Foam blocks are relatively new material. If bricks have been used for housing for more than 3000 years, then this one has been used for a little less than a hundred. Builders have always looked for means to increase the strength of the masonry. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, for this purpose, bovine blood was added to the cement mortar. The protein that was present in it, reacting with a mixture of cement and lime, stimulated the formation of foam. Then this phenomenon puzzled the builders. Further experiments were discarded.
A bit of history
A little later, in the thirties, at one construction site, workers decided to put a decoction from a soap root into a mixture of cement mortar. From this, he became much more plastic and elastic. This made the work much easier. The concrete mix has become more viscous. At the same time, the recipe for the batch has not changed.
The presence of foam, as it turned out, made it possible to reduce the hardness of the solution. It began to form inside it after hardening less shells and voids. This increased the strength of the masonry. General instability in the world, BBO did not allow the continuation of experiments, the discovery of foam concrete was delayed for another forty years. In the 60s, in the USSR, it was already actively used for the construction of buildings of plants and factories, but since energy prices were low, the cost of reinforced concrete was very low. Its advantages over the described material were obvious, so the foam concrete fell into oblivion again.
He was remembered in the crisis 90s of the last century. Energy prices have skyrocketed, reinforced concrete production has become unprofitable. The first foam concrete was produced on an industrial scale in Europe. New construction technologies came to Russia at the beginning of the 21st century. Today the demand for it is avalanche.
The material began to be actively used for the construction of private houses and cottages. It is chosen by those who are looking for economical options for housing construction, who are forced to build their own house without the involvement of special equipment. Foam blocks weigh little (from 8 to 25 kg, weight depends on the size of the block). Their use allows you to build a cottage in just two months. After construction, the house does not shrink. It is lighter than brick, so you can save on building a foundation. The walls do not need to be additionally insulated. Blocks are easily sawn, grooved, drilled. This greatly simplifies the process of laying the necessary utilities and electrical wiring. But are they really so good
houses from foam blocks? They have as many pluses as minuses.
Their choice allows you to quickly erect a standard box (four load-bearing walls around the perimeter and one supporting partition inside the house to support floor slabs). Further, the interior space can be planned as you wish. During the construction process, you can change the plan, add something, remove it, look for new options and quickly fix errors, if any.
You can buy a typical project on the Internet, it is inexpensive (15-20 thousand). It is accompanied by drawings, a list of required building materials and an estimate. Very comfortably! Binding of documentation to a specific site is done in just a couple of days. And then you can immediately go to buy foam blocks and start building a house.
Experts do not recommend buying foam blocks on the market: there are a lot of offers, each seller praises his product, it is difficult to understand where the quality products are. If something happened, there would be no one to make a claim. The only way out is to look for where a manufacturer with a good reputation is located nearby. Fortunately, there are many such points. There will definitely be something suitable next to the future construction site.
It is better to buy foam blocks directly from the workshop, they must be very neat, without cracks and chips, geometrically correct shape. Technologists advise buying 30 cm thick foam blocks of the D800 brand for the construction of a two-story cottage. The masonry is made with warm glue for cellular blocks on perlite. The quality of the future home largely depends on the careful observance of all stages of construction technology. Important:
- Lay three rows of bricks on the foundation, perform waterproofing, make a cement-sand layer and put the first row of foam blocks on it (before that, each block must be soaked in water, so it will not then pull water out of the adhesive solution).
- A layer of glue is laid on the first layer of foam blocks, a new layer is assembled on top of it according to the principle of brickwork.
- Each row must be compacted, you do not need to save on glue solution, only high-quality filling of the joints will be able to ensure reliable fastening of the masonry.
- Every four rows, it is necessary to carry out strobing and reinforcement with steel reinforcement.
- Concrete slabs are laid as floors.
Windows and doors can be inserted immediately: the finished house does not shrink, so there is no need to wait for the distortion of the openings. If done correctly, the surfaces of the interior and exterior walls will be very smooth. There is no need to plaster them to improve the thermal insulation qualities, so you can immediately glue the sheer surfaces with sheets of drywall from the inside, sheathe the outer ones with siding or clapboard. This double cladding will help keep the house dry.
You can hang pictures. Dowels for foam blocks are suitable for their fastening. It is better to use anchor bolts for luminaires. Instead of hanging kitchen cabinets, you will have to immediately order a set with a pencil case and sideboards.
Many owners complain that it is impossible to drive nails into the walls made of foam blocks, they begin to crumble and collapse immediately. This is where you need to go back to the quality of the base again. There is a lot of "home-made" benoconcrete on the construction market. It falls apart even from a simple touch. Only material from a factory manufacturer with an impeccable reputation will allow you to appreciate the positive aspects of the choice.
Of course, projects of houses made of foam blocks are not ideal: they need to be heated for a long time, but when the walls gain heat, they keep it very well, this helps to save on energy consumption. At the same time, the box will "breathe", so there will definitely be no condensation on the walls and on the windows. No condensation, no destruction, no mold and mildew. Opened the windows, doors, here you have good ventilation.
The video talks about how high-quality foam blocks are made:
Conclusion on the topic
Are foam block houses so good? They are not perfect, they have not yet invented such a building material that would allow them to build an ideal house. The choice of the material described is justified when you want to quickly, in the shortest possible time, build a country cottage and immediately enter it. It can be used seasonally and all year round. Strongly negative factors of construction have not been identified, the main thing is to find and buy really high-quality foam concrete.
Source: exhibition of houses "Low-rise country"
