Why did I choose aerated concrete for construction, and not other materials and blocks

The process of choosing a wall material took me a very long period of time. Almost from the moment the desire to build a house appeared and until the very beginning of the design of the house. We can say that he studied almost all technologies and wall materials.

In the end, I settled on aerated concrete. I will try to convey my opinion, showing what critical disadvantages I saw in other wall materials. I proceeded from three main criteria: the thermal conductivity of the material, the cost of 1 m3 and the possibility of building on our own.

1. House made of wood

I built a bath from a bar and I know all the pros and cons of the material and technology in practice. I built it with an assistant, who was needed for 10 minutes a day - to throw a beam on a log house. It is cold in the Siberian climate to live in a wooden frame made of 150-180 mm timber all year round. It must be insulated. Throughout its life, the tree "plays" from moisture changes and cracks. Increased fire hazard. A house made of profiled or rounded timber is also expensive.

For a summer residence - a good option, but not for year-round use. And about the environmental friendliness of wooden houses - you can read the article here: Why a wooden house is not environmentally friendly, and walls should not breathe

I did not consider the skeletons either. You need to buy a house kit made of chamber-dried wood, hire a team at least at the stage of erecting the frame. It is advisable to build wooden houses in one season under a roof. This requires a certain amount of 1 million. rub. Insects, rodents, mold are very fond of the ceiling on the first floor. Not my material and technology.

SIP panels - fast, but not cheap as they say, because they will be assembled by a team. And without reliable ventilation, such houses can be gas chambers.

2. Brick house

Classics in construction. But to build from it for a long time and without insulation is a cold house. In our village, two houses were built of bricks with foam insulation inside the masonry:

The first owner insulated it after the very first winter, applied a layer of polyurethane foam to the facade. The second has not yet finished construction. For brickwork, a large volume of mortar is needed.

3. Warm ceramics

Porotherm blocks are brought to our region from the European part of Russia. Therefore, the cost of the material is higher than 1 m3 of other blocks. I met a manufacturer from Tomsk at the exhibition, but for some reason he did not gain a foothold in the market. In any case, warm ceramics are laid on a thick seam (the geometry of the blocks is not ideal). It is impossible to cut off the block without chips and voids; you need to build a house in one season. Otherwise, water will get inside the blocks and it will be impossible to remove it from there. It will evaporate for years. It is advisable to calculate the dimensions of the walls for this block in multiples of the block.

There are problems in the installation of doors, windows and cabinets. You need a long and expensive powerful fastener. Chemical anchors as an option.

4. Arbolit

In our village, several houses have been built from it. If such a house is not immediately plastered outside and inside, then it will be impossible to live in it. It gets wet and blown like a sieve. For this reason, its thermal performance without external finishing is much lower. Arbolit is a handicraft production. Wood and concrete are not friends. Salt is added to preserve the wood - otherwise the sugars from the wood will destroy the concrete. And whether calcium chloride was put into the mass in production or not - no one will say. There are no laboratories and quality certificates for the batch.

5. Expanded clay concrete

As far as I understood from the comments on the channel, there is popular material in the European part of Russia. But in Siberia, the thickness of walls, even 400 mm, does not pass according to the thermal characteristics. In our village, one self-builder in 4 years filled his house from monolithic expanded clay concrete with a wall thickness of 300 mm. But in the corners, he said, drizzle appears in frosts. You need reliable insulation. And if you build from blocks, then the masonry is carried out on the mortar - a thick cold seam.

6. Foam concrete and polystyrene concrete

Polystyrene concrete is also a more fracture-resistant material. Laying on a thin seam. But after watching several videos of the situation after finishing houses from these blocks, I saw that the materials have increased shrinkage. And small cracks often appear. Foam concrete has a shrinkage of up to 4 mm / m and a low frost resistance class.

7. Heat block

Everything about him is good. The price is from a local manufacturer, the block is immediately finished. Thermal conductivity index for Siberia (foam layer inside the block). But the latter was also frightening. The outer and inner concrete layers are connected with fiberglass reinforcement. For a house on one floor, the design is acceptable. But with a monolithic overlap, I did not inspire confidence. This is my subjective opinion. Then I found out that according to the projects they are building three floors from the heating block. Perhaps you should have looked at this material better. Go to production.

8. Aerated concrete

The block thickness of 400 mm and density D500 is sufficient for year-round living without insulation of the outer walls, even in the Siberian climate. Insulation of such thickness leads to savings of only 10-15% on heating (information on real examples). Material for the self-builder. You can mothball the construction and continue it next season. Frost resistance of aerated concrete F100. Thin seam (no need to knead the mortar with buckets with a concrete mixer). And when laying with glue-foam, there is no cold bridge in the seams. Fasteners for aerated concrete are available in any store. Smooth walls and as a result - thin-layer internal plaster (less cost).

But this is a fragile material that requires careful handling during transportation and laying. Chips - for me, perhaps, this is the only negative in aerated concrete. The information that chemistry is added during production is far-fetched. For gassing, aluminum powder is used, but it is negligible. There are probably more aluminum oxides in clay.

These are briefly my thoughts on popular wall building materials. Each material will have its own person, everyone has their own preferences. My choice is this.

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Photos are taken from open sources, from Yandex. Pictures

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