ᐅ Aerated concrete, clay blocks, or sand-lime bricks?

Aerated concrete, porous clay blocks, or sand-lime brick? Hello,

unfortunately, I couldn’t find satisfactory answers to my questions using the search function here.

We are just starting to plan a single-family house and are now going through catalogs and building specifications from various home builders.

The building descriptions mention different wall construction materials. Aerated concrete seems to be the most commonly offered.

We are looking for a manufacturer- and supplier-independent source of information that clearly explains the advantages and disadvantages of the different materials.

In particular, we are interested in structural stability, durability, as well as thermal insulation and indoor air quality.
How do the cost differences between these materials compare?

Is there perhaps even a source with a neutral comparison?

Best regards, Jasper

Hello aytex,

a warm welcome to you as well.

Let’s hope for some good contributions and valuable information.

Construction companies will surely praise their preferred building materials as the only right choice.

That’s why it’s helpful to also read neutral opinions on the matter.

Regards, Jasper

Hello,

you should search through the forum, as I faintly remember this topic being discussed quite often.

Best regards

As stated at the very very first sentence of my post above, I already did exactly that before asking here.

Found nothing.

So the question remains.....

Regards, Jasper

Hello,

here are some examples:

https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/poroton-oder-ytong-daemmwerte-usw.4035/
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/36er-ytong-aussenmauer-massivbauweise-schimmelbildung-Dämmung.6326/
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/welche-massiv-wand.5825/

And there is much more on this topic!

Regards

Thanks for the tip, E.Curb. I looked it up now.

@everyone:
It is mentioned that aerated concrete swells when it comes into contact with water. That reminds me—I’ve even heard that wet aerated concrete can suffer frost damage.

Someone else mentioned stress cracks that suddenly appeared in one of their interior walls.
Obviously, something else was completely wrong there, which caused the stresses that led to cracking in the aerated concrete wall. That can happen with any other building material as well.
In this case, after a crack and a noise at night, the crack extended diagonally across several meters of the wall surface.
It wasn’t the bonding between the blocks that cracked, but the blocks themselves—diagonally through, including the bathroom tiles.
Is aerated concrete prone to typical mechanical weak points?

One house builder, which is interesting to us, constructs with sand-lime bricks resting on a leveling layer made of aerated concrete. What are your thoughts on that?

Regards, Jasper