Laying of gas silicate blocks

Aerated concrete is a lightweight material with high porosity. It retains heat well in the winter inside the building, and in the summer it prevents the penetration of heat from the outside.

To lay a gas or foam concrete wall, you will need the following tools:

• a drill with a whisk spinner - quickly and efficiently mixes the masonry mortar;
• mortar spatula used for laying tiles;
• any saw that allows you to quickly cut construction foam blocks;
• a wooden or rubber hammer;
• building level (liquid or laser level gauge).

The fact is that foam, unlike solid brick, is soft enough and at a certain point it is relatively easy to break. You cannot knock on the blocks with an ordinary hammer - they quickly sag, and the material loses its strength, on which the ability of the walls to reliably hold the ceiling, attic floor and roof depends.

Having taken care of the availability of the aforementioned devices, they check the readiness for work of building materials - according to the construction plan. In addition to foam blocks and water, masonry glue is needed (for example, Toiler brands). Its peculiarity is that, unlike a simple cement mortar, it effectively holds foam blocks due to its much finer structure than quarry sand. In addition to cement and sand, fine glue granules (in the form of a coarse powder) are added to it, softening in water 10 minutes after the end of mixing (technological pause).

The foam block should have a width (thickness) of 40 cm - for external walls. For interior partitions or non-bearing walls, blocks with a thickness of not more than 25 cm are used.The thickness of the masonry joint should not exceed 1 cm. Gas silicate and aerated concrete blocks are practically the same: concrete contains a cement component - calcium silicate. The latter largely determines the hardness and strength of cement-based building blocks and masonry mortar.

Reinforced concrete foundation, completely ready for the construction of walls - it is the subfloor of the future building - must be covered with a waterproofer along the perimeter of the bearing and secondary walls. The simplest waterproofing is roofing felt (roofing felt), but you can also use textiles impregnated with bitumen. If you do not take care of waterproofing in advance, then the walls in winter can become damp from below, which will shorten the service life of the first row blocks.

After laying out the first row, a reinforcing (masonry) mesh is laid to prevent cracking of individual blocks. The width of the square mesh of the mesh is 1.3 cm, the thickness of the wire from which it is made is at least 2 mm. First, the mesh itself is laid and leveled, then cement glue is applied.

Damp walls at a depth of several centimeters (deep into the foam blocks) can freeze through, causing the material to crack. Concrete, as you know, even having gained the ultimate (declared) strength, has the ability to absorb a certain amount of moisture, giving it away not immediately. The task of a professional craftsman is to protect the foam block and masonry-adhesive mortar from dampness.

The step-by-step instructions for laying out the first row of gas silicate blocks are as follows:

• the row is first placed on a cement-sand mortar, the thickness of which will be up to 2 cm, as in the case of inter-brick masonry joints;
• blocks are aligned horizontally and vertically;
• the intermediate (vertical) seams between the blocks are filled with cement glue or the same cement sand diluted with water.

The evenness, verticality, verticality of all walls depends on how carefully the masters perform this work. The slightest distortion can cause a noticeable deflection of the walls - in accordance with the laws of physics, they may crack in the next few years.

It is also possible to put blocks on a cement (cement-sand) mortar, but for greater adhesion it is recommended to add adhesive additives to it. If ultimate strength is important, then it is strictly not recommended to breed several wheelbarrows of a cement-masonry construction mixture at once - it should be used at most in the next hour. Dose your work, do not rush to immediately lay more blocks (and their rows). Recommended rhythm: one day - one or two rows.

Soap poured into the cement together with water will prevent the latter from gaining maximum strength over the next month of moistening, carried out regularly after the initial hardening of the cement mixture.

Do not pour in too much water - this will also affect the strength of the masonry. The cement-based construction mixture must be sufficiently fluid and elastic. It should not break (lack of water) or flow out, flow down (excess liquid). A small amount of water poured into the solution will not harm when the blocks are stacked dry: some of the excess water will go into them, moistening the first layer of foam concrete several millimeters deep.

