ᐅ Lightweight expanded clay aggregate (LECA): Advantages and Disadvantages, Thickness, Suppliers
Created on: 17 Jan 2023 10:29
M
Mar_Mar
Good morning everyone!
My husband and I (both rather paper people) are planning to build a fairly large semi-detached house and are navigating through the jungle of options. We want a solid construction and have spoken with various suppliers. The available options regarding blocks are aerated concrete, Poroton, and expanded clay (prefabricated), all 36.5cm (14.4 inches) thick and built as monolithic walls. Of course, each consultant believes their own material is the best, so I would be interested in your opinions and experiences.
“Actually,” we would rather not build with aerated concrete/Ytong because our naive assumption about moisture absorption (sponge effect) during construction and later when drying out the house seems negative. However, I can understand the argument for its easy workability.
Poroton would be our “favorite,” but I get the impression that many companies really resist using it because of a lot of waste, losses during transport, and comments like “you don’t notice a difference,” etc. Then there is also the split between filled and unfilled blocks.
And then there is expanded clay. Our “new favorite with a question mark.” It seems very interesting because it somehow combines the best of both worlds: dry straight from the factory, quick, even cheaper. BUT if it’s so good, why don’t more people build with it and why are there relatively few suppliers? That makes us skeptical. I’ve read and researched a lot that it often cracks and that its insulation properties are not the best compared to Poroton. We were told that an unfilled 36.5cm (14.4 inches) Poroton block is comparable in properties to a 42cm (16.5 inches) expanded clay block.
We are lost in this jungle of U-values, lambda, etc. Can you support us?
By the way: insulation is more important to us than soundproofing.
Thanks so much!
My husband and I (both rather paper people) are planning to build a fairly large semi-detached house and are navigating through the jungle of options. We want a solid construction and have spoken with various suppliers. The available options regarding blocks are aerated concrete, Poroton, and expanded clay (prefabricated), all 36.5cm (14.4 inches) thick and built as monolithic walls. Of course, each consultant believes their own material is the best, so I would be interested in your opinions and experiences.
“Actually,” we would rather not build with aerated concrete/Ytong because our naive assumption about moisture absorption (sponge effect) during construction and later when drying out the house seems negative. However, I can understand the argument for its easy workability.
Poroton would be our “favorite,” but I get the impression that many companies really resist using it because of a lot of waste, losses during transport, and comments like “you don’t notice a difference,” etc. Then there is also the split between filled and unfilled blocks.
And then there is expanded clay. Our “new favorite with a question mark.” It seems very interesting because it somehow combines the best of both worlds: dry straight from the factory, quick, even cheaper. BUT if it’s so good, why don’t more people build with it and why are there relatively few suppliers? That makes us skeptical. I’ve read and researched a lot that it often cracks and that its insulation properties are not the best compared to Poroton. We were told that an unfilled 36.5cm (14.4 inches) Poroton block is comparable in properties to a 42cm (16.5 inches) expanded clay block.
We are lost in this jungle of U-values, lambda, etc. Can you support us?
By the way: insulation is more important to us than soundproofing.
Thanks so much!
Sunshine387 schrieb:
I hope you are building the duplex yourselves and not each taking one half individually, otherwise it will be quite an adventure with stories to last a lifetime. In that case, I would coordinate closely with my neighbor in the duplex. Otherwise, chaos is almost guaranteed. So, I hope you are building the duplex yourselves? If not, it will definitely be an exciting time that will require a lot of patience. Nope, each on their own 😉 The neighbors have already signed with Schwabenhaus, and their build will probably be shorter than ours. We stay in regular contact and cooperate with each other. What should we keep in mind, or on which points do we or the construction companies need to coordinate?
Nida35a schrieb:
Yes, the second house is built brick by brick.
The company owner had software that calculated the brick sizes and quantities based on the floor plan. He said it was so accurate that at most only one wheelbarrow of waste was left on site, which turned out to be true, although it was actually an employee who confirmed this.
The first house had a wall thickness of about 25-30cm (10-12 inches), built by a prefab house company, while the second was built by a small family business.
In which postal code are you building? Interesting. And why would the second house be built differently, if I may ask, and which company built the first one?
We received a statement from a company that prefers to work with aerated concrete, saying they don’t like to use Poroton blocks as much because on the 100km (62 miles) trip to the construction site sometimes the entire load got damaged since the blocks are so delicate (thin-walled), or because the waste on site was so high. I’m not sure what to make of that.
Mar_Mar schrieb:
or that the waste on the construction site is so high. I don’t know what to make of it. Every general contractor praises only their own building material and wall construction.
The advice to use the same shell builder for both semi-detached houses is important.
Nida35a schrieb:
Every general contractor only praises their own building material and wall structure.
The advice to use the same shell builder for both semi-detached houses is important. One particular general contractor we contacted works with both, but tended to speak negatively about Poroton.
Unfortunately, it’s too late to choose the same shell builder now, as the neighbors have already signed with the timber frame builder...
Mar_Mar schrieb:
What should we keep in mind, or which points do we need to coordinate with the construction companies?There is the well-known Goalkeeper thread https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/reihenendhaus-mit-gue-in-eigenregie-bauen.31198/ about the experience with a worst-case end-terrace house (which is essentially the same as semi-detached houses). Otherwise, I have already summarized all the essentials in all of my posts in semi-detached house threads, see https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/neubau-massive-doppelhaushaelfte-dinge-zu-beachten-wenn-nachbar-fertighaus-plant.43054/#post-566860, as well as https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/grundriss-optimierung-doppelhaushaelfte-ca-150qm.43426/#post-576767 and https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/massiv-oder-fertighaus-doppelhaushaelfte-ca-160-qm-pro-und-konta.44754/page-2#post-612082.11ant schrieb:
Technically, having matching profiles at the "joint" is already sufficient to ensure the best possible fit.The most crucial aspect is coordination regarding the basement, specifically that when building semi-detached houses that are not exactly aligned, the party building the shared basement should start before the one without a basement. Profile alignment (meaning a matching roofline over as much distance as possible) is the second most important point. Ideally, as already mentioned, you use the same shell construction contractor. In your case, that would mean building with Schwabenhaus as well, at least as a shell package (unless you are bold enough to take on managing the finishing trades yourselves).The posts mentioned above also link to external contributions by me on this topic. When searching online, baulotse-hoffmann should now be replaced by bauen-jetzt. There you will also find "The Stone Mantra by 11ant," which addresses your original question. I have personally lived for a very long time, and through several projects, in lightweight concrete (Bims) as is common in my area. The difference to expanded clay is, despite different origins, ultimately negligible; these building materials are at least closely related.
Builders usually prefer one or one-and-a-half wall materials: one they have the most experience with, and the other they use in special cases or when their preferred material temporarily becomes too expensive and would negatively affect their cost calculations. Some of them also spread scare stories about materials that are either too costly for their suppliers or with which they have too little experience. There is no magic solution nor a devil in these materials. At the same time, I have no reservations about a wood frame panel system builder like Schwabenhaus. So, carefully consider whether that might also be a good option for you. I am also happy to support your project personally.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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