Can You Make Lightweight Concrete Stronger?

Lightweight concrete, no matter what lightweight aggregate you use, is much weaker than regular concrete. Here are three things you can add to a lightweight concrete mix design to make your finished lightweight concrete project stronger and keep it lighter than a normal concrete mix.

Replacing the sand component of regular concrete with a lightweight aggregate will definitely make the finished concrete weaker. Instead of replacing all of the sand, you could replace most of the sand and keep some sand in the mix to add strength to the finished product. Using some sand will keep some strength but it will also add some weight making it heavier than typical lightweight concrete but much lighter than normal concrete.

Using fibers or fiberglass in the mix strength to lightweight concrete and acts in a similar way that steel would act in concrete. It helps bind everything together with strong intertwining fibers keeping the weight much lighter than regular concrete and stronger than a lightweight concrete mix without fibers.

Admixtures such as PVA (polyvinyl acetate or more commonly known as white glue) or latex/acrylic are bonding agents and can be used to add strength to lightweight concrete mixes, as well as regular concrete recipes. PVA (white glue) does just what you would think glue does - it glues everything together. Latex or acrylic (acrylic is the synthetic version of latex) is a sort of rubber that improves strength and waterproofing of concrete and does not add any extra weight to the finished concrete.

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