly liquid but more dry and formable. I have done similar casting with lecabeads, and it worked perfectly. And the EPS has significantly better insulation values. However, the drying time will likely be much longer than EPS concrete unless the beads are mixed with a quick-setting concrete. Apparently, polystyrene beads can be purchased in bulk bags.
This is what thermisol says about their cellular concrete:
"At the concrete station, ordinary
Portland cement is mixed with water according to the recipe.
The polystyrene beads are then mixed with
the slurry in the concrete truck. This can be done
either at the concrete station or at the construction site. The easiest way is to blow up the polystyrene beads in the concrete truck with our special
blower"
http://www.thermisol.se/pdf/Cellbetong A4_6-sid.pdf
What does the expert panel think?
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Where are the experts?
what I was told is that these special agents that the kulurna are treated with are regular dish soap, when I mixed epc cement it was important to have the right proportion too much water they float up too much cement the kulurna doesn't mix so well.
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I wouldn't be surprised if the special treatment consists of ordinary soap... Basically, it's probably just about breaking the surface tension.
Did you make your own EPS-cement with cement and polystyrene beads, or do you mean you mixed the one you bought in a bag?läppglans said:
I cast with EPS for the first time yesterday. Very nice material except that it was a bit tricky to clean the concrete mixer. Looking at the ingredient list, it says 85% expanded polystyrene and 15% Portland cement, that's all. So you should be able to make it yourself without much trouble. Since a 50-liter bag weighs 17 kg, it should be around 16.5 kg of cement (about 12-13 liters?) and the rest styrofoam beads.
Maybe I should try it out
Maybe I should try it out
I am also an advocate of custom solutions, so I find what you write very interesting. I haven't cast with EPS cement myself but have a couple of such floors planned in the future. The tricky part might be that if you don't manage to mix the beads evenly in the mass, the strength might vary? Do the EPS beads have any specific strength classification (if that's applicable at the bead level) that other insulation has?
Is there no ballast in EPS cement?jeppeknaster said:Cast with EPS for the first time yesterday. Very nice material except it was a bit pesky to clean the concrete mixer. Looking at the ingredients list, it says 85% expanded polystyrene and 15% portland cement, that's all. Then you should be able to make it yourself without much trouble. Since the 50-liter bag weighs 17 kg, it should be around 16.5 kg of cement (about 12-13 liters?) and the rest Styrofoam pellets.
Maybe I should give it a try
No idea, but the beads are very small, significantly smaller than the foam beads I am thinking of (like those found in bean bags)freddeh said:
I thought I would pick up where you might have left off Jeppe - or did you ever make your own EPS concrete?
Can you estimate the size of the EPS beads that were included in the pre-mixed bag?
Can you estimate the size of the EPS beads that were included in the pre-mixed bag?
Interesting. No, I haven't needed the EPS again, not yet. But maybe soon. I don't think the kulorna are more than 1-2mm in diameter.