Building a house is a serious matter, in case of a successful outcome, the result will be pleasing to the eye for decades, and pride. Therefore, it is not surprising that future homeowners take the choice of source material in all seriousness. Moreover, in our time, building material can be chosen both by price, and by physical and aesthetic characteristics.
The reasons for the popularity of Sibit
However, we can safely say that every day more and more people opt for sibit, that is, aerated concrete. In its manufacture, the frozen foam material is transformed into porous blocks, and the construction of a house from sibit immediately acquires a lot of advantages.
- The first of them: it is easily processed - it is cut and drilled even by hand.
- Second: the pores of this building material filled with gas make it much easier, giving it advantages in this sense and compared with brick and ordinary concrete. What follows from this? No heavy construction equipment needed!
- And the third: excellent heat-insulating qualities will make it possible to build a house out of sibit four times warmer than even a brick one.
Pros and cons of aerated concrete
In hot weather, a sibit house maintains a comfortable coolness, like wood, due to its porous structure. In addition, aerated concrete houses are environmentally friendly, since toxic materials are not used in their production, only natural substances, moreover, insoluble in water. It is also important that aerated concrete is not combustible.
Aerated concrete also has disadvantages, but if you know about them, then building and subsequent operation of a house from a sibit will not cause trouble.
For example, concrete and brick sibit inferior in strength. But after all, heavy metal brackets, massive cabinets and household equipment such as water heaters can not be hung primitively on the walls, but built for this stable structures from the corner.
For private building with a sibit, one should also take into account that it requires decoration both external and internal. And in damp rooms, materials for it are better to take waterproof.
Procurement of blocks yourself
If you started to build a house from a sibit on your own, it is logical, in fact, to make blocks yourself. The rules that must be followed are so simple that they themselves are taken for granted.
Roofing material spreads on flat ground, and the required size of shape is set on it, the walls of which are rubbed inside by mining. A ready-made dry composition bought in the store is poured into the form, mixed well. Without stopping this process, water slowly begins to pour into the form. The mixture should swell somewhat, and when it hardens slightly, without moving the block from its place, the mold is removed from it and used to “fashion” the following elements.
In dry and fairly warm weather, aerated concrete “Easter cakes” after 12 hours will turn into an almost finished building material. It is folded in a single layer under a canopy, and in a day from these blocks it is already possible to lay out the walls.
You can choose the size of the sibit blocks to your liking, but practice convinces: their optimal option is when one aerated concrete block replaces about 15 bricks.
The foundation is the foundation
However, a sibit can also be bought: it is not expensive, and it is not difficult to transport it. The obvious advantages of aerated concrete are gaining more and more of its supporters because the sibit house is being built much faster than from more traditional building materials.
We skip the preparation of the territory for construction, and dwell on the main thing - the foundation. There are so fanatical aerated concrete fans that they even lay the foundation out of sibit. In principle, this is acceptable, but it requires filigree accuracy of laying, evenness and smooth, without flaws, the "side" of the blocks. But a solid monolithic reinforced concrete foundation will really negate the theoretical possibility of wall deformation.
DIY home construction
A do-it-yourself house from a sibit begins to be built from ... a visit for a consultation with local surveyors. Since the sibit absorbs moisture well, experts should tell you the level of freezing of your site, and to what level groundwater rises on it.
And no matter what foundation you prefer, it must be accompanied by a drainage system, and waterproofing is always laid on top of the foundation with an overlap. Further, do not neglect even the thinnest, but a layer of cement for perfect alignment of the insulation surface. Let the first, most important, series of sibits lie on him. The correct installation of the walls will depend on it. That is why its evenness is verified by level.
A sibit house is built in summer or spring, at a temperature of no lower than five and no higher than 25 degrees Celsius, in dry weather. If the air warms up above the permissible norm, the prepared sibit will have to be constantly moistened with water.
The surface of each stacked row is leveled with a metal grater, eliminating even minor level differences - this prevents the appearance of vertical cracks.