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 concrete block
• Medium density block
• Aerated or AAC block, less accurately known as breeze blocks.
  • fast & easy to work with
  • less sound absorption
  • must be rendered when otuside to protect against frost damage
• Hollow concrete block
• Patterned & decorative blocks used for garden walls
• Making Concrete Blocks

Reconstituted Stone Blocks

• Stone dust, cement & pigment.

Partition Wall

Wood or steel frame, plus walling sheets, any of:

• Plasterboard, the usual choice
• Plywood or OSB, good for workshops. Can be plasterboard covered for fire protection
• Lath & Plaster, common in historic properties
• Clayboard
• Fibre cement sheet

See

• [[Stud wall]
• Stud wall noise reduction

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
• This slows down the build rate a fair bit, hence its unpopularity
• Hydraulic lime is quick to set

Gabions

• Steel mesh cage filled with stone
• Useful for retaining slopes that don't support a house
• Widely used to retain river banks
• Not fireproof, so not usable for habitable accommodation (it can be fireproofed, but is then subject to hidden rusting)

Stone

Types of stone wall:

• Sawn (smooth faced blocks)
• Coursed, blocks of mixed sizes a multiple of a unit of height
• 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
• Shuttering ply is mostly used
• Diesel is an effective release agent
• Polystyrene moulds are sometimes used, the polystyrene staying in place as insulation

Glass brick

• Transmits light
• Insulation not as good as double glazing
• White cement mortar usually used for joints
• Glass blocks require steel reinforcement in some of the joints, and an expansion strip round the outside

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 (fibreglass must be ASR resistant)
• The render is a structural element
• Quicker & weaker than a mortar laid block wall

Adobe

• Clay suboil, sand, straw or dung etc
• Blocks

Cob

• Subsoil, sand, straw, lime
• Continuous construction, no blocks involved.

Cast Earth

• Subsoil & gypsum
• More info

Sprayed Concrete

• Concrete is sprayed onto a form
• Tyrolean sprayer usually used, though it can be done by hand
• Very fast construction method, used for emergency housing after natural disasters
• Curvy artistic shapes are readily achieved with sprayed concrete
• Wet cellulose insulation can be similarly sprayed

Papercrete

• Mixture of pulped paper, cement, sand, subsoil, plus assorted optional additives
• Many mix variations, some optimised for insulation, some for strength, some for minimal cost
• 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.
• http://www.calearth.org/

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.
• Cooked rice has also been found in exceptionally long lasting mortars of this type

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 timber frame is 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
• Drink cans are stacked with wet concrete between them, forming a concrete lattice wall
• Wall is plastered, the plaster attaches to the ring pulls

Hollow Ceramic Blocks

• Lightweight lattice-like fired clay blocks are stacked, with or without thin bed mortar
• 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 infilled with 8"x2" T&G boards
• 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
• Rot prone, unpopular in Britain

See Also

• Walls
• Insulation
• Plastering
• Mortar Mixes
• Wiki Contents
• Wiki Subject Categories