How to choose the right building material for building a warm house
Familiar, for Russians, brick is a cold material during construction. A huge amount of energy is spent on heating a brick house, and with a real active increase in energy prices, such an expense is unacceptable. How to get out of this situation? We offer the use of modern blocks of lightweight concrete and porous ceramics.
Content
- Energy saving materials
- Foam concrete blocks video
- Aerated concrete or gas silicate blocks
- What is better foam concrete or gas silicate video
- Porous ceramic blocks
- The advantages of porous blocks video
- Polystyrene concrete or polystyrene concrete blocks video
Energy saving materials
The issue of energy conservation leads to the creation of energy-saving materials.
As you know, the porous material is energy-saving due to the interlayer of air bubbles.
So, to make a solid material or stone warm, it needs to be filled with air bubbles, in other words, made porous.
The most inexpensive blocks are expanded clay concrete blocks.
A porous filler in the form of expanded clay is added to concrete (we get expanded clay concrete), if metallurgical fuel waste is added - we get slag concrete, if wood waste is added - get arbolite.
The result of such baking is a building material that retains heat well, is easily processed and is much lighter than brick in weight.
But all of the above building blocks have a big drawback in the form of low strength, in addition, many of them are actively pulling moisture - when building a house from this material, the facade must be protected from moisture.
In addition, such blocks are not always stably dense, durable and do not always withstand geometric dimensions.
Slag concrete blocks, moreover, often contain harmful impurities and can even be radioactive.
Foam concrete blocks
Blocks made of foam concrete are a little more expensive than the above blocks, but they have much more positive points.
Foam blocks are mainly made on compact plants, often right at the construction site.
Foaming agents are added to the concrete, then this solution is poured into molds, where it solidifies.
The result of this work is a lightweight porous block.
Knowing from physics that the lighter the weight the warmer the material, we conclude that such a material is warmer than expanded clay and cinder concrete.
When baking foam concrete blocks, you can get blocks with a certain density, strength.
At the same time, a block can be obtained of a certain shape and desired volume - and this is widely used in the construction of the desired object, i.e. make blocks of various sizes and shapes with groove-ridge locks and without locks, can be done with additional voids, or can be full-bodied.
Foam concrete blocks have a rough dark gray surface.
The minus of foam blocks include their low strength, and the geometry of the blocks and their parameters are not always maintained.
Aerated concrete or gas silicate blocks
Gas silicate is made on the basis of calcareous binders.
Aerated concrete is produced on the basis of cement.
But, to date, gas silicate blocks or purely aerated concrete blocks are not produced.
Manufacturers combined the composition of these two different blocks and use a mixture of lime and cement in various ratios.
At the moment, gas silicate and aerated concrete blocks are one and the same building material from autoclaved aerated concrete.
Aluminum blocks are also added to the composition of such blocks; gas bubbles are formed with its help.
Gas silicate blocks, in geometric and physical terms, are much better than foam concrete blocks.
What is better foam concrete or gas silicate
Walls of gas silicate and foam concrete blocks can be built up to 40 cm thick, such walls retain heat well and do not require additional insulation.
But how to find a compromise between durability and heat saving is up to you.
The greater the porosity, the lighter and warmer the material, but its strength becomes less.
A brand, for example D400, shows that one cubic meter of gas silicate blocks weighs 400 kg.
Both foam concrete and gas silicate have approximately the same thermal conductivity, but this thermal conductivity is highly dependent on humidity.
Since the gas silicate block is more sensitive to moisture than foam concrete, it is therefore not advisable to build from gas silicate blocks in an environment with humidity above 60%, otherwise the facade must be sheathed.
For the construction of a two-story building, D400 grade gas silicate is used, and D600 grade foam concrete, i.e. gas silicate can be used of a lower grade than foam concrete.
Masonry from foam blocks is done on cement mortar, while the thickness of the seam is 10 mm.
The laying of the gas silicate block is done on a special glue and the weld thickness is only 2-3 mm, while the gain in heat saving is up to 20%.
Gas silicate blocks have high vapor permeability, therefore, increased demands are placed on the choice of finish.
The outer finish should have a vapor permeability higher than that of gas silicate, and the inner finish should have a vapor permeability less than that of gas silicate.
Important! Only under these conditions, water vapor during cooling will not condense under the layer of plaster and the plaster will not peel off.
Porous ceramic blocks
Having collected the best of foam blocks and bricks, we got a block of porous ceramic.
These blocks are virtually devoid of flaws.
When creating such a unique building material, crushed combustible materials, usually sawdust, are added to the base from the clay mass.
The formed blocks are fired, sawdust burn out and in their place a lot of small pores with a melted surface and a closed volume are obtained.
The advantages of porous blocks
When forming blocks, they are given a cellular structure - this prevents the direct passage of heat.
Such walls made of ceramic stone do not need further insulation, and masonry from porous ceramic blocks is up to 4 times faster than brickwork.
The main ceramic block is 12 solid bricks in volume and weighs no more than 23 kg.
For laying corners, piers, jumpers, smaller blocks are produced.
Porous blocks have thermal conductivity at the level of gas silicate, and the strength is not inferior to brick M100 and higher.
Since the blocks are produced at the factory, the groove-and-crest spoon surface of the blocks has high accuracy, thereby eliminating the blowing of joints and saving mortar during masonry.
Porous ceramic blocks have a rough surface, so the plaster has good adhesion to this surface.
The only drawback is the price of such blocks is at the level of facing bricks.
Polystyrene concrete or polystyrene concrete blocks
The composition of polystyrene concrete includes polystyrene granules, they make up 98% of the volume and 2% of the porous cement paste, which holds the polystyrene granules together.
This is a unique material that does not decay, practically does not burn, does not crack, is resistant to frost, is 15 times lighter than brick and very warm.
Blocks of polystyrene concrete are easily sawed, pulled, mounted and dismantled.
These blocks do not pull water and have the strength of foam concrete.
