Discover Civil may | Page 60

The Material air pollution. There are no thermal bridges, gaps for things like studs where Rvalues drop, as there are in standard construction. AAC is easily routed for utilities although electricians and plumbers may not carry routers with them or be used to that technique. There have been natural disasters where AAC structures are the only surviving buildings. Insurance costs are lower. They are popular in hotel buildings because of their soundproofing capability. All building waste can be reprocessed. First advantage is the blocks are very uniform in shape and are normally equal to six to ten numbers of normal modular brick of 4x4x8 inches. This translated into uniformity in brickwork, in both inside and outside faces of wall. Plus the added advantage of fast masonry. One can achieve up to five times fast progress with ACC/ CLC blocks in comparison to normal bricks. The uniform shape requires very thin mortar layer between blocks, the joinery mortar is as all know is a fairly costly material being 1:4 mix of cement and sand. The even surfaced wall also requires very thin plaster on both sides which is also a very cement intensive material and thus lot of cost saving is done. Many builders are nowadays preferring "Gypsum Plaster" directly over blocks wall, thus plaster, putty is done in a single activity one needs to just get on with painting and finish the unit. The long term benefit of using AAC/ CLC blocks one obtains is by virtue of its being very good thermal insulator. If the outside temperature is say 36 degrees then the normal brick wall will maintain around 32 degrees in room, whereas the AAC/ CLC made room will have temperature around 27 degrees, the cooling heating cost is one of the major cost component in monthly maintenance expenses if any building. Saving on cooling/ heating in entire lifetime of building will be tremendously beneficial. In buildings adjoining to traffic areas like shops/ offices in city center where noise pollution is huge, or in office blocks of industries where sound is unavoidable AAC/ CLC blocks can cut the noise off very efficiently. Any construction engineer knows what’s happens to normal brick walls when groves are cut in masonry for electric and plumbing conduits. The wall almost rips off leaving lot of cracks behind. The hand chiseling or machine cutting destroys the bond between the already weak clay bricks, as a result after the plaster is done many a times cracks appear above conduit lines. The scene with AAC/ CLC blocks is entirely different. The blocks get cut very easily and the joinery does not gets disturbed at all. Normal burnt clay bricks are very disastrous to environment not only the fertile top soil is depleted but lot of carbon mono oxide is released in environment. The brick industry is told to be the third most coal consuming industry after power and steel. The Supreme Court has given directives for phasing out of burnt clay bricks. So finally it’s just matter of understanding and estimating the benefits that AAC/ CLC blocks offer. I am sure the blocks will rule the world in coming years.