Quality Concrete from Crap: Production techniques to produce quality concrete from less-than-ideal materials.

According to the United Nations there is a dire need for 58 million homes in the slums around the world. Though billions of dollars are spent each year, adequate housing remains a critical need because houses built to address this need fail. Some homes built from concrete fail within five years. Some fail with the next hurricane or other disaster. The causes include a lack of suitable raw materials, a lack of suitable infrastructure, and a lack of suitable training. An additional problem is the people producing the concrete may not realize that it is possible to produce better concrete. Then there is cost. When there is not enough money in the budget to build an adequately sized and safe home, compromises are made and the homes become unsafe to enter.

In building in Haiti, it became clear that engineered plans did not improve the life span of a home if the concrete, mortar, concrete masonry units, and stucco were not produced to meet quality standards. In the slums of Haiti, and for that matter in the slums around the world, very little of the building materials meet the standards they need to meet.

It would be wonderful if we could put in sand and gravel plants, concrete ready mix plants, and other construction infrastructure, but if it were done, would we have people trained to run them and to maintain the equipment?

This book addresses the need in a different way. Until that infrastructure can be built, operated, and maintained, let's use the available material in a manner to make the best concrete, mortar, and stucco possible. That is the purpose of this book―QUALITY CONCRETE FROM CRAP.

About the Author
Nordmeyer, Herb: - "Herb Nordmeyer was homeschooled in chemistry and cement chemistry. Even though he went on to earn degrees in biology, chemistry, and aquatic ecology, he considers his real education that home-schooling. Af-ter following a career track based on his formal educa-tion for a few years, he got back into the construction materials field where he specialized in product devel-opment and forensic analysis of failures (usually, but not always, other people's failures). Since his retire-ment in January, 2010, he and his wife own and oper-ate Nordmeyer, LLC, a consulting, writing, and pub-lishing company. He is a partner in HerbCrete, LLC, a company which develops specialty stuccos. He has been very active in ASTM, serving on Committees: C 1 (Cements), C 11 (Gypsum and Relat-ed Products - including stucco), C 12 (Mortar for Unit Masonry), C 15 (Masonry Units), and C 27 (Precast Products). In September, 2013, Herb made what he thought was his first and last trip to Haiti. Pastor Benoit showed him the need for earthquake-resistant and hurricane-resistant housing. He challenged Herb to find or develop technology to build earthquake- and hurricane-resistant housing for Haiti, especially the slum called Jubilee, which could be built for a materi-als cost of $1,000 US. In November, 2013, Herb was back in Haiti where he agreed to go at least four times per year, as long as his health and finances held up. Besides teaching in the slums, in January, 2017, he taught a 4-semester-hour course in disaster-resistant construction at the American University of the Caribbean in Les Cayes, and plans on being back in January, 2018, to teach another course. Herb is a prolific author, but a poor writer and speller. His wife, Judy, must drip red ink over every-thing he writes. Besides numerous peer-reviewed pa-pers in ASTM and other scientific journals, he is the author of Stucco Handbook for Builders (out of print), and The Stucco Book-The Basics (2012). Homes for Jubilee and the Haitian Creole edi-tion, Kay pou Jubilee, interfered with the publica-tion of The Stucco Book series of books, and this book has continued that interference. When not involved in building, or in building ma-terials, or in writing about them, Herb adopts grand-daughters and with several of them has published several books; and he enjoys taking people kayaking."Bury, Renaud: - Dean of the College of Engineering, American University of the Caribbean, Les Cayes, Haiti