I am building a house from aerated concrete at subzero temperatures. I share tips
Early October 2020 it was rainy and there were small frosts at night. A 06.10.2020. there was such a picture:
If you sweep away the snow from the masonry, then it seems you can continue to work. But if there is a temperature below zero, will this not affect the strength of the mineral glue? I asked the manufacturer a question. It turned out that everyone has winter glue in the lineup. With Sibit, it looks like this:
The inscription on the bag "winter" and minor changes in the design of the picture. They can work in conditions where the temperature is not lower than -10 gr. It differs from the summer one by the addition of antifreeze additives.
I was told examples when builders used summer glue in their work in winter. And the block could be moved the next day - the glue was frozen and did not set.
I bought winter glue in advance and used it by the onset of night frosts.
What I noticed while working with him. Because glue loses moisture very little at temperatures near zero, and aerated concrete is wet after snow (not pulls water out of the glue), then literally the next day the glue in the smudges became strong (and, therefore, in masonry). Summer glue in the heat gains strength for several days. His smudges a day later still crumbled if pressed on them.
Important note: when laying, you need to clean off not only snow, but also ice from the blocks. Ideally, no ice at all. Quality crews go through a gas burner before laying a row in such cases. In my case, the snow melted during the day, there was no ice on the blocks.
But with the reinforcement of the eighth row it was not easy:
Shot in the evening in the dark. It was also not easy for the milling cutter to work on wet frozen aerated concrete. The next day I blew out the crumbs with a hairdryer. But she was wet and a spatula helped in the process. A brush wouldn't help.
Although the snow was weak, it was melting - there was ice on the floor slabs. It slept every day or night for almost a week. And in the evenings, work had to start with clearing the snow:
It is very difficult to sand a row with a float. Wet crumb clogs the emery cloth. And at negative temperatures, the grater does not rub on blocks with ice. Some brigades dry aerated concrete with a gas burner before grouting.
He reinforced the eighth row with filling the groove with winter glue and began laying the ninth:
I rarely took pictures. It gets dark at 6 pm. Includes LED portable floodlight and headlamp.
Another way of laying aerated concrete at low temperatures. Instead of mineral glue on the horizontal edges, foam glue can be used during periods below freezing. This is the most optimal way in such weather conditions:
Another finished batch of glue-foam. It takes me about 1.5 cylinders to foaming the vertical seams of a row.
But the glue-foam cylinder should be warm during laying. Store it in a warm room or take it with you. I took the glue foam with me to the city, in the apartment it heated up and upon arrival I immediately frothed it.
If the glue-foam is cold, then the output of the material will be thick, without gas formation into the foam and the cylinder will not be enough even half of what it can foam in the warm season.
When working with glue foam, you just need to ideally remove the horizontal level of the blocks with a float. With multiple checks. While there are no severe frosts, I decided to use mineral glue on the horizontal joints, not to change the technology.
The snow melted in a week, and I am finishing the ninth row of masonry. A total of 11 rows on the second floor. The 12th row will be surrounded by precast-monolithic overlap blocks with a width of 100 mm.
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Self-builder blog (c). Photos by the author
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