Yes, we need to define just which tests are meaningful. Obviously, strength, cohesiveness, shrinkage, moisture absorption, are a few which come to mind. Maybe abrasion resistance. Does it matter whether it will take a nail or how tight will it grip a deck screw? Flammability is always something that comes up in discussions. It has been my experience that PC is pretty impressive when you hold a weed burner to it for 5 minutes but I've heard of startling failures when allowed to smolder all night. We also need to establish a workable size. I tend to think the smallest size block that would allow marking is beneficial as I can imagine these are going to need to be sent to and fro for comparison's sake. There have been several easy to duplicate strength setups, usually involving a hydraulic jack and a compression meter. If we come up with a standard size then it would be relatively easy to decide how long we would want a block to soak immersed in water to be considered stable and what we would expect a block to do, i.e. does it crumble after 24 hours, flake, or go soft around the edges? Do we want to invest in a moisture meter and take definitive readings? Do we want to try to adopt an already established standard set for a similar material (?) by the Bureau of Standards? Perhaps adobe or rammed earth. Lots of information to process.
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