Ferrocement is both a method and a material used in building or sculpture with cement, sand, water and wire or mesh material - often called the thin shell. Thin shell ferrocement offers strength and economy and has a broad range of applications which include home building, creating sculptures, or building boats and ships. Cranes are essential in large construction projects, such as this skyscraper In project architecture and civil engineering, construction is the building or assembly of any infrastructure on a site. ... Sculptor redirects here. ... In the most general sense of the word, cement is a binder, a substance which sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. ... Patterns in the sand Sand is a granular material made up of fine rock particles. ... Water is a chemical substance that is essential to all known forms of life. ... A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, elongated strand of drawn metal. ... A mesh is similar to fabric or a web in that it has many connected or weaved pieces. ... A boat is a craft or vessel designed to float on, and provide transport over, water. ... Italian ship-rigged vessel Amerigo Vespucci in New York Harbor, 1976 A ship is a large, sea-going watercraft. ...

Construction

The desired shape is built from a multi-layered construction of chicken wire, and if needed reinforced with steel wire or steel bars. Over this finished framework, an appropriate mixture of cement, sand and water is spread out. During hardening, the ferrocement is kept moist, to ensure the cement is able to set and harden. Chicken wire Chicken wire, or poultry netting, is a mesh of wire, generally used for making fences. ... In the most general sense of the word, cement is a binder, a substance which sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. ... Patterns in the sand Sand is a granular material made up of fine rock particles. ... Water is a chemical substance that is essential to all known forms of life. ...

The wall thickness of ferrocement constructions lies in general between 10 and 30 mm, depending on the span. It can take up to one month before the ferrocement sheet reaches its final strength. A millimetre (American spelling: millimeter), symbol mm is an SI unit of length that is equal to one thousandth of a metre. ... Span is a section between two intermediate supports of a bridge. ...

Application

In India, ferrocement is used often because the constructions made from it are better resistant against earthquakes. Global earthquake epicenters, 1963–1998. ...

In the 1970's, designers adapted their yacht designs to the then very popular backyard building scheme of building a boat using ferrocement. Its big attraction was that, for minimum outlay and costs, a reasonable application of skill, an amateur could construct a smooth, strong and substantial yacht hull.testing A modern yacht A yacht (From Dutch Jacht meaning hunt) was originally defined as a light, fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries. ...

Advantages

The advantages of a well built ferrocement construction are the low weight, maintenance costs and long lifetime in comparison with steel constructions. However, meticulous building precision is considered crucial here. Especially with respect to the cement composition and the way in which it is applied in and on the framework.

When a ferrocement sheet is mechanically overloaded, it will tend to fold instead of crack or rupture. The wire framework will hold the pieces together, which in some applications (boat hull, ceiling, roof) is an advantage.

A ferrocement construction has 10 to 25% of the weight of a comparable construction made of bricks. An old brick wall in English bond laid with alternating courses of headers and Brick is an artificial stone made by forming clay into rectangular blocks which are hardened, either by burning in a kiln or sometimes, in warm countries, by sun-drying. ...

Disadvantages

The disadvantage of ferrocement constructions is the labor intensive nature of it, which makes it expensive for industrial application in the western world.

External links

• Site advocating use of ferrocement
• How to build a ferrocement boat