Aerated concrete

Each developer dreams of building the most beautiful, warm, cozy house, while spending a minimum amount of money. The search for building materials with the optimal price ratio, on the one hand, and quality, ease of installation, compliance with modern energy conservation criteria, on the other hand, can last a long time. Fortunately, there is no information deficit. It is only important to properly prioritize, find the necessary specialists and go!

Cute house

Any building material has its advantages and weaknesses, their “fans” among builders and specialists who do not like this or that building material, or simply own insufficient information on this issue. This is a normal attitude to everything that surrounds us.

Today we will try to show the main advantages of modern building material – aerated concrete. In the competence of many experts, the best building materials, today, is autoclave cellular aerated concrete. This building material has the optimal ratio of thermal conductivity, strength, reliability, durability, environmental and fire safety, vapor permeability, etc. D. Specialists professionally engaged in the construction of houses from this building materials can talk for hours about the advantages of aerated concrete over other building materials.

For example, take Aeroc aerated concrete blocks.

The large size of the blocks significantly reduces the complexity of the masonry, and, due to the low density of aerated concrete (400-500 kg/m/cubic meter), the blocks are low. The presence of aerated concrete blocks of special installation captures significantly facilitates transportation along the construction site and, directly, the process of laying blocks.

Aerated concrete block

The groove-grown system performs the function of the guide element in the production of masonry and, additionally, plays the role of the vertical “thermal lock”. Given the exact geometric dimensions of aerated concrete blocks (plus minus 1 mm.), we get a fairly even enclosing structure that practically does not require additional work on alignment, plastering and insulation. If you have not decided what material you will build from, then this is a serious plus to make a decision in favor of aerated concrete blocks.

Let’s try to list the main characteristics of aerated concrete.

Environmental safety. The raw materials used in the production of aerated concrete are not dangerous for humans and contains only natural components – quartz sand, cement, water, lime and aluminum powder. The coefficient of the environmental friendliness of aerated concrete is second only to wood, brick and expanded clay concrete.

Microclimate. Thanks to sufficient vapor permeability, a house built of aerated concrete has the ability to “breathe”. In such houses there is a special favorable microclimate.

Moisture resistance. Aerated concrete is not afraid of moisture, although it is sufficiently hygroscopic. An example of this can serve as non -nobly houses from aerated concrete in the Baltic states and Sweden, t. e in countries with a very wet climate. The age of some buildings reaches 70 years and there are no signs of deformation destruction of the integrity of the structure. The thing is that autoclave aerated concrete during operation loses moisture from 25-30% (“fresh” aerated concrete) to 6% (average percentage of moisture in the established aerated concrete).

Combustibility. Aerated concrete refers to non -combustible materials. Designs from this material provide zero spread of fire (M0).

Resistance. Aeroc aerated concrete is not destroyed under the influence of ultraviolet radiation, is not afraid of atmospheric influences, has biological resistance – is not affected by a fungus, insects and rodents.

Thermal insulation properties. Thermal conductivity of autoclave aerated concrete, like any other building material, depends directly on the density. The lower the density, the lower the thermal conductivity and warmer in your house. The D400 gas concrete block has, unlike other wall structural materials, the smallest heat conductivity coefficient is 0.098. For comparison, a full -bodied ceramic brick – 0.8, hollow ceramic brick – 0.65, silicate brick and slag block – 0.9. With such a coefficient of thermal conductivity, a wall of aerated concrete D400 300-375 mm thick. you can not insulate additionally.

Strength and bearing capacity. The bearing capacity of the wall depends on the strength of all the materials that are part of it, and on the method of its loading. The bearing capacity of the Aeroc aerated concrete block is sufficient for the construction of buildings with a height of 3-5 floors (after preliminary calculations) and allows you to build the thinnest single-layer walls with sufficient heat-protective indicators.

Frost resistance and life. The cellular aerated concrete has a capillary-porous structure, thanks to which it has a relatively high frost resistance indicator compared to materials that have a capillary structure (concrete, brick, etc.). The service life of a building from aerated concrete is compared with a functional service life of the entire building and is designed for 100-150 years, but this is only a theory, since the history of the use of autoclave aerated concrete has only 85 years.

And at the end a little about the technology of production and installation of aerated concrete.

Aerated concrete is produced in autoclave at a temperature of 180-200 degrees Celsius at a pressure of 12-14 atmospheres. In such conditions, a completely new mineral is formed from the starting raw materials-Tibermarite, which is 3-5 times stronger than a conventional foam concrete. After leaving the autoclave, aerated concrete blocks are completely ready for styling. It should be noted another important part-aerated concrete has practically no shrinkage, only 0.2-0.3 mm/m walls. For comparison, foam concrete has a shrinkage of 3-4 mm/m walls.

Aerated concrete is laid on a special “warm” adhesive mixture. The thickness of the pantry can be only 1-3 mm. Thanks to this, there are no “cold bridges” in the masonry of aerated concrete, and the average flow of adhesive mixture is only 20 kg per 1 cubic meter of aerated concrete blocks.

In addition, special blocks that perform non -removable formwork are available for the device and reinforcement of window and doorways. A reinforcing belt is laid in such blocks and concrete is poured.

Simple, warm, reliable and relatively inexpensive!