The most correct course of work is the use of a solution of the required density (a little thinner than country sour cream or like thick tomato paste) and preliminary wetting of the surface of the gas block with water, with which the masonry cement glue comes into contact.

The next rows are laid in the same way. Do not rush to build all the walls to the top in one day, let the mortar of the previous masonry grab securely.

If not cement glue is used, but a classic cement mixture, then the seams are sprayed with water after 6 hours from the moment of setting, regularly (every 3-4 hours) - this is necessary for the cement mixture to gain maximum strength, as is the case with concrete. Cement glue allows you to reduce the thickness of the masonry joint to 3 mm - this is necessary so that less heat leaves the room, since cement, unlike a foam block, is an additional cold bridge. Do not forget to control the evenness (verticality, horizontality) of the masonry using a level gauge.

In the case when a small fragment was not enough for laying any row, it is cut out from a new block taken from the pallet (set). Do not try to fill it with materials that come to hand - specially mixed with a small amount of concrete, pieces of old bricks (or simple bricks), etc. The wall should all consist of gas blocks, and not partially: otherwise, its purpose will be lost - keeping heat in cold weather and coolness in hot weather. Do not violate the technology of building heat-saving foam block walls.

If a skew of the block still occurs, before imposing each subsequent row, it is necessary to adjust the previous one horizontally and vertically. It will not be possible to remove the block and put it back again, so use a special planer for foam silicate. The masonry mesh in the walls is laid on a row of blocks under the window sills, in the middle of the window and door openings (after the 7th or 8th rows) and at the level of the lintels above the windows.

You need to reinforce any wall, including aerated concrete. In order to prevent the wall from crumbling during an earthquake, as well as with other deformation effects, and the house does not collapse on the heads of the owners, an armopoyas is used.

It is built on top of walls, the cement composition of the masonry in which has gained maximum strength. He is, as it were, the last row in the walls. It is based on reinforcement of class A-3 at least, which, in comparison with gas silicate, has the property of significantly stretching and compressing in the presence of deforming loads from either side. It seems to hold the walls on top, keeping their perimeter almost unchanged.

In the simplest case, the armored belt is laid in the grooves cut under the reinforcement. After the installation of the reinforcement cage - along the perimeter of the bearing walls - the remaining void is laid with semi-liquid cement glue or cement sand. A complicated option is the laying of an armored belt using bricks (along the edges of the foam block row from the outside and from the inside), laid on a cement-sand composition with ordinary cement joints between them.

When the bricks harden, a frame is made - in the image and likeness of the foundation, only with a reduced cross-section of the inner space, which is 6 cm less in height than the bricks (3 cm from the bottom and from the top, as when laying in concrete). Having laid the frame, simple concrete based on cement and crushed stone is poured. After waiting for the setting and maximum hardening, lay out and fix the attic-ceiling ceiling.

Armopoyas - as an additional way to keep walls from cracking - does not eliminate the need to lay a masonry mesh. Do not skimp on it: it is better to purchase steel or glass reinforcement, because plastic is inferior in strength to steel and composite.

An expansion joint is an alternative to an armored belt. It protects the walls from cracking. The fact is that, like a brick, gas silicate is capable of cracking when the load from the roof and the floor located under it does not match. The place for the expansion joint is determined on a case-by-case basis. Such a seam is used to fix a wall, whose length is more than 6 m, as well as between cold and warm walls, with a variable wall height (multi-level masonry).

It is permissible to make an expansion joint in places where foam blocks are docked with other materials. For example, it can be two walls: one is brick, the other is made of foam block or experimental materials. The points where two load-bearing walls intersect can also be the location of the expansion joint.

These seams are filled with basalt wool or glass wool or foam, foamed polyethylene and other porous polymers and mineral compounds. Inside, the seams are treated with polyurethane foam, a vapor-permeable sealant. Outside, a light- or weather-resistant sealant is used, which also does not collapse under the influence of ultraviolet radiation.

For an illustrative example of laying gas blocks with your own hands, see the video below.