Thanks! 😊

Thanks! 😊🏠

Thanks! We are pretty impressed with aircrete, and are excited to finish and share our test results. 😊

Thanks for joining us, and glad it's helpful! We just tested the first samples today, and got some surprising results. Excited to share once we get them all done. 😊🏠

Yes, it's going really well! Thanks 😊❤️

Thanks! 😊

Thanks! Excited to share the results from our first test samples soon! 😃

Thanks! Be sure to check out our other videos, aircrete turns out to be even more difficult to get right than we thought. The colder temperatures were likely to blame.

Thanks! Mixing batches and pouring them in the garden wall isn't bad. Getting the test forms ready every day is a bit of a hassle, but not too bad. Excited to start testing soon. 😊

Thanks so much! You have a great day as well! 😊

Thanks so much! We just recently heard a few people online mention the importance of using soft water for aircrete, because hard water can't make good suds. We thought maybe we could get some kind of filter to soften the water, but found that isn't an option. We tried researching to see if a water softener would work for aircrete, but couldn't find anyone who had tried it, so we decided to just go ahead and buy one and try it out. It is working great! Our well water is in the low 200 range for hardness. After the water goes through the softener the test strips show it at 0! Best wishes on your projects! 😊🏠

Thanks! We are learning a lot, and hope it will be helpful to others too. 😊

That is a possibility, but probably shouldn't be done too much with aircrete. I think I was just over mixing it trying to get a really thick moose, which is how people describe the proper consistency of aircrete. I tried to get advice from some of the veterans, but didn't get much response. We are pretty sure the thinner mixtures will perform better, and they settle into the forms very nice, without much encouragement. Our testing should show us which consistency is better for strength. We are excited to share our test results, when we get them all done. Thanks!😊🏠

Thanks so much! 😊

Yes, we have everything written down for testing. The low water and sand mixes are sure a pain to mix, but I figure they will be a lot stronger. We plan to start testing today on our first samples. 😊

I wonder how things like temperature, humidity, air pressure, etc. affect the outcomes

@@dustinabc temp has a huge part, at least with Drexel, if it's cold the foam comes out wetter and can cause the mix to collapse.

We have pretty wide temperature variations here from day to night but we haven't ever had both samples collapse. We have been making the batches in the afternoon when the temperature was in the low 80° and our night temperatures have been getting down into the 30°s! Batch #3 sat out uncovered on the first night. It was windy all night and we almost got down to freezing 33.4°, but it held it's shape perfectly.

Thanks for joining us! 😊

Thanks for joining us! We haven't, but sounds interesting. We have been using gallon jugs of cheap canola oil. We probably won't need to oil our wall forms if we cover them in plastic, but we aren't exactly sure how we are going to make them yet. 😊

@@RedandAprilOff-Grid think of it as a surf board, the wax builds up and it takes longer to wear off. And you'll notice the clean up time as well. I'm surfer its how I discovered the trick.

Thanks! The testing has been interesting, excited to share the results! 😊

One week is what is recommended for concrete to cure to 90% or so of it's maximum strength, so that's how long we are keeping our aircrete test samples wet. It is ideal to keep it wet for a full month. Thanks, you too! 😊

Thanks! Now that we are getting it figured out, it's pretty fun. The heavy batches are much harder to work with, but the standard mix isn't bad at all. Aircrete is pretty light, which makes it nice to work with. 😊

Yeah....once you figure it out, then it's fun all the way. Waiting to see your home take shape..👍♥️

Just one sand sample collapsed and the other one didn't. I think it was more because of the weight of the extra sand, the soap just couldn't quite hold it up, but I bet it will be a pretty strong sample. Not that it couldn't be done, it just didn't work this time. The mixes with sand are a lot harder to make, and mix. We do have pretty wide temperature variations here from day to night but we haven't ever had both samples collapse. We have been making the batches in the afternoon when the temperature was in the low 80° and our night temperatures have been getting down into the 30°s!

Soft water is known to make more suds, and we have heard of other people who have had issues with using hard water in aircrete. We didn't know if the water softener would work or cause other issues, but our batches are doing great, and the soap is performing very well. We did one batch with hard water, but that was before we were maintaining an even stable pressure on the air compressor, and the foam was too wet, it was more of a flop than our other flopped batches. 😄

Thanks, and thanks so much for joining us! 😊

It should work fine, if you can get good quality aircrete. It's tricky! Aircrete is typically coved in a mesh cloth and plaster, but for something that isn't too big, or doesn't need to hold too much weight it might be fine without it.

He has some ideas, but first we need to test how deep we can pour the aircrete at a time. We bought some of Aircrete Harry's special thickening agent, so we'll see how it works. 😊🏠

We hope to finish up and show the results of the testing in the next week or so. We were testing sand to use in the floor to give it more compressive strength. We were trying to stick with add-ins that would give strength rather than more insulation, since aircrete on it's own does pretty good there. We did consider perlite, but didn't get around to trying to find some, and weren't real interested in using it anyway. I would have to look up vermiculite, not sure what that is. 🙂

Just one, we decided not to try anything that would add a lot of extra cost. We'll show the rest of the test batches in the next video.

