bobups Loc: Bath pa

A lot of terrible work in florida

bobups Loc: Bath pa

A lot of shoddy workmanship in Florida and the rest of America. Short over a million workers

JFCoupe Loc: Kent, Washington

I never thought about these blocks being made from actual cinders, and have always called them cinder blocks. So I have new knowledge for the day already.

In my early post-college years, I made some book shelfs with these blocks, spray painted some color, for better appeal.

Lost Again Loc: Middle of nowhere Oregon

That picture sure "ain't" Portland Oregon. All them-there blocks would have been through the windows a long time ago.

Lucasdv123

A builder once told me that if you wanted a strong wall out of cider blocks to fill the holes with cement and place a couple of rebars in each hole.try knocking down a wall built that way.

JFP

In Central Kansas both cinder blocks and concrete blocks are produced. The cinder blocks are significantly lighter in weight and I suspect much less durable.

frankco Loc: Colorado

I can't find it anywhere now but I know I've read that cinder blocks will burn in a fire.

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

It may be that ash is used in the mix. I have heard concrete blocks being called cinder blocks as far back as I can remember.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Google: Can cinder blocks burn
The answer is No but they will deteriorate from exposure to fire

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

The Romans or Greeks used volcanic ash in cement and made very strong concrete !!

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Yes, the Propper term is indeed "CMU, Concrete Masonry Unit", and they have been around for a very long time. In fact, 80% of my studio building is constructed of these units, and that building was constructed back in 1907.

It is sort of like referring to a reciprocating saw as a Saws-All*, or a hole shooter as a drill, even a facial tissue as a Kleenex. But people get a common name and it tends to stick.

*Saws All is the copy righted name for the Milwaukee reciprocating saw.

flip1948 Loc: Hamden, CT

The one that gets me is when people refer to concrete as cement. Sometimes I will correct them by telling them that cement (Portland cement) is the powder mixed with water, sand and an aggregate to make concrete.

From 1966 until they closed in 1975 I worked for Plasticrete Corp., the largest concrete block manufacturer on the East Coast. I worked as Chief Draftsman in their precast concrete division. They had plants from Massachusetts to Florida, but were headquartered in Hamden, CT where I worked.

For 40 years after they closed I worked for 3 different structural engineers and a civil engineer producing all of their drawings. The last 30 years or so the drawings were done using AutoCad and I gradually lost the callus that had developed on my middle finger from using mechanical pencils for so long.

Cinder block was usually manufactured using coal cinders as an aggregate which resulted in a lightweight unit. As such it wasn't very strong with a compressive strength of about 1500 psi compared to up to 5000 psi for concrete block.

While working for one structural engineer in the late 70s we were hired by a German company who had purchased a Swiss company that made wood fiber reinforced concrete building products to do a marketing study. One of those products was a concrete block that used mineralized wood fibers as an aggregate. The resulting block was about 10"x10"x20" long. Due to the wood fiber agregate they were very lightweight and could easily be picked up by one hand. The block would be laid up dry (no mortar) and after several courses were in place horizontal and vertical rebars were inserted and concrete would be poured in to fill the cores. There were cutouts in the webs of the blocks so that the horizontal reinforcing could be placed and allow for the concrete to flow from block to block. The so-called mineralization of the wood fibers made the block fireproof...they never told us what the mineralization entailed even though we asked. They also made a concrete board in thicknesses from 1/2" to 1-1/2". You couldn't burn it...we tried with a torch, but it could be sawn and routed easily. It looked like a great product but the weight and shipping from Europe made it expensive.

We gave a few sheets of the 1-1/2" board to a pool table manufacturer and they made a table using the board as a replacement for a slate bed and took it to a trade show where they got a lot of favorable responses.

The German company was Europe's largest manufacturer of cement asbestos products and they knew they would eventually have to get out of that business so they were researching every other type of fiber reinforced cement, from glass fibers, thermoplastic fibers and wood fibers. In 1980 I spent two weeks in their lab in Berlin, Germany working with one of their scientists, who spoke no English. We spent the first week making samples of small fiber reinforced cement samples using all of the aforementioned fibers with various additives, taking notes on things like the workability of the mixture, etc. The second week we subjected the samples to destructive testing to determine strength.

I apologize for taking this so far off topic and being so long-winded. I could actually go on much longer but it would probably bore you to tears.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Did not bore me and I bet Jerry is loving this. I saw a presentation on U-tube showing some of this for construction industry. It is just amazing what improvements and innovations that are being done. Thanks for the information!

Tim.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

And here was me thinking tofu-dreg originated in China.

KTJohnson Loc: Northern Michigan

Unit Blocks

USA Patent Application,
November 21, 1935;
USA Patent granted, January 4, 1938.

Alden Dow’s exploration of block construction began after he graduated from the Columbia School of Architecture in 1931 and his eight-month apprenticeship at Taliesin in 1933. Inspired by nature’s patterns, he wanted a workable block with bold
geometric shapes. Alden Dow, along with one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s former and finest draftsman, Robert Goodall, created a rhomboid block with a square face in 16 different sizes. One horizontal course has blocks angled to the right and the following course of blocks angles to the left producing structural integrity by its overlapping seams. This became known as Alden B. Dow’s Unit Block building system.

Alden Dow utilized this Unit Block system in many of his early designs including his own home and studio. In addition to structural support of exterior walls, the versatility of the blocks extended to interior spaces as well – table bases, level changes, division of spaces, columns – to create artistic, visual interest. He even positioned the Unit Blocks like stepping stones across the pond, farther and farther apart as they escape from the disciplined grid of the building.

In addition to their unique shape and structural integrity, the other identifying characteristic of the Unit Blocks was that they were made of the cinder that he saw piling up outside The Dow Chemical Company furnaces. His father, Herbert Dow, had utilized this same cinder to construct “clinker” bridges in their family gardens. Alden liked the idea of utilizing these resources that most people viewed as waste materials. Today, he would be thought of as an early recycler!