On the Internet, you can read a lot of advice of varying degrees of usefulness and persuasiveness, including for construction. One of these is the recommendation of individual craftsmen to add a small amount of liquid soap or detergent to the concrete. The question arises: why do this, and will the solution not only get worse from a foreign impurity?
1. Why add liquid soap to concrete?
Adding soap or dish detergent to the concrete is an attempt to make the mortar more malleable. In other words, the funds listed are artisanal substitutes for factory plasticizers. A solution with a plasticizer is much easier to pour and apply, which greatly facilitates and speeds up the work. However, it is important to understand here that such experiments can end very badly. Therefore, you should use such "folk" advice only at your own peril and risk.
2. When is it theoretically possible, and when is it absolutely impossible to add liquid soap to concrete?
It is important to understand that soap and detergents are poured into concrete, as a rule, they are added by not very conscientious craftsmen who want to quickly hand over the work. Theoretically, artisanal plasticizers can be added to the solution in cases where the mixture does not require any fundamental strength after solidification. However, if strength and frost resistance are required without fail, then it is strictly forbidden to “dabble” in experiments with artisanal plasticizers.
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3. Are liquid soaps and detergents really better?
Soaps and detergents are not only no better than factory professional plasticizers, but even worse! And - much worse. Any plasticizer for factory-made concrete basically contains polycarboxylate substances. They soften the water. The same polycarboxylates are found in soaps and detergents. The problem is that artisanal substitutes contain much more chlorides than factory plasticizers. Chlorides, in turn, are frankly harmful to the concrete mixture, as they negatively affect its strength characteristics.
Moreover, if we talk specifically about liquid soap, then this is the worst option. If you already use an artisanal plasticizer, then take a detergent as a substitute. The use of soap is fraught with the fact that air bubbles will not come out of the concrete during the cooking process. Thus, the result will be something like foam concrete, which in itself does not have high strength characteristics. Such material will be fragile and short-lived. The conclusion is simple - do not use artisanal substitutes at all, use normal factory-made building materials.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about why in the Soviet Union glued old newspapers on the walls.
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/040522/62888/