You can go nuts with bricks. Any recipe that suits your fancy will do.
Molds can be made from WELL oiled wood if you are handy with a hammer and saw. Or my favorite Blue Styrofoam can be cut with a jigsaw and allows you to make an unlimited number of different shapes. If you face the styrofoam with RED Tuck tape
you never need a release agent, the mold will come off nice and clean and last a very long time..

Hi Bob,
I make bricks out of my scrap material by putting a plastic grocery bag in a square tupperware can. I pack the hypertufa and then pull the brick out. They don't have the as nice a finish as a mold does because the plastic wrinkles but I can make a whole bunch quickly.

Someone mentioned a couple posts ago that if you add the link, do it after the preview when they say (use this form to make corections then it works).
Debbie

Hi Bob4,

If you want someone with expertise in this area, DebZone would be the person. She's made her own molds and built a beautiful garden area out of them. I'm not sure she's reading right now and I don't want to directly link to her album but I will give you a link to an old post that has her album linked there.

In the below link, look 6 down for Dena's post and click on the DebZone8 link. If she's not reading the forum right now, you might email her.

Good Luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: DebZone's blocks

davidmcdn, I have a bunch of sheets of the white styrofoam. Can this be used for making molds as well? Would I have to line it with plastic? Thanks.

Hi tufameister

White styrofoam can work but it won't last long. But if you have it use it up. Yes you can line it with plastic and you should.
If you have any 6 mil poly, the stuff used for vapor barrier in homes it's excellent. If there is house construction nearby the builders will give you roll ends sometimes containing 100s of square feet. You can buy a small roll cheap at Home Depot. It also makes great table protectors because it lays flat.
6 mil is heavy and cheap and it is very tough to crease so it leaves a smooth surface.
But getting it to stick to the styrofoam is a problem. But there are some glues that will work giving you an indestructable surface on your styrofoam.

I use RED Tuck tape instead of plastic for lining my smaller molds. This tape sticks to ANYTHING and is very tough. Concrete will not stick to it. If you have never used TUCK tape buy a roll from Home Depot. You won't be sorry, there is nothing else like it. It's 2 inches wide and a roll will last a long time. This stuff can last years in direct sunlight without letting go. It make a great release 'film' for any brick mold, even those made of wood or metal. Far better than stinky motor oil.

White styrofoam is not as strong as the blue so keep it thick enough that it doesn't 'buldge' from the pressure of the wet tufa. You can reenforce it on the outside with bits of wood.

Good luck with them bricks!

Hi Bobn4,

I've made hypertufa and I've made paving blocks but haven't made any 'tufa blocks. I made simple rectangular wooden molds similar to debzone's only with 3/4" stock and only one block per mold. With regular concrete I was able to pack the mold and remove it immediately. Sounds like this is similar to what daybes did with the grocery bag and tupperware can.
Molds need to be firmly packed. I also tap/bang on the molds with a rubber mallet then gently lift off the mold. A couple blocks of wood screwed on for handles makes this easier. The water content is kind of tricky at first. You don't want it too wet but if it's too dry/crumbly pieces may break off when removing the mold. I find that if I can easily shape a ball with my hands that holds it's shape it's good. The molds were saturated with cooking oil at the begining but then only needed to be hosed off between batches.

We made about 200 last fall before it got too cold. Unfortunately, we need at least 2,000 and I've got serious doubts about my wrists holding up to finish the project.

good luck with your project.

jan

Try Cryogenic Perlite.
It works like sand but is so slippery that adding it to a sand
recipe makes it as easy to mix by hand as if it was mashed potatoes. And this is a dry mix. It's quite amazing really.
People don't believe me when I say this until they try it.
Just add even 1/3 Cryogenic Perlite to your sand and all your wrist problems will go away.

Oh David, if only that were true. I'm afraid even your amazing cryogenic perlite can't turn back the clock on these old bones. It's not the mixing. We have a cement mixer. Even I'm not crazy enough to attempt a project this size by hand. Just packing it into the molds is bad enough. When we do the blocks we try to do 50 which is about 5 mixer fulls... a lot of concrete to handle.

The cryogenic perlite does sound tempting to try but previous statements about how it such light flyaway stuff is enough to discourage me.

jan

Jan
Cryogenic Perlite is horrible stuff to handle by itself.
It creates a dust that is horrible to breath. I solved this by working under a ceiling fan that pushes air down and away to prevent the stuff 'floating up. Plus I wear a mask.
If you move slowly it's not bad and certainly no worse than the dust from Portland.
I have a sheet of six mil poly with a hole in the middle for my hand that I can lay over my mixing container to keep the dust down.

