cptrelentless wrote:Some quality block work at Porky's, straight rows of cinder block, only one not using brick. This you Jamie?

the beach is starting to look different already, be interesting to see when i come back in a few months as im leaving SHV tomorrow

Duncan wrote:

Jamie_Lambo wrote:
In my early days we would always add a teaspoon of liquid laundry soap to the cement mix. This would make the mortar light, soft and fluffy to work with. When I have seen some guys plastering here , the mortar looked so hard and difficult to spread. Do they know this trick, or do they use a cement which has a additive already in it ?

seriously? No bubbles when it rained then?
no worries about the strength of the concrete with so many voids.

must be a put on....

curious

cheers

Bertros

Bertros wrote:

Duncan wrote:
In my early days we would always add a teaspoon of liquid laundry soap to the cement mix. This would make the mortar light, soft and fluffy to work with. When I have seen some guys plastering here , the mortar looked so hard and difficult to spread. Do they know this trick, or do they use a cement which has a additive already in it ?

seriously? No bubbles when it rained then?
no worries about the strength of the concrete with so many voids.

must be a put on....

curious

cheers

Bertros

me and Duncan was talking about mortar not concrete, you dont put plasticiser in concrete,
you put a plasticiser in mortar to make it more workable,
washing up liquid is an old tradesman trick to make the mortar work better,
big building sites dont allow it anymore and you have to use proper plasticiser

Jamie_Lambo wrote:

Bertros wrote:

Duncan wrote:
In my early days we would always add a teaspoon of liquid laundry soap to the cement mix. This would make the mortar light, soft and fluffy to work with. When I have seen some guys plastering here , the mortar looked so hard and difficult to spread. Do they know this trick, or do they use a cement which has a additive already in it ?

seriously? No bubbles when it rained then?
no worries about the strength of the concrete with so many voids.

must be a put on....

curious

cheers

Bertros

me and Duncan was talking about mortar not concrete, you dont put plasticiser in concrete,
you put a plasticiser in mortar to make it more workable,
washing up liquid is an old tradesman trick to make the mortar work better,
big building sites dont allow it anymore and you have to use proper plasticiser

yeah, pretty much the same thing.

http://baldeagleconstruction.com/what-i ... -concrete/

still not a good idea

https://www.mybuilder.com/questions/v/1 ... -weaken-it

anything that is "lighter, softer and fluffier" to work with (use) has less density and/or more voids so the strength must be lower (otherwise it wouldn't be that). You can't change the physical characteristics of something without changing it's basic bulk modulus and physical performance. That's what Mechanical Engineering Professor Dr. JJ Tuma taught us in ECE 350 "Strength of Materials" and in ECE 313 "Intro to Deformable Solids" when I took them as wee engineering student.

Both concrete's and mortar's strength is a function of their root mixture (cement, sand, aggregate, water). the soap would defo make a big difference.

BTW, it's a surfactant, not really a plasticizer.

I'm still calling shenanigans on that one.

cheers

Bertros

Bertros wrote:

Jamie_Lambo wrote:

Bertros wrote:

Duncan wrote:
In my early days we would always add a teaspoon of liquid laundry soap to the cement mix. This would make the mortar light, soft and fluffy to work with. When I have seen some guys plastering here , the mortar looked so hard and difficult to spread. Do they know this trick, or do they use a cement which has a additive already in it ?

seriously? No bubbles when it rained then?
no worries about the strength of the concrete with so many voids.

must be a put on....

curious

cheers

Bertros

me and Duncan was talking about mortar not concrete, you dont put plasticiser in concrete,
you put a plasticiser in mortar to make it more workable,
washing up liquid is an old tradesman trick to make the mortar work better,
big building sites dont allow it anymore and you have to use proper plasticiser

yeah, pretty much the same thing.

http://baldeagleconstruction.com/what-i ... -concrete/

still not a good idea

https://www.mybuilder.com/questions/v/1 ... -weaken-it

anything that is "lighter, softer and fluffier" to work with (use) has less density and/or more voids so the strength must be lower (otherwise it wouldn't be that). You can't change the physical characteristics of something without changing it's basic bulk modulus and physical performance. That's what Mechanical Engineering Professor Dr. JJ Tuma taught us in ECE 350 "Strength of Materials" and in ECE 313 "Intro to Deformable Solids" when I took them as wee engineering student.

