Bricks and Blocks, which to use

[cnx37]

Re #50, "problem" resolved. Q-con throughout.

[blue bar]

^agreed.

[BrickFactoryBurners]

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As you can see houses look quite nice made out of these red bricks.

[bkkpla]

Good day all
Trying to refire this thread on AAC bricks for home building. I saw the quote below which caught my eye from 2011. I also have a builder now quoting me on a home using 7.5cm wide bricks for the outside walls. It seems this is common in Thailand and they provide enough load bearing - for a one story home with metal insulated roof, enough strenth to hang a few cabinets - we do not plan on lots of built in furnitire, have too mauch already as it is.
Wondering if anyone out there now has had experience with AAC and in particular witht he 7.5cm thck bricks, and can comment.
Thanks in advance for any and all on topic input, appreciate it.
Cheers


[QUOTE=fred2krabi;1969053]

Q-Con Blocks are great, nice and square, 20 by 40centermeters, great insulation qualities and about 25baht each.

In the first picture you can see a block being cut down to size using an ordinary wood saw, on the wall you can see that the joins are tiny between the blocks, for joining these blocks you use crocodile cement, this is a premixed cement based product that comes in 20 kilo bags, due to the blocks all being the same size and shape it makes it a very quick and easy job to build a wall.


Hello, i plan to build my house, one floor 160sqm2, the workers want to build the wall with only Q-con with thickness 7,5cm do you think is enough ? Strong and insulation enough ?

Thanks a lot for your advice

[Shutree]

AAC blocks are easy to build with and have good thermal insulation once built.
Walls in Thailand are not usually load bearing in the structural sense. They are fine for hanging cabinets, aircons and the like.
There are AAC lintels to bridge doors and windows although builders often dodge buying them and make their own concrete lintels in situ or even no lintel at all, relying only on the strength of the window frame to support the bricks above, which is not recommended.

[bkkpla]

Shutree
Thanks for your repsonse, appreaciate it. I hear what you say and indeed in this case the builder (from worksite photos we have sen) does just as you mention, he builds concrete frames around the windows and doors and skips the lintels.
I will talk to thim on that point, as it surely must be less work to just lay a lintel on top instead of forming a concrete frame - but I cant say from any experience.
As for the brick depth, still hoping to get input on 75mm vs 100mm or more...the houses I am in now is built with the standard cinder blocks, and it seems fine construction wise, but is prone to get hot, which the q-con should address
Cheers

AAC blocks are easy to build with and have good thermal insulation once built.
Walls in Thailand are not usually load bearing in the structural sense. They are fine for hanging cabinets, aircons and the like.
There are AAC lintels to bridge doors and windows although builders often dodge buying them and make their own concrete lintels in situ or even no lintel at all, relying only on the strength of the window frame to support the bricks above, which is not recommended.

[Shutree]

The AAC lintels are more expensive than DIY concrete and probably need to be ordered beforehand. Which requires preparation and planning, which are unfamiliar skills to local builders, in my experience.
I used 20cm AAC blocks. My house is tiny so it was affordable to me. There is zero heat transfer or heat retention.
My pillars are 20cm so the blocks give plain right angle corners. Just a personal preference, I don't like those 'W' corners.
The same result can be obtained by using double skin 7.5cm blocks with a 5cm air gap. A chap named Tony who did that wrote up his build in great detail.
I believe ThaiDupp used 15cm AAC blocks. Check out his building thread on Teak Door.
Even 7.5cm AAC is going to be superior to cinder blicks or red bricks. Those materials just build you a pizza oven, sucking up heat all day and keeping warm all night. That said, Klondyke has built double skin walls using cinder blocks with an air gap.

[bkkpla]

Thanks for that. Yes it is a fact, that what you state about some local crews. We feel lucky to find this guy, he has offered us many different plans to choose from and has been very receptive to changes - and the one we have now closed on is a hybrid that suits our needs. He also seesm to be one of the better organized. He will travel our here Friday to visit the site, see the land and the set up we are thinking of, give us a detailed breakdown of the build and materials - and we can substitute freely on any items we want (probably I want bigger windows with screens in place, maybe different doors) - and all this without having agreed to a contract. We also have already visited a few of his sites and seen the work he does, and are impressed.
I am likely much the same as you, no need for a huge place, we want a comfy interior and as much open space as possible, so have a 46sqm plan in mind. The builder himself is very insistent that the 75mm with rendering in and out is more than enough for insulation of heat and noise, and having lived 17+ years here in many cinder block buildings I think I understand and am getting comfortable with the idea. He says he will use whatever width I want but the price will go up and in his opinion its not necessary.
So lets see Friday how things pan out.
I will chekc out the other build threads you mentioned as well
Cheers

The AAC lintels are more expensive than DIY concrete and probably need to be ordered beforehand. Which requires preparation and planning, which are unfamiliar skills to local builders, in my experience.
I used 20cm AAC blocks. My house is tiny so it was affordable to me. There is zero heat transfer or heat retention.
My pillars are 20cm so the blocks give plain right angle corners. Just a personal preference, I don't like those 'W' corners.
The same result can be obtained by using double skin 7.5cm blocks with a 5cm air gap. A chap named Tony who did that wrote up his build in great detail.
I believe ThaiDupp used 15cm AAC blocks. Check out his building thread on Teak Door.
Even 7.5cm AAC is going to be superior to cinder blicks or red bricks. Those materials just build you a pizza oven, sucking up heat all day and keeping warm all night. That said, Klondyke has built double skin walls using cinder blocks with an air gap.

[Klondyke]

75mm with rendering in and out is more than enough for insulation of heat and noise, and having lived 17+ years here in many cinder block buildings I think I understand and am getting comfortable with the idea

Did you mean 75 mm of a AAC? it would be OK but not for a cinder block if not in double arrangement with cavity. Actually, the cost of cinder blocks even if doubled are still much cheaper than a single AAC block.