One of the new products that appeared on the building materials market is ceramic stone. It can be used for the construction of external and internal walls, chimneys and other objects.
Concept and main characteristics
Ceramic stone (GOST 530-2012) is a large-sized product that has voids inside. It is used for the construction of walls both indoors and outdoors. It can be considered that this is the second name of double ceramic brick.
The voids inside the product are the main difference between ceramic stone and brick. They are made in a certain combination, due to which good thermal insulation is provided. This material has one of the lowest thermal conductivity coefficients (up to 0.36 W / m * k).
By the way, despite the presence of voids, ceramic stone has high strength. It withstands temperature extremes and severe frosts, and is also a good soundproofing material.
Ceramic stone has a size of 25x12x14 cm and a relatively small weight due to voids. Large dimensions facilitate the installation process. In addition, the product has corrugated faces, which makes masonry work especially simple. This allows you to reduce the amount of mortar, thereby reducing construction costs.
Fabrication of material
The raw material for the production of double bricks is mineral clay, which is dried and fired at high temperatures. In some cases, additives of various nature can be used. This process is no different from the production of ceramic bricks. A feature is only the large size and the presence of through holes.
The combination of voids is such that they occupy more than half the volume of the entire product. And holes are made only with a small cross-sectional area.
The facets of ceramic stone have grooves that are connected during installation. Thus, they are a kind of castle. And masonry mortar is not used to connect them. It will be needed only for connecting horizontal rows.
Varieties of material
There are several separate classifications for dividing the described building material into types. Ceramic stone is made:
- with vertical faces;
- with protrusions on the sides providing a groove-crest connection;
- with polished or unpolished bearing surface.
In addition, several sizes are manufactured. So, the length can vary between 25-51 cm, width - 12-51 cm and thickness - 14-18.8 cm. The exact dimensions of a ceramic stone can be seen in the table placed in our article.
Given the purpose, the stone can be of two types: facial or ordinary.
Styling features
A large number of voids in the product requires certain knowledge during installation. So, porous ceramic stone is allowed to be laid flat only (in another way “on the bed”). If you still need to lay along the length, you need to remember that in this case the density of the material will significantly decrease.
It is impossible to lay ceramic stone in the same way as brick (in this case we are talking about the methods of pressing in and close to it), since in this case the seams are not completely filled with masonry mortar.
The laying of ceramic stone structures is allowed at an air temperature of at least 5 degrees.
Particular attention is required to build internal partitions. Due to the presence of voids in the wall of ceramic stone, it is impossible to lay internal communications, because the material can simply crumble.
Ceramic stone will be the best solution in cases where you need to build a quality structure with minimal cost and short time.