The breeze block is a essential building element, whether it is to erect the walls of professional buildings, collective buildings for residential use, individual houses or even boundary walls to enclose a property. It is therefore omnipresent and constitutes nearly 8 out of 10 constructions. Spotlight on the traditional breeze block which has more advantages than disadvantages, on the new generation of insulating blocksand on the price to be expected before finalizing its construction project.
Cinder block: its main characteristics
Manufactured concrete block produced massively since the 1950s, the cinder block, which is also commonly called thechipboard (for chipboard) is still widely used today. Rectangular in shape and with a ratio of 5/22 in general, it is available in different sizes. This building material is hollow. It is used to mount walls and partitions.
Blocks are most often laid on a bed of mortar. But there is another technique which consists of applying a bed of glue with a roller on which the rows of concrete blocks are then placed.
Concrete block: its advantages
If the breeze block is used as much in construction, and still imposes itself today against other materials of excellent quality, it is because it has some great advantages, including:
- A great ease of break,
- Solidity,
- Very high resistance:
- bad weather, including windstorms,
- fire,
- to seismic movements.
- A very reasonable price.
Thus, a building constructed from traditional blocks can be erected quickly. You still need to have a sufficient experience to build a house or business premises. But the breeze block used in the rules of the art makes it possible to benefit from a building little exposed to the risks of combustion, of a great longevity, and without it being necessary to spend a fortune.
Cinder block: its disadvantages
It is undeniable that the concrete block enjoys a very good reputation, but it nevertheless presents some weak points. These include:
- Its poor quality of insulation, whether thermally or acoustically,
- Its incompatibility with an original architecture due to its great rigidity,
- The difficulty it imposes when installing the plumbing and all the pipes connected to the heating system, which also increases the cost of construction.
It is indeed almost impossible with cinder block to obtain certain architectural effects and, when one builds one’s house in cinder blocks, one encounters more difficulties when the time comes to integrate certain network installations into this type of structure ( pipes, etc). It is noted that this last point requires an additional budget due to the technicality that it requires in a concrete block construction.
What about insulating block?
This new generation of blocks completes the range of construction materials. It is a material all in one which does not fail to interest individuals and professionals planning to build a house or commercial or industrial premises, for example. Already widely used in North America, insulating concrete blocks are beginning to be known here.
It is used to build exterior walls and load-bearing walls. Its particularity, compared to a classic cinder block, lies in its cells, some of which incorporate insulation. A few holes are of course kept so that the concrete can be poured in during installation.
The insulating concrete block has a major advantage: it improves interior comfort because it limits thermal bridges which generate a large expenditure of energy. The insulation it incorporates can be in particular:
- expanded polystyrene,
- An insulating foam made from concrete,
- Wood combined with a mineral binder,
- Rock wool, particularly recommended in areas where rodents swarm because it resists their attacks,
- Glass wool perfectly resistant to insects including termites.
This new generation concrete block improves the inertia of the partitions but also thesealing. Easy to install, the insulating blocks fit together. However, it is strongly recommended to entrust the work to an experienced professional able to guarantee the perfect stability of the building. This material is ecological, it offers an interesting saving of space if no other insulation is added since it reduces the footprint of the walls of a house or a room. We also appreciate its ease of installation, so that it allows you to erect walls quickly, provided that you have a good knowledge of the rules of construction.
It should be noted that in many regions, however, it is mainly used for complete the main insulation of a dwelling. It does not on its own meet the requirements of current thermal regulations, namely a Thermal Resistance of between 4 and 4.40, whereas that of the insulating block is only 2.
Cinder block: prices
Building your own cinder block house allows you to make significant savings, provided you know a little about it and have the ability not to count your time. But it is noted that even if one calls upon a professional, that cost all the same cheaper than if another building material is used. This difference is partly due to the fact that the cinder block poses no difficulty in laying. It therefore allows win time which affects the price of labor, and can therefore be assessed on the overall cost of the work when a professional is called upon.
The prices are of course variables since they depend on the dimensions of the concrete blocks. For information, for an element of 20 cm in height and width by 50 cm in length, the price of the piece block is understood between 1 and 3 €or between 10 and 30 €/m² since it takes 10 concrete blocks of this size to cover such an area. It should be noted that the same wall would require a much higher budget if it were built with insulating concrete blocks whose price per m² is between 60 and 80 €.
Coming back to our classic cinder blockson price per m² gets along out of pose but the cost of cement, sand and water to prepare the mortar should also be taken into account. As an indication, the bag of 40 kg of cement costs at least ten euros. Thus, for example, there are 550 traditional blocks of 20 x 20 x 50 cm and 1 m3 of mortar for their assembly, which makes it possible to build 55 m² of walls. But it will also add the cost of insulation.
However, you should know that a wall made of traditional concrete blocks on which care has been taken to install insulation costs less overall than a wall made of insulating concrete blocks and offers better comfort. But in either case, you have to include a higher budget in your project if you want entrust your construction work to a building professional (a mason in this case). Admittedly, the cost of the operation is higher, but you can thus benefit from all the guarantees, which is not the case when you manage on your own…
The concrete block installation prices generally observed are of the order from 50 to 60 € per square meter. That’s just an idea. To know the exact price of this type of work, it is absolutely necessary to establish a quote by the craftsman of his choice. To do this, the ideal is to go through a masons comparator on line. We can thus receive several proposals. It’s free and without any commitment.