Hi Judith,
Last year someone was asking about using styrofoam in concrete, so the answer would be similar. Concrete is basically aggregate bound together, so imagine a rock wall and the supportive strenth it has. When you leave out the aggregate, you are also drastically reducing the compressive strength of the product. This is fine is you will be using the perlite-crete for infill and non-loadbearing applications, but be aware that you will need some aggregate for bearing whatever loads you have. On the positive side the insulation of a perlite-concrete wall would be dramatically increased.
We know the compressiveI strength of a sack of store-bought concrete or delivered ready-made by truck, so from the strength tables I have seen I would estimate that the the compressive strenth of perlite-crete would only be 5% of regular concrete. I have a table of strength using various portions of perlite in concrete, and if I am allowed I will post it to the files section of the group with the name of "Perlite Concrete" You could also find it at http://www.perlite.org
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, JUDITH WILLIAMS <williams_judith@...> wrote:
>
> I was just wondering what would happen if I mixed the papercrete the usual way except to leave out the aggregate. I have a whole bunch of perlite now so I have plenty to put in. It was just a curiosity question really.
>
> Sincerely, Judith
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