Dry Stacked Block Construction SBC

The above picture is my first project which was a work garage 52-feet by 32-feet. You can see the dry stacked concrete blocks at the garage door opening and the Surface Bonding Cement (SBC) is the white material on both the outside and the inside of the concrete block walls.

The SBC is sprayed onto the wall and then is troweled for desired results. You will achieve a smooth surface or a patterned surface. I prefer a smooth surface which I later painted. You can leave the cured surface white if you like. See our video demonstrating the troweling.

This structure in the picture above has the blocks hidden for a pleasing surface white coating on the outside walls. This SBC is waterproof once fully cured which takes about 30-days depending upon the applied thickness and the outside humidity. After 4-hours, rain will not affect this SBC in most home environments. Additional info about SBC.

Completed house as referenced in the book.

Above is a picture of my finished Dry Stacked concrete block house where I painted the outside walls to match typical Florida decor. In this picture you can see that I built using 3-foot soffits to keep the sun from shinning on the walls in the summer time. My cooling bill is about $96/month for 9-months and about $120/month for heat during the winter months.

Application of surface bonding cement

Above is a picture of SBC in three stages after sprayed onto the wall. At the bottom of this picture is cured SBC (white in color). Next up and in the middle is the SBC as sprayed onto the wall. This is called knock-down and it needs to be troweled smooth. The top is SBC that has been troweled to a smooth flat finish.

Below is a picture of a striking tool that is used on the outside edge of mortar between the blocks and the foundation/slab. The right picture is a small section of wall after using the striking tool.

SBC Product

QuikWall is the SBC that I use. Lowes usually has it on-hand in small quantities, but you can special order the amount that you need. You can download the QuikWall data sheet which is included in the book to determine the amount needed. You can also find it listed in our drop-down menu item “Certification Standards“. You will also need this data sheet because it provides the strength specifications that the building inspector will need to approve your plans.

Typical sprayer

One special tool that is needed is a sprayer. The book provides detailed plans for building your own, or you can also purchase a commercial version. Here is a picture of my sprayer. The plans are compliments of John Kingsley in Wakefield, Quebec, Canada. Here is a video link showing how to repair the sprayer due to extensive use.