Individual construction using foam concrete blocks is gaining momentum. This material has many advantages, such as low weight and affordable cost. Foam concrete has excellent sound and heat insulation characteristics, large dimensions and can reduce construction time.
In terms of volume, one such product is equal to 18 bricks, which saves time and money for the construction of a building. Foam blocks are easy to process, they can be sawn with a regular hacksaw, screwed into them with self-tapping screws that are well fixed in this material.
For construction, it is better to choose foam blocks that do not have oil stains and defects on the surface, the products must be uniform. When choosing a material, it is important to take into account its operational requirements, including the use of blocks with certain parameters for the construction of internal partitions, load-bearing and external walls. In the first case, the blocks must have a brand in the range from D 100 to D 400, and the overall dimensions must be equal100 x 300 x 600 mm.
As for the load-bearing walls, the brand can vary from D 600 to D 1000. Overall dimensions are 200 x 300 x 600 mm. When constructing external walls in areas with long winters, structural heat-insulating blocks with a brand marked in the range from D 600 to D 900 should be used. Such products are able to withstand heavy loads and withstand wall cooling.
Design
You can make a project of houses from foam blocks with your own hands. But it is better to use the experience of specialists in this field. If the width and length are 9 and 11 m, respectively, then on the ground floor there can be: a kitchen, a dining room, a bathroom, a hall, a vestibule, a porch, a living room and a veranda. The area of the latter can be 15.6 m2. The dining room will take 18 m2, while the living room will take 29.1 m2. The hall, bathroom and kitchen will have 18, 2, 3, 7, 11, 8 m2. Such a house can have two porches, the area of each of which is 10.7 and 5.8 m2.
Choice of foundation
Typically, low-rise construction uses a reinforced concrete strip foundation, which provides good support for large buildings with several floors. This margin of safety is excessive for foam blocks and requires high costs. This indicates that you should move away from the standards and choose a less expensive type of foundation.
If you decide to build a house fromdo-it-yourself foam blocks, and on the territory of swampy soil or wet soil, it is better to use a slab foundation. It will be able to protect the building from seasonal ground movements caused by freezing and thawing. Such a foundation will cost more. For a one-story house, a foundation built using pile-column technology will be a rational choice. It is reliable and more affordable.
Construction of a pile-columnar foundation
For the construction of a pile-column foundation, it is necessary to prepare the site by clearing and leveling it. Further on the territory, the marking of those places where the supports will be located is carried out. At the same time, it is important to comply with the mandatory conditions. They lie in the fact that the pillars should be located in the place where the walls intersect with each other. In addition, the step between the piles should be 2 m.
Screwing is carried out in the marked places. You can pre-dig recesses for pouring reinforced concrete pillars. In this case, it is necessary to go deeper by 2.5 m. The final value will depend on the climate. At the final stage, the piles and reinforced concrete grillage are poured, which will act as a link. Walls are laid out on it. Pile foundations perfectly withstand loads from not too heavy one-story buildings, and also resist seasonal soil movements.
Building walls
Before you start building a house of foam blocks with your ownhands, step-by-step instructions should first be studied. The laying of walls begins from the highest point of the foundation, because it rarely turns out to be perfectly even. In this case, you can level the plane of the rows with a mortar. However, this method should not be abused, since the final characteristics of the house will depend on the thickness of the seams. The lower this value is, the more durable the building will be, and the cost of construction will decrease, as well as heat loss during operation.
In order to prevent contact of the foam block with moisture rising from the ground, it is necessary to lay out a waterproofing layer on the foundation. A thin layer of cement mortar is distributed over the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe base, on which roofing material is laid. When stacking sheets, ensure that there is an overlap of 100 mm or more.
If you want to build a house from foam blocks with your own hands, then you need to familiarize yourself with the algorithm for building walls. You need to start from the corner. The first product must be leveled horizontally, for this a rubber mallet and a level are used. The corners line up five blocks high, then fill in the space between them.
Once you have completed the laying of the first row and aligned it with the horizon, you can begin to form the internal and load-bearing walls, using the project and looking back at the location of the openings. It is also important to know where the communication lines will run. For their laying in blocks of cellular concrete, appropriate recesses or holes are made.
Products are easy to process, so doit won't be hard. Before proceeding with the manufacture of the roof, the walls should be connected with a reinforcing reinforced concrete belt. It will connect the upper part of the walls, making it monolithic. The material cracks even if subsidence occurs. To fix the Mauerlat on the upper part of the wall, anchor bolts are laid in the reinforcing belt. When building a house from foam blocks with your own hands, you must think through every step.
Features of the roof device
As soon as the concrete gains strength, you can start working on the roof. To do this, a Mauerlat is installed along the perimeter of the load-bearing walls. Anchors are used in the process. You can assemble the rafter system by installing layered rafters. Rafter legs are cut into the Mauerlat. A wooden crate is fixed to them.
All elements of the roofing pie are equipped with the selected coverage. If you purchased shingles, then OSB sheets should be laid on the crate to create a base without openings and slots. For metal tiles, ondulin and corrugated board, you will not need anything other than a crate. The distance between its elements can vary from 0.3 to 0.5 m. The final value will depend on the type of roofing material.
When building a house from foam blocks with your own hands, you should not think about the number and shape of slopes, since this does not really matter for one-story buildings. You can choose the type of roof at your discretion. The roof should not turn out to be too heavy, otherwise the foam blocks will gradually collapse. The roof should have a smallweight, so corrugated board is often used as a material.