We have found that when the batch turns out right, it fills in the forms nicely. A vibrator might help some with the over mixed batches. The larger pockets are often due to leakage or bubbles popping and combining with each other.

That is possible, usually the batches that fall do so more quickly, that one hung on for a long time. Seems like it almost made it, but the weight of the sand eventually pulled it down.

Warm water would likely be helpful when mixing batches of aircrete on colder days, but unfortunately it's not real easy to heat large amounts of water using solar power. There are probably other ways to heat water, but we didn't look into it. The foam is pretty fragile and hard to mix in even when the cement is very wet.

@@RedandAprilOff-Grid look into wood fired water heaters. One guy took the fan blade out of an office tower fan and used that. It's a squirrel cage blade about 30 inches tall. In Mexico the water heaters are 30 gallon and are fired by wood. About $250.

When the batch turns out well, the mixture seems to settle into the cracks and corners, and they don't get big bubbles. Taping might be helpful for the batches that are a little too bubbly, or foamy. We are hesitant to do much tapping, because we don't want to pop too many bubbles.

Good luck!

I think the channel, "Honey Do Carpenter" has started adding sawdust to thicken the aircrete. He says it works well.

@@RedandAprilOff-Grid Makes sense, makes sense to not put it in as a clump but slowly add it in as mixing. Thank you for letting me know.

Yes, he's doing some interesting stuff. Collecting all of that styrofoam would be a huge task, and then finding a place to put it would be another issue. Also, with the strong winds we get here in the spring, I don't know how we would be able to keep the walls standing long enough to get them plastered. Mixing batches of aircrete is actually pretty fast and easy. We are excited to start testing our samples! 🙂🏠

@@RedandAprilOff-Grid thank you looking forward to it.

For a full sized batch we mixed 5 gallons of water with one bag of Portland cement, then added enough of the proper density foam to make 45 gallons.

@@RedandAprilOff-Grid TY, if I can scrimp out enough $$$ I will try using aircrete and styrofoam beads in my build. How well does this system work in an old portable mixer, will the foam hold up?

I have heard of some people having success using a cement mixer, but we didn't try it. Aircrete is pretty finicky stuff. I assume you have seen Steven Williams method of making styrocrete, if not, you should check it out. Best wishes! 😎

@@RedandAprilOff-Grid TY

Lower water makes stronger concrete, that is why we are choosing to use less water in our mix. Tiny Giant Lifestyle recommends using just 4 gallons for poured aircrete walls. Recipes can be adjusted depending on what properties are desired and what you want to use them for.

Hate to say it. If it was easy domegaia wouldn't make any money teaching it... plus the buildings they show off from Tielind are mad of sinder blocks..

I've only been able to get there mixture to work right the way they say twice.... had to figure my own way.... it takes twice as much Drexel as recommended, WATCH OTHERS, they mix. it drops and they add more foam to the line, mix and pore. Less water more cement, or half the water and type III... the only time I got more volume then expected. Better than type I or II... I wonder also on additives such as flyash's affects on the batch.... Any chunks or sand can be a problem and some plants are really bad about contamination with sand gravel or fiber.

Yes, I have seen people adding more foam, which makes the aircrete weaker. Our test have shown that lower foam makes a much stronger product, it won't go as far, but it will be much stronger. They also only use 3.5 inch thick bricks! I asked one guy about his dome was doing, and he said they are having issues with it cracking. It's tricky for sure, I feel like we are starting to get a handle on it, but still have more to learn. If you can use soft water, you don't need as much Drexel.

@@RedandAprilOff-Gridit doesn't have to be that strong. Its insulation too. The stronger the mix the lower the Rvalue But still that's beyond the point... Its almost impossible to get good batches evey time with the mix from domegaia.... something else is missing to address set time and temperature.

Cool! We checked everywhere in town, and everyone was sold out, and didn't know when they would be getting more in. We got one free from a friend.

Steel studs are pretty expensive, we'll be showing what we plan to use to support the house soon. Thanks! Wishing you a wonderful weekend as well! 😊

With aircrete you have to use very fine sand, or it will collapse. Little bubbles are all that is supporting the sand.

I watched all of the videos I could find, most people weren't having consistent success with it either, and the ones that appeared to know how to make it weren't sharing the full details. It was hard to find good info, we bought a pdf with recipes for basic aircrete and instructions. The foam and water can be adjusted, and add-ins can also make it stronger. We wanted a fairly strong product even if wasn't as insulative, so that's what we were going for.

This whole off-grid thing was more my idea than his, but he wasn't too hard to convince. 😄🏜️

@@RedandAprilOff-Grid Ahhh, thats the other way round, ya little beast! Even the better! :-) I am just working on a very small-scale aircrete Prozessor from scratch for continuous pouring of aircrete, similar to Gibran's son's build. Quite tricky though ... ;-) Of course I'm subscribed to your channel waiting for new stuff you come up with! Greatings from Kärnten! (= Carinthia, in the south of Austria, which is supposed to be somewhere in the middle of Europe)

It wasn't intended to be impolite. Our KZfaq statistics show that the majority of our viewers are from the US. He did put the metric weights and measurements in our first 2 testing videos.