5 Things to Know About Vermiculite and Concrete

Vermiculite concrete is a type of lightweight concrete that can easily be made at home for a variety of applications. In this video, Steve gives you 5 things you should know about vermiculite and how it works with concrete before you get started.
Vermiculite comes in different sizes or grades of coarseness - coarse, medium, and fine. When making a vermiculite concrete, fine or medium grain vermiculite is ideal. Fine vermiculite can be harder to find in large or bulk quantities. Medium grain is most commonly what you would find when shopping in bulk.
All vermiculite is very absorbent and is often kept on hand to help absorb and clean up spilled liquids, especially in large volume. So, considering this, when adding vermiculite to a concrete mix, it should not be dry vermiculite. If it's dry, it will absorb the water that the cement powder needs to go through its setting and curing process. Wet the vermiculite with water before adding it to a concrete mix so it does not absorb the water needed for curing.
Vermiculite concrete, or any lightweight concrete, is not as strong as concrete made with a regular full-strength mix. But it is not just a little less, or half as strong. It is substantially weaker than regular concrete.
Troweling vermiculite concrete smooth can pose a bit of a challenge. It has a sticky feel to it when attempting to trowel it smooth and ends up sticking to the trowel more than it should. A tip to help prevent this is to add a drop or two of liquid dish soap to the mix right at the end. The liquid dish soap just helps the vermiculite mix be a lot less sticky and allows a smoother troweled finish.
Don't overmix a vermiculite concrete. Mixing too much collapses the vermiculite and essentially disintegrates it making the bulk of your yield reduce by up to half. This could be a problem for your concrete project because you have planned for a certain amount of concrete made with a certain amount of ingredients. If you come up short on either, your project could be ruined.
There can be a bit of a learning curve when it comes to making and working with vermiculite concrete, or any lightweight concrete. Finding and using helpful tips such as the ones in this video should go a long way to helping you have more success when starting out.
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[@cchemmes-seeseeart3948]

Awesome video. I definitely prefer lesson videos over learning things the hard way through failure. I cannot cease to be amazed at how finicky concrete is. Expert advice is appreciated!

[@ARTANDARTIFACT]

Thanks! Didn't know about the grades of vermiculite. Used it for carving a few heads. Now using Winterstone for sculpting.

[@AVBros37]

For the next video can you go over how to make thinset and grout from scratch? (For if you want to manipulate the qualities of each)

[@louisadams4540]

*Promosm* 😁