Moisture Curing Room 1

[BobSmith54]

I am in a position that I will be building a curing room and I was wondering if there were any sites to visit for a "STATE OF THE ART" curing room. With the very tight requirements that are places on this room 73-+ 3 degrees and AALA and AASHATO looking real close at the limits of this room what is a good idea for said curing room. I live in a four season area (Ohio). There are larger firms that have been around longer and have vaster resources that have built the traditional concrete moisture room brick with a mister..... and the firm failed the AASHATO inspection due to temp of the room.

I look forward to reading your responses.

Thanks Bob

 

[Rjeffery]

Bob,

I have built two facilities and have seen countless others. the best way to do what you are looking to do is to insulate a CMU block walled enclosure, pour a false concrete floor thich enough to install a drain in the center (with the concrete slopped to the drain, of course.) then coat the inside with a product called Rub-R-Wall. it is used as spray applied water proofing. Bituthane (I know I spelt it rong) can also be used.

The key, then is to maintain not only the temperature but the humidity. This has been tried using heat pumps and misters and...

Americian Cube Mold sells a panel that will take hot and cold water and mixes them in the proper proportion to maintain the temp and humidity levels at 73 +/- 3 degrees F by misting the water into the room. ACM also sells the mister nozzles.

Note: do not try to recycle this water as it is now HARDer than before with additional lime and the like.

I don't have any relationship to these companies. they have just provided excellent service to me in the past. ACM once drove from IL to DC to help with a problem that could not be solved over the phone without additional cost!

rjeffery

 

[Ron]

Rjeffery gives some good advice. It is very difficult to control the temperature of a curing room...more so than controlling the moisture. One other thing to look at is that rectangular curing room are more efficient than square ones for reasons of sample placement and temperature/humidity control.

Using temp. controlled misting is a good way to slay both dragons. You won't get it "too wet" in there!

 

[Terracon95]

We hired a walk-in freezer company to install our room and an aqua-fog machine. We are using 2 water chillers, a water heater and a mixer valve to cool or heat the water before it reaches the fog machine.

This works about 9 months a year, but in the heat of the summer (espicially here in Texas) it will not cool the room below about 76 degrees F.

If anybody has a solution for this problem, please reply.