Despite the fact that foam concrete was invented at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Swedish architect A. Erikson, who tried to create an artificial stone with the properties of wood, in our country it began to be used in the 30s, but it became widespread only during the years of perestroika.

The use of foam blocks during construction will save cement mortar and speed up the construction process.

The advantage of foam concrete is its frost resistance, durability, airtightness, environmental friendliness, fire resistance, as well as the ability to transmit steam, resistance to microorganisms, simplicity and low cost of manufacturing and laying blocks.

The scheme of a bath made of foam concrete.

Due to the above properties, foam concrete and blocks from it, unlike aerated concrete, can be used in construction for the following purposes:

• erection of load-bearing walls in low-rise construction;
• erection of partitions, including in multi-storey buildings;
• the use of foam blocks as a heat-insulating material;
• pouring a monolithic frame or permanent formwork with foam concrete.

Foam blocks production scheme.

And these are just a few examples of the use of lightweight concrete and products from them.

Foam concrete of different densities is required to perform various tasks. For example, to create load-bearing walls of a building, a material with a density of D600-650 and higher is needed, and for a simple filling of a monolithic frame of a house, a density of D400 is sufficient.

For construction from foam concrete blocks, it is necessary to take into account some of the features of this building material.

Material transport

Chain dressing system when laying a wall: a - thickness of one and a half bricks, b - thickness of two bricks, c - thickness of two and a half bricks.

During transportation, it is advisable to use manipulators, and place foam blocks protected with packing tape on pallets to avoid chipping corners. Failure to comply with seemingly simple rules can affect the rise in the cost of building the facility.

The most modern and convenient way of laying is made on a special glue, which is applied to the surface of the foam block in a thin layer.

However, this is applicable only when building a house from blocks with precise geometric shapes and sizes; in other cases, it is advisable to use a cement-sand mortar.

Execution of wall masonry with a recess in a multi-row dressing system.

In any case, the construction technology requires reinforcement of the masonry, and then the creation of an armored belt at the top of the erected wall of the house.

As a rule, such walls, after construction work, are faced with bricks, siding, finished with various plaster mixtures and many other modern finishing materials. The interior sides of the house can also be plastered over a grid or finished with plasterboard - according to the owner's taste.

Counting the number of foam blocks

Press-on masonry: a - spoon row; b - stitch row: 1–4 - sequence of actions.

The calculation of the required number of foam concrete blocks for construction is quite easy if you are friends with geometry. You need to know exactly:

• wall thickness;
• the thickness of the partitions;
• the perimeter of a house or structure;
• masonry height;
• sizes of windows and doors and their number.

For the calculation, walls with different thicknesses should be selected and divided into groups. For example, include external walls in the first group, and internal partition walls in the second.

Then the total length of the walls in a separate group is measured and the total area of ​​doors and windows is calculated, also in accordance with the group. Next, you should calculate the volumes of masonry in each group, for which the length, height and thickness of the walls are multiplied among themselves, and the volume of windows and doors calculated earlier is subtracted from the results obtained.

The division into groups is due to the fact that, as a rule, foam blocks of various sizes, and, accordingly, volumes, are used during construction.

Calculation example for a house 7x10 m

The sequence of laying foam blocks: a - single-row dressing system; b - multi-row dressing system; c, d - multi-row dressing system in a mixed way (numbers indicate the sequence of laying).

At the first stage, the dimensions of the building are determined. House 7x10 with a total length of 13 meters of partitions, a height of 3 meters, with a thickness of the outer walls of 0.4 meters and partitions of 0.1 meters. Windows - 5 pieces, size 1.8x1.2 meters, interior doors - 3 pieces, size 2x0.9 meters, front door - 1 piece, size - 1.8x1.2 meters.

At the second stage, the size of the foam blocks is selected. In this case, the following dimensions will be used, in mm: for external walls - 200x400x600, for partitions - 100x300x600.

The third stage is the calculation of the number of blocks required for the construction of load-bearing walls. The perimeter of the box will be (7 + 10) x2 = 34 m. The total area of ​​the box walls without openings is calculated as follows: 34x3 = 102 sq. M, where 3 is the height of the masonry. In the same way, the area of ​​technological openings is calculated, which in this case, after the calculation, will be 12.6 sq.m. After deducting (102-12.6), the net area of ​​external walls without windows and doors is equal to 89.4 sq.m.

The next point is the calculation of the volume with a wall thickness of 0.4 meters. For a simpler solution to this problem, you need to calculate the area of ​​one block 200x400x600, while multiplying its length by the height in meters, (0.6x0.2 = 0.12 sq. M). Then the area of ​​the walls of the box is divided by the area of ​​one block and the number of foam blocks for the outer walls is determined (89.4: 0.12 = 745 pcs.).

Thus, the construction of a house box requires 745 foam blocks, which is 35.82 cubic meters.

At the fourth stage, the calculation of blocks for partitions is carried out, for which the length of the partitions is multiplied by the height (13x3 = 39), in meters, and the area of ​​the interior doors is subtracted (39-4.8 = 34.2), and the result obtained is divided by the area of ​​the partition block , equal to 0.18 m. Thus, the number of blocks for partitions is calculated (34.2: 0.18 = 190 pieces), which is 3.42 cubic meters.

In total, for the construction of a house, you will need 745 foam blocks measuring 200x400x600 mm and 190 pieces measuring 100x300x600 mm. The total volume will be 39.24 cubic meters. In addition, you need to remember to buy 2-3% of the total volume of foam blocks in case of an emergency. It is clear from the calculation that this construction is accessible to the general public.