Can Hydraulic Cement be used as a Nonshrink, Gypsum-Free, Cement-Based Nonmetallic Grout. For anchoring aluminum railing posts in concrete?
Hi Jerry.
From what I recall most cementitious non-shrink grouts are made with hydraulic cements so you can kind-of say that non-shrink grouts are hydraulic cements (not exclusively) but not all hydraulic cements are non-shrink grouts.
Here are a few to consider but there are hundreds of good products on the US market.
https://usa.sika.com/content/usa/main/en/solutions_products/Construction-Products-Services/repair-protection-home/products/02a002/02a005/02a005sa05.html
I thought “hydraulic cement” was any mineral-based cement that cured via a chemical reaction to water. By this definition, portland cement is a type of hydraulic cement, and so is Type K cement.
If there is a formal definition for "hydraulic cement? within the context of your question?
Michael, not sure how to answer your question, I am not sure where Hydraulic cement is used, I am responding to a contractor wanting to use hydraulic cement in lieu of what I specified.
It is my understanding that normal cement shrinks as it cures. Hydraulic cement expands as it cures.
Non-shrink grout and portland cement are hydraulic types of cements, so the contractor needs to be more specific. Non-shrink grouts have added ingredients that compensate for normal concrete shrinkage and may even expand a little.
American Concrete Institute definition:
“Hydraulic cement is cement that sets and hardens by chemical reaction with water (hydration) and is capable of doing so under water (ACI 225R). The hydration reactions result in the formation of a hard solid mass. The most widely used hydraulic cement is portland cement. Other kinds of hydraulic cement include blended cements and ground granulated blast-furnace slag (ACI 233R). Pozzolans, both natural (ACI 232.1R) and artificial (fly ash, ACI 232.2R, and silica fume, ACI 234R) are often used as a cementitious ingredient of concrete.”
https://www.concrete.org/tools/frequentlyaskedquestions.aspx?faqid=640
ASTM C1157-17
Standard Performance Specification for Hydraulic Cement
1.1 This performance specification covers hydraulic cements for both general and special applications. There are no restrictions on the composition of the cement or its constituents (See Note 1).
Note 1: There are two related hydraulic cement standards, Specification C150 for portland cement and Specifications C595 for blended cements, both of which contain prescriptive and performance requirements
1.2 This performance specification classifies cements based on specific requirements for general use, high early strength, resistance to attack by sulfates, and heat of hydration. Optional requirements are provided for the property of low reactivity with alkali-silica-reactive aggregates and for air-entraining cements.
My interpretation of this is that there is no standard “hydraulic cement”, so it has to be defined in terms of composition or performance and as part of a mixture called mortar or concrete.
To further confuse matters concrete may have little or no Portland cement. ACI 318 now refers to cementitious materials of which ASTM C150 is one of several materials listed. Thus when workmen refer to cement it may have no cement in it.
In my experience, the most common use of the term “hydraulic cement” in construction is as a label for self-leveling underlayment in which the cement is primarily a Portland cement. I wonder whether the contractor has this on-site and would like to use if for purposes other than underlayment. Since this type of product is likely to have a completely different formulation than non-shrink grout, I would say that such a substitution would not be appropriate.
I recently have been involved in a project that led me to provide two distinct topping related specification sections, 03 54 16 - Hydraulic Cement Underlayment and 03 54 23 - Gypsum Cement Underlayment. These are standard MasterSpec Sections.
The project is a large university student housing (dorms) project consisting of 9 dorm buildings, a stand-alone Community Building and a stand-alone office and maintenance building. The dorms all use a proprietary metal stud framing system, including joist floor framing/shallow depth metal decking, that incorporates a specific gypsum cement underlayment to achieve the program floor assembly fire rating and acoustical performance requirements. The Community Building uses conventional structural steel framing and standard depth metal decking. Community Building and Maintenance Building slabs on grade and raised floor assemblies will use concrete based toppings were needed.
The project specifications are shared across all increments as one specification, so keeping these separate was a basic organizational and Bid RFI avoidance tool.
You need to see product data for whatever he is proposing; Section 01 25 00 should have a procedure to follow.