Both concrete's and mortar's strength is a function of their root mixture (cement, sand, aggregate, water). the soap would defo make a big difference.

BTW, it's a surfactant, not really a plasticizer.

I'm still calling shenanigans on that one.

cheers

Bertros

are you really trying to educate me/tell me how to do my job?

if youre going to quote people quote them correctly

1st off...
if you read back to the first page we were talking about bricklaying... not concrete...

Duncan wrote:

Jamie_Lambo wrote:

Username Taken wrote:Interesting stuff.

I hope you're overseeing all that brick laying, Jamie.

it was making me cringe just watching, but i guess if i was getting paid $3 a day it would look something similar

In my early days we would always add a teaspoon of liquid laundry soap to the cement mix. This would make the mortar light, soft and fluffy to work with. When I have seen some guys plastering here , the mortar looked so hard and difficult to spread. Do they know this trick, or do they use a cement which has a additive already in it ?

2nd if you go read your link, it quite clearly states that your argument has nothing to do with what we was talking about and is definitely not "the same thing"

Construction for Beginners: What is the Difference Between Mortar and Concrete?
While it may seem like the only difference is how each is used, they each have their own very different properties; each specializing in its own area. Though both mortar and concrete are widely used building materials, they cannot be substituted for each other without compromising the integrity of a build.

3rd back to what i said, i (or no one else) has ever called washing up liquid a plasticiser, i said "washing up liquid is an old tradesman trick to make the mortar work better"
completely baffles me why you are talking about putting washing up liquid in concrete when no ones even mentioned that

i then finished with "big building sites dont allow it (washing liquid) anymore and you have to use proper plasticiser"
because if they taught you anything relevent as to what we are discussing when you was an "engineering student" you would know that adding plasticisers to mortar actually improves the mix, makes the mortar more workable, reduces cracking, and makes the mortar set a lot stronger!
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Cement-Additives

Understand the effect of the additive. It is to 'plasticise' the mix, reducing the amount of gauging water required, giving the mix additional strength and flexibility to prevent it cracking or crazing during a more controlled drying out period. It provides a compact easily worked mix when wet with a smoother hard wearing, less dusty surface when dry.
The improved adhesion of the mix helps considerably when used for mortar rendering purposes. The liquid can be used with all types of Portland Cement, but not with high alumina cements. It is simply mixed with water 1:30 and added to the cement/aggregate mix as the gauging water to the required consistency.

Use a mortar plasticizer. It has all the advantages of lime and none of the disadvantages. This liquid admixture plasticises a cement/sand mix using less gauging water than usual, giving an easily workable 'fatty' mortar with strong adhesion. It has a reasonably fast initial setting period but leaves ample time for the adjustment of bricks.
When dry the mortar with added plasticiser is more resistant to the effects of frost than a standard cement/sand/lime mix.

now please think about what you are saying in future mr engineering student

Any new pics.......

Any pics?? .... too lazy to go there

Jamie_Lambo wrote:
me and Duncan was talking about mortar not concrete, you dont put plasticiser in concrete,
you put a plasticiser in mortar to make it more workable,

are you really trying to educate me/tell me how to do my job?

now please think about what you are saying in future mr engineering student

Fukn engineers wouldn't know the difference between a brickies trowel, a roofers pointing trowel, a tilers notched trowel, a plasterers skim coat trowel, a concretors finishing trowel etc. But they are quite happy to walk on site and tell us tradies that we are doing it wrong according to their books. Dipshits the lot of them. They should all have to do at least 2 years on the tools before they get their dip(shit)ploma

Try erecting a multi story building without an engineer.

if you spent any decent amount of time reading plans on building sites you would realise that they often make mistakes and often dont really have a clue, and is left down to us to bodge/adjust it lol forever causing problems... theyre a nightmare...