2016 - Volume #BFS, Issue #16, Page #57
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“Do It Yourself” Concrete Blocks
Stumblebloc’s heavy duty plastic molds make it easy to manufacture your own hollow core concrete building blocks. By stacking the self-aligning blocks it makes it easy to build walls quickly and accurately. Conventional mortar is not required, “block grip” or block bond is used as a “glue” to hold the blocks together. We use “Block Bond”, which is a trowel on structural skin that is used when stacking conventional blocks for a wall. This thin set material is used in place of mortar. Using “Block Bond”, makes it possible to lay and stack as many blocks as your crew can handle. No need to wait while the mortar sets up, so that stacking can continue as long as there is a supply of blocks.
A. Marcelino & Co., a concrete and asphalt recycler, takes in waste concrete and asphalt, crushes, screens, the crushed material to make an aggregate product to use as a subbase for parking lots, roads and sidewalks. Further screening and sizing other products are produced such as drainage stone, aggregate to be used in redi-mix concrete or is recycled into an asphalt hot mix. From the concrete recycling, Marcelino batches a redi-mix concrete using fresh Portland cement to make a 4000 PSI concrete mix which is used in the production of Stumbelbloc. Another material that Marcelino recycles and uses in the Stumblebloc molds, is Styrofoam. Waste Styrofoam packing materials is shred and reduced down to a size of a “BB”. Mixing the Styrofoam with recycled crushed concrete, Portland cement, and water, this mixture is poured into the molds, allowed to harden to form an insulation Stumblebloc. Marcelino has installed these blocks in his shop, filling the voids with the same Styrofoam mixture which created a wall with an additional 8” of insulation. After the installation of these blocks his shop was noticeably warmer in the winter. We have also experimented using different materials such as; shredded plastic bottles, crushed glass, dried grass and hay. As you can see the Stumbleboc system allows you to experiment with many different waste materials. Many of these materials are not usable to produce structural blocks, but it leaves only the creativity of the builder to find uses for these types of blocks.
Casting the blocks is easy. After applying the release oils to the molds, the molds are assembled and filled with the concrete mixture. After the concrete is set the molds are opened the block removed and set aside for further curing. The molds are then cleaned, oiled, reassembled and refilled with your concrete mixture to produce more blocks.
The whole block molds are priced at $50.00 each, half blocks are $25.00. There is no limit to the reuse of these molds with proper care.
Contact: Alan Marcelino and Co. by phone at: 802-862-6383, mail: P.O. Box 195, Williston, Vermont 05495 or via e-mail: Starpaver1@aol.com.


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2016 - Volume #BFS, Issue #16