Aerated concrete houses
For the last 15 years there has been a real boom in aerated concrete houses being built in Ukraine. The happy owners' favourable comments can be heard left and right. Do you want to become an owner of an aerated concrete house? We will help you in its erection on a turnkey basis or with interior work.
Why are the aerated concrete houses so popular? In short about the material and the main erection principles you should know about.
Shortly about aerated concrete
Aerated concrete is a foam mortar type block. Its ingredients are: glass sand, gassing agent, concrete, gypsum, lime milk, different wastes, i.e. slag. Due to its honeycombed structure, aerated concrete provides good sound and thermal insulation.
Aerated concrete block density choice depends upon the building aim. The most popular variants of foam mortar density for a houses are:
D300. Low density doesn't allow to hold heavy constructions. This type is recommended for partition walls building and non-bearing structures. Also, this material can be used for wall coating (heat insulation).
D400. An aerated concrete block of this type is used for one-storey buildings with low loads on floor structures (hardwood floors, attic floor).
D500. aerated concrete density is good for bearing walls building, bearing constructions and it is designed to hold the load of floors.
The main principles of aerated concrete house building
As the aerated concrete constructions are relatively lightweight, you do not need too mass foundation for its building. Monolithic-girder or open piers foundation will be enough.
Concrete-sand matrix (sometimes with extra glue for aerated concrete) is used for the first aerated-concrete block layer. The rest of the levels are laid with glue only for which notched trowel is used. Every 3d layer is reinforced with iron rod
The thickness of an aerated concrete house walls should be not less than
For window lintels metal angles are used (two for every window). The bottom part is engaged on the angle edge, and the upper part is re-enforced twice. The last laying is strenghtened with reinforcement. The facade of a house should be backplastered as block is like a sponge absorbing water which reduces the thermal insulating property of the material.
Advantages and disadvantage of an aerated concrete house
Aerated concrete houses have a lot of undeniable advantages in comparison with the other house types. Low financial expences. The price of an aerated-concrete house is far lower than a brick house. It is connected with the following things:
- economy on draft shell and core fit-out;
- less foundation expences;
- lower expences on a construction brigade as the work with aerated concrete is easy;
- savings in heating (good thermal insulation).
Easiness and rapidity of mounting. As the blocks are lightweight they are easy to move/install. Layer open joint is less than concrete-sand mixture for brick layers which influences the number of working mixture bratches greatly.
Thermal insulating value. As the material has honeycombed structure which excludes frost penetration, the aerated concrete houses are warm enough.
No need of coarse shell and core fit-out. It is enough to backplaster aerated concrete houses inside and outside as aerated concrete has flat surface and the layer open joints size about 2-3mm.
House fire safety. Under intense heat the material doesn't burn.
Disadvantages are not numerous but there are some:
- for wall furniture installation special land ties/rawplugs are used for aerated concrete that are more expensive than classical fixing (nail, self tapping screw, rawplug/nail);
- aerated concrete fragility, it is easy to damage (scratch, split);
- low cross-breaking strength (cracks appear in the places of shrinkage);
- low storey houses can be built. The project of the houses can not be higher than 3 storeys.
