7 Real Uses For Cement And Water (Without Sand)
If you have wondered if you can use only cement and water for construction applications the answer is yes, cement mixed with water without any other components can be used in construction for a variety of uses.
In most cases, it is used by experienced masons because, in addition to being useful for various jobs, it embellishes the building.
Cement grouting is a masonry technique that involves mixing gray or white cement with water to obtain a semi-liquid fluid for different uses. This is the reason why, in most cases, sand is not used.
It may happen that, due to the characteristics of the construction in which it is to be used, some extra additive, such as fine sand, is added to the mixture, but this is not essential for the mixture to work.
Here is a list of five uses that cement and water can have, without the need for an area.
1-Field injection material
Cement grout can be used as an injection material for anti-corrosion and ground contact bulb formation.
2-Filling joints
Cement grout is a material widely used to fill joints, although in ceramics there is a special filler, the use of cement grout can be used in joints in stone and block cladding.
3-For injections in land improvements
Cement slurry is injected into the fractures, soil, or rock, or the voids are filled with a slurry with a high particle content. In this case, the cement slurry is basically introduced by gravity until the voids are filled.
With large voids, it is advisable to introduce aggregates or products with a high volumetric yield into the slurry.
5-Reduce soil permeability
When there is no breakage of the soil, but in soils with high permeability Very penetrating mixtures are used, whose main objective is to reduce the permeability of the soil by filling pores and fissures.
6-Micropiles and anchors
Micropiles are deep foundation elements with a circular cross-section and small diameter, up to 250 mm, with a high compressive bearing capacity, which transfer loads to the ground at depth.
The injection of the micropile is always carried out by injection of cement grout produced in a high turbulence mixer.
Normally, for micropiles or anchors, a cement with a resistance class of at least 42.5 is used and it is recommended that it always be sulforesistant, even if the soil is not aggressive.
7-As glue and sealant
A cement grout with a high cement-to-water ratio can be used as a bonding and sealing material, for example, in some cases white cement grout can be used to attach and seal toilets to ceramic tile, this can often be more effective than using silicone.
What happens when mixing cement and water only?
Cement is one of the binders and hardens through a chemical reaction with water. This forms stable compounds that form tiny needle-shaped crystals. These “interlock” with each other and thus lead to the high strength of the concrete.
This process is called hydration. Because of this chemical process, concrete does not dry, but rather binds, ie most of the water in the fresh concrete is chemically bound.
Is cement stronger with or without sand?
Cement is a binder, cement with water can be called cement paste. Sand is a mineral aggregate whose strength contributes significantly to the overall strength. Therefore cement is stronger with sand than without it in the mix.
Does concrete get harder with more cement?
The more cement in the mix, the harder the concrete will be because the cement is the glue that holds everything together. If you use more water than necessary, it degrades the adhesive and you end up with inferior concrete.
What can you use instead of sand in cement?
Innovative solutions to replace sand in road and building construction are currently being investigated. Alternative materials such as recycled plastic, earth, bamboo, wood, straw and others are being tested.
The key seems to lie in mixing other components with the concrete to give the mixture the necessary stability for construction.
Several countries are already experimenting with roads made from plastic composites. The first bicycle lane made entirely from recycled plastic opened in September last year in Zwolle, the Netherlands.
Why is sand used for concrete?
Concrete is basically cemented rock. The aggregates represent the rock, the cement with water the glue.
The adhesive is the weak point in normal concrete and is also relatively expensive. You want to use less glue and a lot of rock.
If only gravel were used as an aggregate, very large cavities would remain between the at least 2mm large stones, which would then have to be filled with cement.
Therefore, a good grading curve also uses sand to fill up as many cavities as possible (depending on the grading curve 14 – over 50% by mass).
Sand is not used for the actual concrete, but gravel is used as aggregate.
Gravel consists of grain sizes below 1mm: up to 2mm: up to 4mm: up to 8mm: up to 16mm: and up to 32mm.
It is very important for the strength of the concrete that the proportions of the different grain sizes are in the correct ratio. Neither too coarse-grained nor too fine-grained.
In the concrete plant, the composition of the grain sizes is determined by the so-called “grading curve”.
Therefore, concrete made with only sand would not have the same strength as concrete with the right granulometry.
When cement is mixed only with sand and water, it is called mortar or plaster. With particle sizes up to 4 mm, it is called screed concrete (sometimes up to 8 mm). Again, however, it is not a matter of single particle size, but in the prescribed proportions.
