light weight blocks and insulating foil

[deadbeat]

Hi There

 

Building a house and I am considering using the light weight aerated blocks for some rooms on the second floor. Can anyone give me some info on these please?  I know they don' t take wall fixings but how about the thermal performance as this will be a room in the roof as such. I know they're very porous and they look pretty flimsy so are they prone to cracking? Will they reduce the  temperature that much to justify using them?

I'm also planning to use insulating foil below the roof to keep the heat out, has anyone used this successfully in Thailand?

 

Thanks for all your input.

[carlyai]

I used the 10 cm ones for my garage.

As an untechnical reply, they offer good heat resistance, are easy to work with and lay.

 

You MUST follow the installation guide, not necessarily the Thai way it's done. My garage hasn't cracked, and I did it per the instructions with lintels etc.

 

SWMBO hired a building mob to do her balcony and extra kitchen extensions round the back, and nearly all of the walls have developed hair line cracks.

 

The building difference between the two projects is, I used lintels (they made their own cement from the Thai window way ), I made sure I used the wire mesh everywhere the instructions said to, they didn't use it everywhere.

 

Don't know where you got the info. that you can't hang things on the walls, if you use the correct wall plugs, no problems, but they're (or used to be) hard to find.

 

I started using the straps and nails for securing the blocks to the piers, but found the rebar idea was better. It's all in the instructions.

 

I think the blocks are great.

 

Do use the foil, but do your research and use the best heat properties, double sided. Bit expensive though.

 

Most builders seem to lay the foil, then the tiles on top, but you should leave a 2" gap between the foil and tiles, and not have the foil touching the tiles.

 

I'm not a builder, but this is just my observations from doing it.

 

 

 

 

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[Pogust]

I built a garage/workshop 6 by 12 meters from 20 cm thick AAC blocks. Couldn't buy the lintels, seem they stopped making them when Tais don't buy them anyway. Made my own in place with 2 7,5 cm blocks with rebar and poured concrete between. Works great, not much form-work to do just under. Made the corner pillars last so they bound together well with the walls and had rebar in walls a couple of layers under and above windows. Fast and easy building, took 2 months from start until we had roof on. Cut the notch for rebar with skilsaw with double diamond blades and spacer between blades. Seems you can do this with 7,5 and 10 cm walls too. Those blocks are stronger than std concrete and clay bricks but care is needed when rendering to use the right material to avoid cracks.

[carlyai]

That's a pretty unique design.

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[sometimewoodworker]

Building a house and I am considering using the light weight aerated blocks for some rooms on the second floor. Can anyone give me some info on these please?  I know they don' t take wall fixings but how about the thermal performance as this will be a room in the roof as such. I know they're very porous and they look pretty flimsy so are they prone to cracking? Will they reduce the  temperature that much to justify using them?

I'm also planning to use insulating foil below the roof to keep the heat out, has anyone used this successfully in Thailand?

 

almost all your information is wrong.

They take wall fixing very well you just need longer ones.

Thermal performance is good.

They are not very porous, less than any other block or brick.

They are not flimsy and if properly used do not crack .

They are cheaper to use than any other material, if you factor in the cost of sand and cement vs the glue used for AAC block.

 

FWIW all the walls in my house use them.

 

 

And many people have used insulation with foil to reduce heat in roof spaces

[canopy]

Pogust, a few things you did do not appear to meet the building specifications for these blocks.

 

Making a ring beam is fine, but the rebar needs to be well encased in mortar as shown below:

 

 

The attachment of your walls to posts does not seem to meet q-con guidelines. Here is one attachment method:

 

 

 

The lintel is sitting on a block that is too short. The length of the bearing block must extend past the lintel a specified, minimum distance:

 

 

I would recommend having q-con inspect your structure. All you do is call them and they will go to your site for a free consultation.

 

Final note, making your own lintels is fine. But as of this year q-con does indeed sell them, even 20cm and they are fantastic to work with.

 

[Pogust]

Well, 20 cm Q4 blocks are load bearing and don't need pillars on one storey houses. I did the corners as extra safety and to get a concrete /rebar bond all the way up to roof trusses. The top ring beam mainly to anchor down trusses welded to steel inserts.

 

Can you please tell me where I can find 20 cm lintels as the producer claim they stopped making them upon phone contact in January?

[canopy]

I think you mean G4, yes these blocks are load bearing but proper fastening still needs considered.

