Grant and Richard did a bit of testing to show the benefits of the special concrete mix that we are using for the docks compared to a normal concrete mix. Our mix has four additives that have different benefits. It has fibers to hold everything together, a superplasticizer to add strength and reduce the water in the mix, a microsilica to add hardness and strength, and a waterproofer to help protect against water.

We are using a press that has a pressure gauge to see the difference in strength between our special mix and a normal concrete mix. Richard puts each piece in the press and uses a metal plate to add more surface area to evenly add the pressure and prevent any high-pressure points.

As you can see, the normal concrete crumbles almost immediately. The pressure that it took to break the normal mix was not even enough to register on the gauge. When he tested the concrete with the additives, it was able to sustain 50 PSI before crumbling. While it may not seem like much here, this shape is not a necessarily strong shape for concrete and it is only being used to test the mix, that being said, it is a huge improvement over the plain concrete mix.

Testing like this is an important part of making sure that we build safe, sound, and long-lasting homes. The marine environment is exceptionally harsh on basically everything that you put in it so finding ways to extend the life of our products is key when building homes that will be in the ocean.