Cement vs Lime costs

The typical amchair experts today state (with little/no learnt knowledge) that the costs are four to five times more than cement, so let's show you some real facts.

20kg Cement mortar mix

Starting with the above, a 25kg bag of blue circle cement currently, in the DIY sheds that arnchair experts ike stroll about on a sunday (wickes, B&Q etc, which  skilld and kowledgeable people don't use) costs  approx £7.65 averaged between the two sheds. 

 

A 25kg bag of building sand costs £3.70

 

Let's do some sums:

 

First things first: we wanted to compare costs for this exercise so we are going to use 5ltr buckrts as our guages; 5 lItres of water  equals 5 kgs in weight, so we are being kind here considering we are using cement, lime, and sand, which due to their densities and compressive weights, are each  heaver than water. 

 

So a 3:1 sand: cement mix =

£3.24 (3 sand) + £0.31 (1 cement)

= £3.55 per kg = £71.00 per 20kg mix 

Working top - down

 

Calbux 90 = Quicklime

Cost = £24 to £26 per 25 kg bag

Therefore £25 per 25kgs average.

Using our 5kg bucket we get 5 guages per bag

 

= £5.00 + £2.32 (sand) = £8.32 per guage NATURAL Hydraulic Lime (NHL) at 3.5 N/mm² (mid range compressive strength) again 5 guages per bag.

 

3 guages NHL  = £15.00 + £0.74= £15.74 per 5kg guage

= £45..00 +£2.22 = £47.22 Per mix

Cement= £71.00 per 20kg mix 

Calbux= £47.22 per 20 kg mix 

NHL= £62.96 per 20 kg mix

So clearly the assumptive armchair experts are wrong ......... again