Features of installation of slopes and overhangs
When constructing a roof, the angle of inclination of the slopes and the truss play an important role. If the building will be located in a region with a cold climate, this issue should be taken more seriously. The walls will experience the less load, the sharper the angle at which the rafters are installed.
Mansard roof installation
Raising a house from foam blocks with your own hands, you can supplement it with a mansard roof. For rafters, in this case, square-section bars with a side of 10 to 20 cm are used. Waterproofing is necessarily located between the Mauerlat and the walls.
It is better to fasten the structural units with metal brackets. Wood for structural elements must be well dried and treated with flame retardants, as well as antiseptics. When choosing lumber, it is better to give preference to coniferous species, since the influence of humidity on them is the least.
Waterproofing, installation of Mauerlat and installation of the truss system
When building the roof of a house from foam blocks with your own hands, you can use an ordinary roofing material as a waterproofing between the Mauerlat and the wall. The layer should be located along the perimeter of the walls, it is not necessary to fix it. Mauerlat is a wooden beam fixed along the perimeter of the walls. It is strengthened with anchor bolts, their diameter should be12 mm or more. Holes are pre-drilled under them. The ends of the anchors are bent in the form of a hook to prevent further pulling out. On sale you can find anchors with a spacer system. The distance between fasteners is 15 cm.
Attachment points - at an equal distance between the rafter legs. If you want to build a house from foam blocks with your own hands without experience, you should definitely read the recommendations of specialists. They mention that the mansard roof can have two slopes. In this case, you will need two Mauerlat. A square bar with a side of 15 or 20 cm can be used as this element.
The skeleton of the roof is the truss system. All loads such as rain and wind fall on it. It is better to use larch or pine, the humidity of each of which should not be more than 23%. In order to eliminate the negative effects caused by the reproduction of microorganisms, it is necessary to impregnate the wood.
When choosing rafters, you should pay attention to the fact that they are layered and hanging. If the span between the walls does not exceed 6 m, then layered ones can be used. When the span is twice as long, layered ones are used only if an additional support is installed.
Hanging rafters are suitable if the span between the walls reaches 12 m. Installation of additional support is not provided. When building a house from foam blocks with your own hands, you should take into account that the distance between the rafters is 60 cm. It is important to ensure that there are holesfor window installation. The bars for the rafter legs will have a square section with a side of 10 cm. The length can be determined taking into account the slope of the slopes and the dimensions of the house.
Building a house from foam blocks with your own hands involves the installation of floor beams. For this, a board, timber and logs can be used. The first is placed on the edge. A certain distance must be maintained between the beams; these elements are installed in the grooves selected in the walls. Their ends are waterproofed with roofing material, which is laid in two layers. After laying the beams, they are additionally fixed with anchor bolts.
Features of erecting racks
If the roof is supposed to be broken, then first you need to build support racks. They will be located vertically and will act as a frame of the walls. Before you start building a house from foam blocks with your own hands, you should definitely study the step-by-step instructions. From it you can find out that the height of the racks will be 2 meters or more. Only then will it be comfortable on the floor.
Installation of vertical racks is carried out in the grooves on the floor beams. Additional fixation is provided by staples and metal corners. The selection of the beam section is carried out along the length of the span. The first value will be 100 x 200 mm if the span is 4 m. The distance between the beams is equivalent to 0.6 m. There is a floor beam between the posts.
U-shaped racks are assembled with a previously defined step. Pull the cord between them and check its level. If heightwill be different, then one of the arches should be dismantled. It is then adjusted in height. The racks are connected to each other by bars of the same section.
Laying foam blocks
If you want to make a house out of foam blocks with your own hands, then you need to ask how the laying work is carried out. The mortar layer under the first block will be thinner than under the products in other corners. If the foundation is even, then the choice of the first corner is arbitrary. Corner foam blocks will serve as a guide for further work. This product should protrude 50 mm above the plinth. The specified indent will exclude the accumulation of water at low tide, which means that the masonry in the bottom row will not be damaged.
The solution on the surface when building a house from foam blocks with your own hands is applied with a notched trowel or carriage. A trowel can also be used, but it does not allow you to maintain a certain thickness of the layer of the mixture, which leads to inevitable overspending and the appearance of areas without mortar. In the first row, a cement-sand mixture is necessarily used, as it allows you to level the height difference due to a denser layer.
Application of masonry mortar is carried out on the horizontal surface of the row and the side walls of the block. The vertical seam is filled with mortar. If this recommendation is ignored, then voids may appear in the masonry. As a result, moisture will accumulate in the seam, and in cold weather this nuance will lead to the destruction of the block.
House prices
If you want to build a house from foam blocks with your own hands, you can do it cheaply if you build a one-story building. When it measures 9 x 11 m, its cost is 1,690,000 rubles. When the size is reduced to 6 x 9 m, the price, respectively, decreases and becomes equal to 990,000 rubles. If your budget is even smaller, then you can pay only 680,000 rubles by building a small house with dimensions of 6 x 6 m.
In conclusion
If you want to do the work yourself, how much does a foam block house cost, of course, you should know. Such a building costs an average of 20% less than a brick dwelling of the same size. Foam block houses do not need additional thermal insulation, which also provides an opportunity to save money.
Foam blocks are also good because they do not require spending too much money for their transportation - first of all, this concerns loading and unloading. You can even carry out such work on your own. Lightweight cellular concrete acts as a heat insulator, because air is enclosed inside it.
