White Concrete

Teetorbilt

I have an idea for some cast walkway stones and need a white or near white concrete. I have considered pool grout but the cost is prohibitive. I'm open for any suggestions.

__________________
You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

concretemasonry

To get away from the gray cast of normal concrete, you will have to use white portland cement. It is not as cheap as normal cement and you may have to order it specially if you only want a few pallets. - Ready availability can be a problem.

The downside of the white is that it might be slightly slower to gain strength unless you have good curing conditions. The other downside is that it is too clean and atificial looking unless you add very, very small amounts of natural pigments or it your local sand has a slightly warmer color.

If you want real pure white concrete, you may have to use white cement, white sand and white marble chips, which is a pain in the a----, and very costly.

What is an acceptable color in the western U.S., may not fly in Florida because of local preferences.

__________________
Dick

Engineer, designer and consultant recently active domestically and internationally on construction and design in about 35 countries.

Tscarborough

White portland is usually available at a cost of 2 to 2-1/2 times the price of regular gray. Buff colored cement is also produced in various parts of the country. Neither of these are "colored", they are true raw materials. White cement is produced in facilities with NO cement to metal contact, i.e., all piping, etc is ceramic. It used to be produced from seashells dredged from bays, but that is pretty much history. Buff cement is produced by introducing diesel fuel into the clinker process, then running it through said ceramic piping.

In all other aspects, it performs exactly as does normal gray Type I/Type II portland.

Search for "Lehigh Cement" or "Royal Cement" in your area, Teetor.

__________________
It ain't Rocket Science unless you are building rockets.

CaliDesigns

My experince with white portland concrete is it sets faster. Always had to use a retarder. It is a finer grind of portland, more like a type 3 portland.

Teetorbilt

Thanks for the help. The prototypes will be for my house and then I'll try hawking them to high-end contractors, all custom of course.

__________________
You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

Chris Johnson

We use to use a product called 'Federal White'

__________________
Chris