Aircrete is great, but watch this before you build with it!

Thanks for the great video! We have also build 8' walls that are poured horizontally on a frame that then tilts them up into place. We should have some information and a video on this coming out soon. We also have found that fiberglass stucco mesh offers great strength for the exterior layers. I would also like to offer one clarification on R-Value. There is one article out there that claims the 5-6 per inch but the information source for this is miss leading. There is an experimental commercial product that is similar to Aircrete that can achieve this r-value but it offers no structural integrity at all. Aircrete as we use it has an R-vaule of 1.8 to 2.3 per inch depending on the mix. this is still very good for the cost and lack of thermal bridging and air infiltration you get in a traditional wall. A normal 2 x 6 wall with R19 in it will actually perform around R-13 when the whole wall is factored in. I hope this information helps.

Enjoying your videos, thanks. I built a straw bale in 2000 and used the bales as the lath inside and out to apply three coats of clay-sand/lime/chopped straw plaster in different recipes as you have done. I worked great, no chicken wire etc. The result was gorgeous, non-toxic, cured hard and sound, no cracks etc. Final coat was sand/water/lime with lime wash over all for a stunning bright light reflective structure. I sold it in 2022 for 10 time what it cost to build. I had a gorgeous home that never needed cooling and very little heat in the VT winters. I love watching all the innovative notions people are putting into practice. Good on ya mate!

In the UK we used Aircrete on building many new hospitals 30 years ago, after about 25 years they started to fail and now are being knocked down and replaced, so whilst it had advantages in build it does not have the expected lifespan

My house is built with "Aircrete" (-like product, Ytong blocks). Such products are available in Europe for many decades and are now, at least in this part of Europe, number one material. The aircrete blocks material is ranging from pure cement to ones with high gypsum (and some other stuff) additives, that drastically increase R value. Unlike those DIY alternatives, those are "baked". Blocks are precisely polished to fantastic precision of 0.5mm, so they can be joined with super thin film of mortar or (approved) mounting foam. Typical wall thickness is 300mm (10 something inches), but Today often up to 0.5m. Even with 300mm you don't necessarily need any more insulation to suffice the code, but it is typically added. I have 300mm Ytong wall + 160mm EPS insulaiton and together with tripple pane windows the house performs about at about 2.5x of passive house limit. There's no point in doing aircrete DIY in Europe, but to those overseas, if they got all the way to building an aircrete foam machine, I'd recommend to also make also a very simple polishing machine and polish the blocks to precise shape - it will sure make the structure much more sound, will drastically reduce need for mortar (or mounting foam could be used) and make assembling super easy.

here in New Zealand there is a type called Foamcrete, its 20mpa and has fiber glass strands about 1.5 inches long but can spay out if pulled from each side resembling 2 'W's persay. ive seen it used as block fill in high rise buildings, on the uppermost floors , which also has steel rods within. And it has been used to form garden pool structures and then a final over lay is sprayed on at great force about 2 inches thick which is then troweled and sculptured and either sealed with a paint or tiled over. yes its been around for about 20 years now , Very light and easy to work even vertically which is alll in the batching success so its not wet enough to slump off the walls.great video thanks for sharing.

I was gifted a 16' diameter geodesic dome made from 3/4-inch conduit. I lined the inside with metal lath and ferrocemented the inside. Then I built a 18' dome over the smaller dome and metal lathed and ferrocemented the outside as I poured lifts of aircrete.

Just discovered aircrete, like the light weight, good to see pure honesty, we went to u-tube university and are in the process of building a cabin at the age of 70 and 66. Are we crazy, yes.

I have not tried it, but it has popped up in some of the videos that I watched. Also I do not have experience with building homes, or anything of the sort. Just like learning about it all, and such. Eartships, tiny homes, and just anything that seems... unique.

Wow! I have been following the same You Tube channels, and came to about the same place (minus making my own foam generator.) I am a fan of domes, but your drywall-type slabs sound like a very good idea for stick frame houses. Overall, this video was excellent in a number of ways! Also, I had no idea that grain bags were fireproof. That changed my thinking because fire safety is huge for me & I didn't want to incorporate anything in my aircrete that would melt (like AH's styrofoam mix) or offgas with intense heat. I subscribed immediately, because you are the kind of person I want to hear from. Thank you for sharing!

If you added in a lightweight fiber reinforcement like chopped fiberglass or basalt fiber, you might see enough increase in tensile strength to have moveable panels. Even some of the more natural fibers might be sufficient. Another possibility is your dustcrete studwork wall section built then stood up. One idea I've had in my mind since I learned about earthbag homes, rammed earth, and aircrete is using a metal sprayer to put a thin aluminum shell over it to weatherize it. Apparently this kind of process has been used over 100 years.

Also if you want insulation I'd recommend styro aircrete (eps). As I can't remember everyone you mentioned that you had looked at I'll recommend the channel of "Stephen Williams"

Great video! Thanks very much for not having distracting background music👍

Commercial airkrete (spelled with a k) does have an r value of 5 or more and is used as an insulation but it isn’t made with Portland cement so it doesn’t doesn’t have much strength. DIY aircrete spelled with a c is a lightweight concrete with some structural strength but the r value is only 2 per inch thick not 5 (with the density most commonly used on YouTube- 94 lbs cement, 6 gallons water and 43 gallons of foam) denser mixes will have more strength but less than 2 r value. Aircrete with little pieces of EPS foam added to the mix will have close to a 3 r value but strength is very compromised.

Great video. Gives us a more balanced approached to aircrete, a quite fascinating and promising material.

Hey I really appreciate the analysis and multiple applications/uses. I had not personally stumbled upon many videos demonstrating floor slab assemblies. Keep crushing

Thank you very much for your time well spent, excellent work, saved me a couple hrs.

way back when, i was desperate, there was no aircrete, i developed styrocrete, made it into 3X3 blocks 4 inches thick and insulated our entire root cellar, that was 35 years ago and it still looks and smells like new in there.

Thank you for the summation of the various folks solving the aircrete!

Jamey Mantzel has used something like dustcrete. He used a Styrofoam grinder, to take styrofoam products into the cells, and then using the cells as a basis for styrocrete. It is pretty interesting. Used this stuff to make several domes on his homestead down in South America.

I have watched thousands of videos on various topics and yours is one of the best. Thanks