 

I purchased 20cm lintels as well as other thicknesses from homemart. Maybe there was too long of a back order delay at the time you purchased and/or something lost in translation? If q-con stopped producing them, that would be quite surprising and sad too. It's just so nice to lay a lintel as quick and easy as a block. Lintels are still shown on the q-con web site.

 

[kamalabob2]

Proper Steel reinforced lintels are readily available and in stock in Buriram at the family owned builders merchant I most often shop. I did look at the price of carpet squares at Thai Watsdau in Buriram last night. That would buy quite a few 20 cm wide by 20 cm high AAC Lintels in Buriram. I live in a home made with AAC blocks and see the long term value of these home building materials.  The very long lintels are stacked on a delivery truck on top of the pallets of AAC Hebel blocks. The shorter lintels are stacked on the rear of a delivery truck. 

[Pogust]

Looks like that is a local factory in Buriram, Diamond AAC Wall Blocks. Never heard of them before. I'm by the coast Rayong area and could not find 20 cm lintels there. Thaiwatsadu and other big shops couldn't supply them either.

 

Thanks for the info, I will try get them from Buriram next winter if delivery so far is possible. Even if it turned out quite easy to make your own lintels in place a ready made product to just lift in place is better.

[kamalabob2]

I'll go on record as starting that many home improvement store staff are lazy or uninformed. They have no clue or no desire to pick up the telephone and place a special order. Diamond Lintels are made in the same Diamond Building Materials plant in Sariburi as the blocks. ANY Diamond dealer or Q-Con dealer can order lintels in your local area. The trick is that they come on a large truck with normal pallets of the other home building products from the same factory. Every store has catalogs. The women on the left and right in the 2nd photo place orders for me for my home building. They call the woman in the center who is a sales person for Diamond Building products. The managing director of Diamond Building Products speaks English and understood the kitchen counter blocks I ordered for my home. He is working on kitchen islands made of Diamond AAC steel reinforced hebel material.  Rayon would be a breeze to get lintels if the store staff picked up the phone. Payment at the time of order makes things happen in my observation. 

[KittenKong]

On 22/05/2017 at 8:40 PM, sometimewoodworker said:

They take wall fixing very well you just need longer ones.

 

If you use regular wall plugs in aerated concrete bricks you will just end up splitting them.

 

If you use the right sort of plug you will have no problems at all.

 

[sometimewoodworker]

7 hours ago, KittenKong said:

 

If you use regular wall plugs in aerated concrete bricks you will just end up splitting them.

 

If you use the right sort of plug you will have no problems at all.

 

I agree that the style you show is certainly better than 2 regular plugs if you can get them, and if you have a link to a source on line it would be very helpful.

 

In my experience of using a reasonable number of regular plugs with an appropriate sized hole in AAC blocks none of the blocks have split whether in a wall or in a test block. AAC does not have a grain structure to make splitting easy. It is quite possible  that an incorrect match of hole, plug and screw could cause a  problem I just haven't seen one yet and currently do not have access to blocks to experiment on.

[Pogust]

kamalabob2,

I'm aware of the laid back attitude towards customers often experienced in Thailand. Been there for 15 years. You usually has to talk direct to management and not to any salesperson on the floor, but it is starting to change with more influence from abroad. You have to remember that a Thai always do what's easiest for the moment though. With that in mind don't always trust the "no have" answer you get first....

 

We called Q-con directly about lintels, and also the Saraburi factory that didn't want to deliver so far as Rayong. Couldn't find any other producer at the time.

[kamalabob2]

Pogust:   I will comment that most home building materials suppliers are keen to sell a full truck load to a dealer. Transport issues are the responsibility of the dealer and NOT Q-Con. So I can understand the Sariburi factory not being eager to deliver to a "one off" sale in Rayong. It was no reflection on you, but rather a company making a choice for a larger sale. I've met with Q Con salesmen at the architect Expo and in a Buriram home building materials store.  I do know that other name brand AAC blocks are made in your direction including TPI Polene Cement.  I forget where Super Block are currently made. "Laid back attitude towards customers" is such a polite phrase you should be commended. The same store sales woman who orders Diamond Lintels also can order Q-Con lintels in my observation in Isaan. 

 

 

[KittenKong]

On 27/05/2017 at 5:26 AM, sometimewoodworker said:

I agree that the style you show is certainly better than 2 regular plugs if you can get them, and if you have a link to a source on line it would be very helpful.

 

I think that link came from aliexpress. I had a lot of secondary walls made with those bricks back in Europe so I'm quite experienced with putting plugs into them, but here all my walls are clay bricks or concrete.

[deadbeat]

OK guys, thank you for all the input, much obliged for your thoughts and responses.