ᐅ What type of masonry construction do you recommend for exterior walls?
Created on: 9 May 2025 21:42
B
Buddy90
Hello everyone!
Today was the notary appointment, and the plot of land is mine!
Great!
At the moment, I’m working on the rough plans for what my future house should look like, how it should be built, and so on.
The fact is, I want to do a lot myself (hence planning to be DIY-friendly…). Of course, I will still have professional support for the critical tasks.
One major point for me (so the planning can actually start…) is which masonry structure do you recommend for the exterior walls?
I don’t want a brick veneer!
The required energy standard in the building area is KFW55. Isn’t this basically the same as the ENEV regulation and doesn’t require an energy consultant, or does it?
Central controlled residential ventilation, air-to-water heat pump, maximum photovoltaic (PV) system, and triple glazing are set from my side. That should provide enough energy credits, right?
Which wall construction can be done cost-effectively and well by a DIYer? I would have the plastering done professionally to ensure a clean finish.
1 - Poroton (clay block) unfilled + exterior insulation system (EIFS) + plaster
2 - Poroton filled + plaster
3 - Aerated concrete + plaster
4 - ?
For the interior walls, I am considering limestone sand-lime blocks for sound insulation. Or are there good alternatives nowadays?
It would be great if you could help me understand the pros and cons, proven masonry types, insulation and plaster thicknesses, and also rough price ranges.
Of course, an architect will supervise the entire process in the future! I just want to prepare well. It would also be interesting to know the most cost-effective wall construction while still meeting the KFW55 standard.
Thanks a lot!
Today was the notary appointment, and the plot of land is mine!
Great!
At the moment, I’m working on the rough plans for what my future house should look like, how it should be built, and so on.
The fact is, I want to do a lot myself (hence planning to be DIY-friendly…). Of course, I will still have professional support for the critical tasks.
One major point for me (so the planning can actually start…) is which masonry structure do you recommend for the exterior walls?
I don’t want a brick veneer!
The required energy standard in the building area is KFW55. Isn’t this basically the same as the ENEV regulation and doesn’t require an energy consultant, or does it?
Central controlled residential ventilation, air-to-water heat pump, maximum photovoltaic (PV) system, and triple glazing are set from my side. That should provide enough energy credits, right?
Which wall construction can be done cost-effectively and well by a DIYer? I would have the plastering done professionally to ensure a clean finish.
1 - Poroton (clay block) unfilled + exterior insulation system (EIFS) + plaster
2 - Poroton filled + plaster
3 - Aerated concrete + plaster
4 - ?
For the interior walls, I am considering limestone sand-lime blocks for sound insulation. Or are there good alternatives nowadays?
It would be great if you could help me understand the pros and cons, proven masonry types, insulation and plaster thicknesses, and also rough price ranges.
Of course, an architect will supervise the entire process in the future! I just want to prepare well. It would also be interesting to know the most cost-effective wall construction while still meeting the KFW55 standard.
Thanks a lot!
MachsSelbst schrieb:
No bricklayer builds crooked wallsThen I have to send you my crew from Eberswalde...
Good morning,
We are currently building our own house and putting a lot of our own effort into it. Before starting our own project, we helped a lot with friends’ and family’s constructions and gained some experience. One of these experiences was laying all the interior walls of a house using aerated concrete blocks on our own. Our conclusion from this was that for our house (Poroton blocks), we definitely will not do the masonry ourselves. Of course, you can lay such a wall yourself quite well, and with a string line and/or a laser level and spirit level, it can be perfectly straight, but it simply takes an incredibly long time. I agree with @MachsSelbst’s estimate that it takes five times longer. And that is just the pure working time. For us, it was also the case that we couldn’t invest a full 8 hours or more every day. Preparing, mixing mortar, cleaning up, cleaning tools, etc. also takes time, even if you only work 4 hours that day.
At our own building site, we now pay a team of masons by the hour. They are very fast. Still, we spend several hours on the site every day doing the work that makes more sense to do ourselves and where we don’t get in the way of the masons. For example:
- Waterproofing the concrete basement (inserting fiber cement plugs)
- Installing perimeter insulation
- Laying pipes in the ceiling (ventilation + electrical)
- Removing formwork and preparing it for reuse (this takes a lot of time, but can be done alongside other tasks and does not require paying a mason)
- Installing drainage (pipes + flushing shafts) + geotextile fabric + Delta membrane
- Cleaning up and removing waste (this may sound trivial, but it can save money)
For the wall construction, I would rely on what the masons do best.
