Brick instead of a concrete armored belt: what is really needed and where money is thrown to the wind

Houses for tens and hundreds of years stand perfectly without concrete belts in the upper level of the ceiling. But modern "builders" for some reason, with or without reason, want to slap an armored belt everywhere. Which, by the way, is not so cheap. Let's see why this happens. Is it worth throwing money away or is it enough to limit yourself to brickwork.

It turns out that you can limit yourself to brickwork instead of an armored belt.

Without an armored belt, walls made of cellular concrete will crack

Two situations can be distinguished here:

1. The walls are cracking from the deformation of the foundation.
2. The walls are cracking from the load of the ceiling.

In both cases, a concrete armored belt is optional and here's why.

Walls crack under floor slabs

The depth of support of the reinforced concrete slab on the wall starts from 9 cm. Yes, with minimal support, a crack may appear in the support area. Corners break under load. But this can be avoided.

Firstly, you can start supporting the slab at half or 2/3 of the wall thickness. If, of course, the architecture allows and there are slabs of suitable length available.

Secondly, on the support areas under the ceiling, several rows of solid red brick can be laid out. In the project, it is usually recommended to make 4 rows of masonry. Brick evenly distributes the load on the wall. Cracks do not appear.

The walls are cracking from the foundation

Cellular concrete is very sensitive to deformations. When the foundation shrinks, even small movements of the base lead to the appearance of cracks. But this does not mean that it is necessary to arrange an armored belt. Just make a normal foundation. Choose the right depth of penetration, consider the type of soil, groundwater level, etc.

About 15 years ago, we had a house on soils that gave uneven settlement. So in this case, according to the calculation, it was necessary to make an armored belt on the foundation of a nine-story building. An armored belt 30 cm high leveled the load from NINE FLOOR! The same armored belt can often be found on one-story houses. What for?

Without an armored belt, the rafters will tear apart the walls

There are builders who believe that the armored belt prevents the walls from moving apart from the action of the rafters. If the roof is made only as, probably, there is some truth in this.

In fact, there are different schemes for the device of the truss system: with articulated and rigid attachment points. The "bursting" force from the rafters is usually restrained by tightening. If you doubt the constructive solutions of the roof, read at least Shishkin's Wooden Structures.

Without an armored belt, there will be nothing to fix the roof to

For those who did not know, I will explain: the roof must be attached to the walls. If this is not done, a strong gust of wind can lift the roof and carry it to the neighboring site. Not a profiled sheet or slate, but a complete roof.

That is why builders fix the roof. Often, at the stage of monolithic work, studs are laid in the armored belt with a release upwards. Then the Mauerlat and the entire roof are attached to these studs. This is a normal solution, but not the only one.

There are different types of roof attachments. Perhaps the most popular: for twisting to a reinforced concrete floor and for twisting to an anchor fixed in the wall. Armopoyas is not needed. A few rows of red brick masonry under the Mauerlat are enough.

So why then armopoyas?

There are a number of cases when the use of an armored belt is justified. But in practice, the main purpose of the armored belt is to level the mistakes of the builders. If they cheated on the foundation, did not calculate the support of the plates and do not know how to fix it. If, for fixing the roof, they hammer a pin into the gas block and claim that it is reliable. In all these cases, the armor belt will protect your home from the incompetence of the craftsmen.

And then decide for yourself: save money and limit yourself to bricks under the ceilings or spend money on an armored belt.

Learn from the mistakes of others and make as few of your own as possible. If this article was helpful, give it a thumbs up 👍. If suddenly not signed, welcome to the channel.