Substitute for SBC

[n74tg]

Does anybody know of any substitutes for surface bonding cement (SBC) to be used in a dry-stack concrete block wall.  The substitute can be either a home-grown recipe like Ed Kliman used in his "Gimme Shelter" project or a competitors product.  Right now Quikcrete Quikwall No. 1230 is all I have to compare too, and it's mucho expensive (like $12 a bag, 50 pounds, on sale).

If I could save a good amount on cost, I'd be willing to mix it myself if I knew and could get all the ingredients.

[glenn-k]

Rough guess here Tony but how about 3 to 1 plaster sand to Plastic Cement, acrylic additive for strength, and a handful of Fibermesh per mixer load -- usual mix is 1 bag Fibermesh per cubic yard.  

Fibermesh is available at the concrete plant in bags of one pound each for around  $7.00 here.

Don't forget about the nylon material from the fabric store - the Gimme Shelter guy really liked that.

http://www.texasmusicforge.com/gimmeshelter.html
Gimme Shelter - Page 1.

I don't know if he used it on his dry  stack or just on the ferrocement.

[John_C]

I googled it and came up with
http://mha-net.org/msb/docs/surfbond.PDF

here is an html version

[url]http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:6Qd2RAQmG6oJ:mha-net.org/msb/docs/surfbond.PDF+Homemade+surface+bonding+cement&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us[url]

On page 17 they give a homemade recipe.  You will have to figure the costs.   I've thought it would be interesting to build with AAC blocks.  

[Amanda_931]

AAC (aerated autoclaved concrete, IIRC) has always sounded pretty interesting.  

Thanks for the .pdf

How far does a bag of the surface bonding cement go?  One does use significant amounts of mortar.  

It's probably still expensive.

[John_C]

All good questions.  Wish I had some answers.   I may yet investigate AAC as there is a plant not too far from my house.   But I'm having trouble getting straight answers form the building department regarding simple questions.   AAC construction would probably necessitate getting an engineer involved. $$$

Here is a good AAC link

http://www.safecrete.com/aac/faq.cfm


After I posted the correction I read about the modify button.  This link should also work now. John

[MountainDon]

http://www.safecrete.com/aac/faq.cfm

link hasn't worked for me yesterday or today  ??

[Erin]

I'm not entirely sure why, but I kept getting redirected to a google "HTML" search when I just tried to use their address.
However, search "safecrete" http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=safecrete&btnG=Search and then click on the link.  *that*  works...   :-?

[John_C]

Let's try that again
http://www.safecrete.com/aac/faq.cfm


My bad.   I clicked on the FTP icon yesterday, and the script put ftp://    in front of the correct link.  I believe the link above will work.   John

[n74tg]

Well, back on the surface bonding cement.  I read the articles and sourced the materials for some homemade SBC.  It would have been pretty economical until I got the price estimates on the calcium stearate (which waterproofs the cement); $3.11 per pound from one source and $4.50 from the other source.  That put the whole project within a couple of dollars per bag of store bought Quikrete SBC.

So, long story short I bought it on-sale at the store.   Still, it was fun while it lasted; had the stearate been priced reasonably I could've made the stuff myself for about 1/4 to 1/3 the store bought price.

Thanks for all your help.

[John_C]

How much is a bag of the Quikrete SBC  and what is the anticipated coverage?

Thanks

[n74tg]

Lowes has it for $16.98 a bag, Sutherlands special ordered it for $14.50 a bag, but they had a 17% off sale on Saturday which brought it down to about $12.00 a bag.  Put on 1/8" thick it (is suppossed to) cover 50 sq ft per bag.