I would say Cryogenic Perlite is about equal to Portland for creating clouds of dust you don't want to breath.

Even when making your bricks this perlite will help. It flops into the mold easily and it requires very little help filling gaps because it moves so easily. If you can pick up your table and bang it down a couple times you shouldn't have gaps.

And it does allow easy brushing or carving to make a great textured surface.
I love it and use it in almost everything I make from 20 to 100% of my aggregates. Cheap latex paint seems to just make it even easier to handle and stronger as well.

The only downside is it leaves tiny salt size specks of white in the finish after brushing so if I want cobalt blue or black I leave it out.

Cyrogenic perilite ?? Thats a new one on me. Whats the difference in this and the perilite I use in my greenhouse ? Can you find it at the "BIG ORANGE" ?
Packrat

Hi PR
It's very different from garden variety.
It's fine as sand, maybe finer, and has a quality I can only describe as waxy.
Unfortunatly the Big O doesn't stock and probably hasn't even heard of it.
It's used to insulate huge steel tanks and stuff like that.
You need to find a concrete product supplier to the building industry.

To add:

It is probably this 'slippery' 'waxy' quality of Cryogenic Perlite that the company reps of Grace Industries are refering to when they say Cryogenic Perlite is not the best for ccncrete.
They have two products almost identical to Cryogenic Perlite that are designed specifically to be used in concrete.
One is designated Heavy something the other Light.
I had a bag of 'heavy' and it seemed identical to Cryogenic but FAR more dusty. It might make stronger concrete than Cryogenic but it is too hoorible to use.
I'm sticking with the 'slippery' Cryo.:)

Hey Davidmcdn,

you said something about if you want cobalt or black. How do you get the different colors?

Thanks!

If you made the bricks how many do you think you could get out of a bag of 80 cement??? This is a project I'm excited about.

Define cement. Do you mean readimix?
Portland comes in one cubic foot bags. 91 pounds.

Wow....thanks soooo much for all the help. You have made my job a lot easier so far.

I'd also be curious how much a 91 lb bag of portland would make? I guess it depends on what kind of aggregate you use.

Let's say for example you use:

1 part portland
2 parts peat
2 parts perlite

Can you just assume that you'll get out the same amount of cubic feet you put in there?

I'm wondering if its actually cheaper to make your own bricks...or if it adds up to more than buying the "ugly" landscaping bricks form HD...??

A cubic foot of aggregate roughly makes about a cubic foot of concrete. You don't count the Portland.
But peat compresses so you will get less.
It doesn't cost more in materials than landscape blocks but you won't save any money either.
You would make them because you like the look.
And you can make them in many colors.

I was meaning just plain cement, an 80 lb bag. I didn't check message content B4 I posted, sorry.

Sorry Echoes I'm not familiar with any 80 pound bags of cement.
Our Portland is sold in 91 pound bags and our readimix in 55 pound bags.

Hi all, I don't have anything new or exciting to say about hypertufa block making--I pack the forms with 'tufa, drink a glass of wine and then go around the edges with a plastic drywall scraper to free the blocks and carefully lift off the forms. It would be too time consuming to unscrew the forms and they would fall apart too soon (which they will do eventually, anyway).

When I lift the forms, the blocks are about the consistency of fudge: (chocolate, wine and 'tufa--how can life get any better?) firm enough to hold their shape but plastic enough to clean up the edges and stick back any corners that break off in the unmolding process.

As for the yield per 90# bag of portland, I'm sorry but I've never kept track (probably the wine, lol). I go through sand the fastest and peat lasts the longest. What happens is that I make other things in-between block batches so that I don't expire of boredom. Also with portland in the Pacific NW, you have a pretty narrow time window before it goes bad. I buy a bag and when I start running out (and my back recovers from buying the last one) I go get another.

Good luck and great patience on your block endeavors.

Deb

Hi Bobn4-

Have you considered papercrete? I don't know if the initial mix is as heavy as or lighter than other hypertufa mixes, but the outcome is a fairly light brick that has been used for construction with pretty good levels of success.

Here are three links to some information, recipes, and techniques that may be helpful:

http://www.architectureweek.com/2002/1204/building_2-1.html
http://www.papercrete.com/
http://www.livinginpaper.com/

Good luck!

Jo

Papercrete is cool but costly in my experience.
If you shred your own it's costly in time.
And if you buy the insulation it still ends up more expensive than vermiculite or perlite. At least here in my area.
Considering it's habit of sucking up water and molding I have given up on papercrete for everything except small detail items.

