Wall Materials
There are many alternatives to bricks & cement for walls. Each one has its own set of properties.
More popular wall types
Concrete Blocks
- Dense blocks
- Aerated blocks (breeze blocks)
- Hollow blocks
- Patterned blocks
- Decorative blocks
Reconstituted Stone Blocks
- Stone dust, cement & pigment.
Stud walls
- Wood or steel frame, plus
- Walling sheets, any of:
- Plasterboard (the usual choice)
- Lath & Plaster
- Fibreboard & hardboard occasionally found, but not recommended
- Plywood, good for workshops
Lime
- Lime & sand mortar with various building blocks
- standard mortar on historic buildings
- Sometimes used on new builds
- white appearance
- lower embodied energy than cement
- disposed of lime mortar becomes a normal part of the soil (chalk), thus eliminating the waste issue of cement mortars
- lower compressive strength makes it unsuitable for high rise buildings
- Non-hydraulic lime is very slow setting, and can be stored unset indefinitely if air is excluded
- Hydraulic lime is quick to set
Gabions
- Steel mesh cage
- Filled with stone
- Useful for retaining walls
- Widely used to retain river banks
- Not fireproof
Stone
- Types of stone wall:
- Sawn (smooth faced blocks)
- Hammer dressed (rough faced blocks)
- Rubble walls (random sized uncut stone)
- Dry stone walling (no mortar used)
Poured concrete
- Poured into wooden forms in situ
Glass brick
- Transmits light
- Poor Insulation
- White cement mortar usually used for joints
Strawboard
- A one piece sandwich of plaster, card, straw, card, plaster
- Low cost
- Good sound insulation
- Very poor strength, which can make fixing things to the wall problematic
- Poor strength makes it possible to fall through one of these walls
- Used between bedrooms in some cut price modern builds
- Brand name Stramit
Less popular wall types
Dry Block Walls
- Concrete blocks are stacked with no mortar
- Wall is then covered with glass fibre reinforced render
- The render is a structural element
Adobe
- Clay suboil, sand, straw or dung etc
- Blocks
Cob
- Subsoil, sand, straw, lime
- Continuous construction, no blocks involved.
Cast Earth
- Subsoil & gypsum
Sprayed Concrete
- Concrete is sprayed onto a form
- Some equipment cost, not a lot
- Very fast construction method, used for emergency housing after natural disasters
- Curvy artistic shapes are readily achieved with sprayed concrete
Papercrete
- Mixture of pulped paper, cement, sand, subsoil, plus assorted optional additives
- Many mix variations, some giving high insulation, some high strength
- A wide range of waste materials can be incorporated into papercrete.
- Main article
There are 3 main ways to build walls with it:
- Papercrete blocks stacked with papercrete mortar and papercrete render
- Papercrete poured into plywood shuttering
- Lath rendered with papercrete is another way to build papercrete walls. A tyrolean sprayer is often used
Earthcrete
- Subsoil & cement
- Good for paths
- Good under gravel drives to prevent muddy sinks
Superadobe
- Bags filled with stabilised earth used as building blocks
- Barbed wire included in wall joints for earthquake resistance.
Rammed Earth
- Aka pise de terre
- Earth, sand, gravel, clay
- A stabiliser is also needed in our wet climate, such as cement, lime or animal blood.
- Continous build, no blocks
- Poor strength requires thick walls
Roman concrete
- Lime, pozzolan, sand & stone.
Sod
- Turf strips are stacked.
- Contains topsoil, grass and roots.
- The plant fibres stabilise & reinforce the soil
- Rendered, often with mud plaster.
- A low material cost walling option if enough grassed ground is available
- Earth constructions require large roof overhang to keep them sufficiently dry
Straw Bale
- Bales are stacked & the wall plastered
- Bales may be load bearing, or a separate wood frame can be used with bale infill.
- Very low cost
- Very fast construction method
- Good thermal insulation
- Excellent sound absorption.
- Leaks must be repaired immediately to avoid rot
- Can be built by children
- Makes very thick walls
- Render & plaster cover prevents combustion
Rice hull bag walls
- Steel mesh forms each side of the wall
- Space filled with polypropylene bags of rice husks
- Barbed wire included in courses
- Good insulation
- Quick construction
Mudbrick
- Unfired clay bricks
- Short life expectancy, around 30 years
Earthship
- Stacked tyres are filled with rammed earth, wall then mud rendered
- No material cost
- Ugly
- Bulky
Drinks can walls
- Interior non loadbearing wall
- Wall is plastered, the plaster attaches to the ring pulls
Hollow Ceramic Blocks
- Lightweight lattice-like fired clay blocks are stacked
- Wall then rendered
Ceramic Pots
- Plant-pot like ceramic pots are stacked
- Wall then rendered
- Popular in Spain
Half Timbered
- Vertical wood studs with close spacing
- Mud plaster infill
- Historic construction method for external walls
Wattle & Daub
- Timber stud framework
- Woven twig fencing panels (wattle)
- Plastered with mud plaster (daub)
- Historic construction method for internal & external walls
Dungwall
- Fence posts with 8"x2" T&G
- Primarily used to retain earth
- When not nailed to the posts, they require force on one side to keep them in place
- Fast to build