At the design stage of the house, you will need to choose the wall material. Currently, the market has many offers that will allow you to build a quality building and reduce labor and financial costs. It is necessary to deal with one of the options - building a house from foam blocks. How reasonable is this event and how to carry it out correctly.
Foam blocks as wall material
The production technology of the material allows to obtain cellular concrete. Still such products are called lightweight concrete. Compared to ordinary ones, they have a number of advantages, namely:
- Weight. Foam houses make it possible to reduce the total weight of the structure. The density of products is in the range of 500-1200 kg per cubic meter. The technology assumes that blocks marked 500 and 600 are used only for thermal insulation work.
Only those types of density can be used as a carrier material, the marking of which is 700 or more. For comparison, we can give the density of reinforced concrete and brick 2500 and 1800 kg / m3, respectively. The most popular block for building a private house has a density of 900, which is two times lower than that of a brick. Due to this, the load on the foundations is reduced and their final cost is reduced.
- Thermal conductivity. This is an extremely important quality for the material from which the outer walling is made. Building a house from foam blocks compares favorably with concrete, whose heat-shielding characteristics are 8-10 times worse. If we compare the blocks with a brick, then they win here: thermal conductivity is better by about one and a half times. Why is thermal conductivity so important? This value characterizes the ability of the material to conduct heat and, accordingly, the whole house to give it. The higher it is, the thicker the outer walls will be, the foundations are more massive and the whole building is more expensive. Even if additional external warming is carried out, the use of foam blocks becomes more profitable: you can choose a thermal insulation of a smaller thickness, reduce material consumption.
The manufacturing technology of the products involves the use of cement as Portland cement. To fill, add quartz sand, river sand, ash or blast furnace slag. The last two should be treated with caution. Their origin is extremely important, since the waste generated during various harmful processes can be hazardous to human health.
At the invention, they tried to obtain such types of concrete, the properties of which will be close to wood. In terms of thermal conductivity and density, only blocks with a density of 500 and 600 can be called a satisfactory result. It is their characteristics that are closest to natural coniferous wood, but such products are not allowed to be used as load-bearing structures, only to create a thermal insulation layer.
Types of houses made of foam concrete
Before you build a house from foam blocks with your own hands, you need to deal with the differences in materials. Depending on which production technology and aggregate were used, the following types of blocks are distinguished:
- Foam concrete. This material for creating wall fencing is made using chemical reagents. When a chemical reaction occurs, foam forms in the mass. After making the mixture, it is poured into molds. Hardening occurs in vivo. Due to the presence of many pores into which air enters, the thermal conductivity and mass of the material are reduced. This allows us to talk about the effectiveness of the use of such materials.
- Aerated concrete. Like the previous version, a house made of foam concrete of this type is better insulated due to the presence of pores in the structure of the material. In this case, pores are formed without the addition of chemicals. The composition includes cement, sand, lime and water. To form pores, aluminum powder is added to the mixture for the manufacture of pores. For the hardening process to take place correctly, high humidity and temperature are required. For the manufacture of the mixture is poured into molds. Further, the process of curing takes place in autoclaves under high pressure and at elevated temperature.
Wall masonry made of foam concrete
To know how to build a house from foam blocks, you need to determine how to connect them together. There are two options, the choice between which depends on the accuracy of the geometric dimensions of the finished product. Materials allow you to stack them in the following two ways:
- On cement-sand mortar. Here, the work is done in the same way as for brickwork. To prepare the solution you will need sand, cement and water. The downside of the technology is the thermal conductivity of the composition, and the plus is its cost. Applied in cases where the blocks have deviations from the dimensions. If they are present, the thickness of the seam between the individual elements increases, which they try to correct the situation. Inexpensive cement mortar allows you not to worry because of the large increase in the cost of the wall while increasing the flow rate of the mortar. But here thermal conductivity is included in the consideration. With a sufficient thickness of the seam there is a problem with cold bridges, additional insulation of the external walling is required.
- On cement glue. This method can significantly reduce the thickness of the seam due to the adhesion quality, but can only be used for those products whose geometric dimensions do not have strong deviations. Otherwise, when they are leveled, the thickness of the seam and the consumption of expensive adhesive increases, which leads to an increase in the cost of the entire construction. If a one-story house is being built, such an increase in consumption may not hit much in the pocket, but when building more floors, the overpayment increases significantly.
Step-by-step installation instructions
Houses made of foam concrete blocks can be one-story, two-story, a maximum of three-story. Higher wall heights will require the use of more durable material. Additionally, it is possible to produce reinforcement of blocks, which will increase the bearing capacity of fences. Laying of reinforcing meshes allows to increase stability and crack resistance. For their manufacture, material with a diameter of 3-4 mm can be used.
The pitch of the rods in the grid is taken equal to 50 or 100 mm, depending on the load from the ceilings and the roof.
An instruction on how to build a house from foam blocks with your own hands is as follows:
- It’s worth starting the work by cleaning the surface of the product from dirt and dust. You can do this with a hard brush.
- Both one-story and with a higher wall height, the house begins to be built with laying the first row. Lay the material on a waterproofing layer made by cutting the foundation. Work begins from the corners of the house. The cement mortar is applied to the waterproofing with a spatula, after which the block is installed. Stack several corner elements, remove excess mortar, check the filling of the joints (there should be no "wasteland") After that, you will need to pull a cord between the corner blocks, which will allow evenly laying ordinary elements.
- After completing the first row, proceed to the second. It is laid with the provision of dressing (that is, the displacement of vertical seams relative to each other). Dressing should also be provided in the direction of the width of the wall, that is, through cement joints that do not cause cold bridges are not recommended. Masonry is carried out to the full height of the wall to the ceilings. Under the ceilings, it is necessary to take measures to strengthen the blocks in the places of support of the plates. This can be done by pouring a monolithic reinforced concrete belt. Due to the fact that concrete does not have good thermal protection, this place will need to be insulated. Effective materials such as polystyrene foam and mineral wool can be used.
Armopoyas can be made up to 20 cm thick. Reinforcement is carried out with spatial frames. After pouring the belt and gaining strength (about 2 weeks), you can proceed with the installation of floor slabs. All subsequent floors are built in the same way.