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Concrete and Foam Concrete 1.1.1 Concrete and Foam Concrete

Normal dense concrete has a very high compressive strength that is used for all kind of constructions where this high strength is required. Apart from this high strength, all its other properties are not so positive: It has a very low bending strength, it is very heavy, uses a lot of scarce gravel, has very low thermal insulation and limited fire resistance. It is hard to finish properly or fix something to it.

Foam concrete

In contrast to dense concrete, lightweight Foam Concrete (FC), also called Cellular Lightweight Concrete (CLC), has many excellent properties that dense concrete does not have and as such is an underrated material. It is made of cement, sand and water to which air bubbles are added to reduce the weight. The air is added in the form of pre-formed foam, produced with a foaming agent and water. The pre-formed foam looks like shaving cream and is mixed into the mortar. Foam Concrete can be made in a whole range of densities (from 200 kg/m3 – 1,800 kg/m3) to meet the specific requirements of the many possible applications. We classify Foam Concrete as such when it contains 20% or more air.

Foam Concrete

Foam concrete is an excellent building material and very suitable to make walls. The air bubbles make foam concrete very liquid and it fills the formwork completely. Added advantage is that Foam Concrete does not need vibrating. This means that walls of every shape and thickness can be made, even very thin (6cm) walls. The high liquidity and the lack of the need to vibrate means that foam concrete is very gentle on formwork.

Houses in Foam Concrete

One of the best applications of Foam Concrete is found in the industrial construction of houses. By using modern formwork systems, all the walls of one complete house can be produced in Foam Concrete in a daily cycle. Windows, doorframes, steel reinforcement, services and provisions for the roof structure can be cast into the walls. Houses can be designed and built for all conditions, for all climates, for cyclonic conditions, earthquake hazard etc.

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