If I were to purchase a large panel of the blue styrofoam (or pink)- would it be possible for me to cut several "bricks" from one piece making a multi-brick mold from only one piece of styrofoam? (as opposed to cutting the styrofoam into smaller sections and using them to create the brick molds individually) I am invisioning.. a sheet of plywood set up in our garage with a sheet of thick plastic covering it, then setting the styrofoam panel on top, lining the exposed cuts with something (tape as mentioned above?) and the spreading my hypertufa mixture in all the various holes. I am guessing there would be 2-3 inches between each specific hole allowing adaquate support to prevent a breakthrough. I am hoping I could then mass produce the hypertufa bricks.

Any thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

If this won't work any suggestions for mass producing bricks with minimal effort?

Thanks,
bluejean in ohio

bluejean

Don't use the pink. It has zero UV protection and the surface will turn to dust right before your eyes if you use it in direct sunlight.
How big/thick are your bricks? my instructions are for 3 inch thick bricks.
You can buy blue up to 3 inches thick but it is pricy. Besides two stacked 1.5 inch sheets work better and are cheaper than one 3 inch sheet.
Cut brick sized holes in both sheets then tape them together fill with mud a let them setup a couple days. Cover them with plastic and keep damp. It is easier to remove blue styro from DAMP crete.
After a couple days gently lift up the top sheet of styrofoam. This will leave 1/2 the brick sticking out of the bottom sheet. Wiggle the bricks out, brush them with a wire brush to rough the surface and you are good to go again with the next batch.
A release film of non petrol oil will help keep your styrofoam clean.

3" thick would be ideal, I think. I am imagining some of them being 3-4 " square and then having some rectangles. or even cobble stone shaped...I am not quite sure what I want to do but I just want something more custom than the store bought blocks. I want it to look very country and casual. I am hoping to use them for a walk way around the house and if successful- around into other landscaped areas in the future. Thank you or your suggestions! The more suggestions, the better "prepared" I will feel.

bluejean in ohio

Hi Bluejean
With styrofoam you can make any shape. That's the beauty of the stuff.
I made 12 identical butterfly shaped stepping stones. Big ones, 18 inches wide with a single 2 1/2 inch thick 2 ft by 2 ft chunk of blue styrofoam. I cut the shape out with my bandsaw for a nice smooth mold. I cast one every 3 days out of reenforced concrete. The lady I cast them for has been painting and mosaicing (is that a word :))them all winter.
I'm waiting for her to send me pictures once she gets her path done.

Don't know what pink that truegrit is referring to. I use the pink (it's manufactured by Corning, blue is Dow) and there's no deterioration. I store the extra in my greenhouse. I took a class a while ago from Joyce Fingerut, co-author of "Creating and Planting Garden Troughs". The pink is what she used for the class.
Don't forget that you can also dig out the soil and "pour" your stepping stones in place. Don't forget to take pictures. Billie

When the blocks are cured and ready to be installed how should I install them? Should I use a sand base as if I were using standard pavers or bricks?

Also, any thoughts on style/size of block to use for a "french country" feel??

bluejean in ohio

I made a raised flower bed designed to look like stacked blocks by pouring a continuous row of solid Hypertufa in a homemade form (cardboard). After the Hypertufa set-up I used a razor blade/box knife to cut in the blocks and odd tools to shape the blocks to the desired look. The seams of each block are about an inch deep.Impossible to tell its a solid piece. Sifting the sand of aggregate was the trick to using the razor blade on the Tufa. By using some rough wood working tools I sanded down every other block or so to give it an uneven look as though it was stacked.I'm now in the process of trying to age it by manure buttermilk recipes.

bamatufa,

Do you have any pictures? I'd really like to see your work.

I definately want to see pictures too bamatufa! That sounds really nice... hmmm... (ideas spinning in my head) Now if I could just convince hubby to become a tufa head..

We are getting ready to dig a pond. I have imagined having a creekstone retaining wall along the back bank to make it look landscaped and "finished" but a tufa wall like that sounds nice.. and easier than hauling creek stones from my parents property (1 hr away!).. or maybe even a combination of creek stone and tufa.. make it look old and unique! More and more ideas. I can see why so many say it is adictive!

I hope to get my hands dirty this sunday and make my first tufa project- a planter for the front porch- or maybe 2?!?!?! and with leftovers I am going to make blocks for my walk. Yea! Fun!

-Yes- I will remember to take pictures!

I am wanting to make bricks for raised veggie beds. Each would be 18" x 12" x 3 or 4" thick. is that doable. It will take 16 per bed. What recipe would give me maybe something more tan or brown vs gray?? Want to stick 2 dowel holes into the sides to connect with PVC so they stand up