We are currently building our own house and putting a lot of our own effort into it. Before starting our own project, we helped a lot with friends’ and family’s constructions and gained some experience. One of these experiences was laying all the interior walls of a house using aerated concrete blocks on our own. Our conclusion from this was that for our house (Poroton blocks), we definitely will not do the masonry ourselves. Of course, you can lay such a wall yourself quite well, and with a string line and/or a laser level and spirit level, it can be perfectly straight, but it simply takes an incredibly long time. I agree with @MachsSelbst’s estimate that it takes five times longer. And that is just the pure working time. For us, it was also the case that we couldn’t invest a full 8 hours or more every day. Preparing, mixing mortar, cleaning up, cleaning tools, etc. also takes time, even if you only work 4 hours that day.
At our own building site, we now pay a team of masons by the hour. They are very fast. Still, we spend several hours on the site every day doing the work that makes more sense to do ourselves and where we don’t get in the way of the masons. For example:
- Waterproofing the concrete basement (inserting fiber cement plugs)
- Installing perimeter insulation
- Laying pipes in the ceiling (ventilation + electrical)
- Removing formwork and preparing it for reuse (this takes a lot of time, but can be done alongside other tasks and does not require paying a mason)
- Installing drainage (pipes + flushing shafts) + geotextile fabric + Delta membrane
- Cleaning up and removing waste (this may sound trivial, but it can save money)
For the wall construction, I would rely on what the masons do best.
T
Teimo198813 May 2025 11:35Regarding the masonry, I would say it doesn’t really matter. I recently built a two-family house using Thermoplan S8 Poroton blocks with a thickness of 36.5 cm (14 inches). It meets the Building Energy Act and KfW 55 standards. On the neighboring construction site, everything is being done as self-build as well. They are using the same blocks. However, they also have access to machines, either owned or rented. You will definitely need a crane, a block saw, scaffolding, props, and a lot of other equipment. Working alone is always difficult—you should ideally have at least two people consistently, otherwise you won’t get far.
What I want to say is that you can do your own foundation slab and raise your own walls, but you should probably have someone experienced to guide you, and a helper who is always available (a retiree or similar) is absolutely essential.
The same applies to many tasks during the interior finishing stage.
What I want to say is that you can do your own foundation slab and raise your own walls, but you should probably have someone experienced to guide you, and a helper who is always available (a retiree or similar) is absolutely essential.
The same applies to many tasks during the interior finishing stage.
familie_s schrieb:
Before building our own house, we helped out a lot with friends’ and family’s projects and gained some experience. One of these was installing all the interior walls of a house with aerated concrete blocks as a DIY job. Our conclusion was that we definitely would not want to do the masonry work ourselves on our house (Poroton). Of course, you can glue such walls quite well on your own, and using a string line and/or laser level and spirit level, the result can be very straight, but it just takes an incredibly long time. I agree with @MachsSelbst’s estimate that it takes five times longer. And that’s just the pure work time. For us, it was also that we couldn’t invest 8 or more hours every day. Preparing, mixing mortar, cleaning up, washing tools, etc. still has to be done even if you only work 4 hours at a time. It sounds like you made the mistake of doing the work “after hours” (i.e., already exhausted), otherwise even interior walls wouldn’t be so slow and tedious. Indeed, interior walls (including those misused as exterior walls in external insulation systems) are more demanding in the sense that they have less bearing surface relative to the layer thickness. And basically …
Teimo1988 schrieb:
You definitely need a crane, a block saw, scaffolding, props, and a bunch of other stuff. Working alone is always difficult; you really need to be at least two people permanently, otherwise you won’t get anywhere. When laying narrower and/or heavier walls, having a second pair of hands from someone roughly the same size is one of the most important “tools.” Depending on the weight of the individual plan blocks, a crane may only be needed to position the pallets (as with aerated concrete) or additional lifting devices or other aids for placement during masonry work (with heavy blocks, and for narrow wall thicknesses possibly also for aerated concrete or gypsum boards). Many beginners or occasional DIYers underestimate how their performance decreases with increasing repetitions. After all, an aerated concrete block is also an ergonomically awkward type of weight. Special lifting tools can help to a limited extent. Also tricky — even with the lightest block — is working “overhead,” that is, from layers seven or eight up to ten and a half or eleven. At that stage, you usually don’t work “from the ground” anymore, but working from scaffolding or having materials handed up from below is already quite physically demanding. Watching tutorial videos from the couch often leads to underestimating this. Along with the initially mentioned drop in performance, this quickly results in considerable delays in schedule, so organizing the DIY work becomes increasingly difficult.
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