Made of reinforced concrete.
You can insulate the armopoyas either during construction (this is the surest way) or some time after the end of construction.
We will not consider the reasons for not insulating a reinforced belt simultaneously with construction - there may be many reasons for this. Let's just look at all the options we know.
IMPORTANT! Insulation must be carried out only from the outside of the building!
Option 1: the width of the armopoyas is narrower than the width of the wall.
In this case, you can effectively insulate the armopoyas and, if the width permits, make insulation and further cladding flush with the cladding of the entire wall. To do this, you need to take insulation, the width of which will allow it to be placed in the gap between the reinforced belt and the wall line.
It is likely that you will have to use the EPS, because thin foam is very fragile. If the width still allows, use 80 mm foam. In order for the belt not to stand out on the facade, you need to take into account the width of the cladding: facing brick. tile or plaster.
If you use mineral wool as insulation, do not forget about the need for a ventilation gap between the mineral wool and the facing brick.
Option 2: the width of the armored belt is equal to the width of the wall, the finishing work has been completed, there is no gap between the reinforced belt and the cladding.
In this case, it is necessary to perform additional insulation along the entire facade to the height of the armopoyas. If in a two-story house a reinforced belt is made between the first and second floors and after the second floor under the Mauerlat, then two insulation belts will need to be made along the facade.
To make it look aesthetically pleasing and durable, you must follow some rules:
- To insulate the armopoyas, you can use polystyrene, for example, 80 mm thick - brand PSB-S 25. The height of the insulation belt is calculated as follows: 15 cm + the height of the armopoyas + 15 cm. The insulation is attached 15 cm above the upper and below the lower lines of the reinforced belt.
- How to properly prepare walls for insulation, how to fix polystyrene, how to reinforce it with a mesh and then plaster - we told in great detail with a photo in the article
- For the durability of the insulation belt, it is imperative to place an ebb with a drip in its upper part (the ebb is also used when installing windows to protect the protruding base). The ebb is necessary to drain rain or melt water from the insulation belt for your armored belt and is placed not horizontally, but with a slope from the wall. It is best to use a molding made of galvanized sheet steel with a polyester coating.
- To fix the ebb tide, it is necessary to make a cut in the wall above the insulation belt, wind the upper edge of the ebb tide, seal it and fix it in increments of 30 cm.
For external insulation, you can also use sprayed polyurethane foam (PPU), which can be closed from above with a metal profile. We do not recommend doing the work on your own, since it is very toxic (or rather, one of its components is toxic) and a spray installation is required - it is better to use the services of specialized companies.
Option 3: Armopoyas for the entire width of the wall, finishing work completed, there is a gap between the wall and the cladding.
Through the cladding along the line of the armored belt, it is necessary to make holes for pouring the mounting foam into the gap between the outer cladding and the wall (belt). The step between the holes is no more than 25-30 cm.
Foam one by one through one hole. That is, first seal the odd (1,3,5, etc.) holes and wait for the foam to harden. Then the even holes can be foamed. With this approach, you will be able to perform high-quality insulation of the armopoyas and reduce the cost of foam. Be sure to use professional foam - in the end it will be more profitable than re-warming after a couple of years as a result of foam shedding.
Modern materials offered by the market for thermal insulation
An unusual new (for us) material is thermos paint Isollat Is a liquid ultra-thin coating for thermal insulation of walls, facades, pipelines, building structures. A 1 mm layer of this modern material replaces 40 mm of mineral wool or 200 mm of expanded polystyrene.
Isollat, in addition to an extensive list of properties, contributes to a significant decrease in the thermal conductivity of structures. We have not used this material, but if you are interested, you can read in detail here: www.isollat.ru.
Meet, study - you might be interested in it.
Until next time, dear readers of our blog!
Warming of the armopoyas on the open veranda. In this article we will tell you how to insulate the armopoyas outside the walls of the house. We have open verandas on each side of the house. One veranda is visible in the photo. Since when building a house from gas silicate blocks, armopoy is obligatory - we made it in the form of a monolithic continuous strip along the entire perimeter of the building. We lived the first winter without the final isolation of all cold bridges. since cold weather has already set in and all insulation work has been stopped. Over the next summer, we not only insulated the basement, but also insulated the armopoyas that runs along the open veranda.
How to properly insulate a monolithic armored belt on an open veranda (outside the house)
To cut off the cold bridge at the entrance to the room - and the cold bridge in this case is a part of the reinforced monolithic belt located above the open veranda - it must be properly insulated. Before starting work, we thoroughly cleaned the reinforced concrete armored belt from construction debris, dust and dirt accumulated over the year with a stiff metal brush. The found remnants of mortar for masonry or other large irregularities were previously beaten off. A hammer or sturdy scraper is great for this. Then these places were also cleaned with a wire brush. After cleaning, we covered the entire area to be insulated with a primer. This work required "Universal Primer for Internal and External Work" or any other primer and stiff brush for facade work. 
We used 30 mm thick TechnoNikol extruded polystyrene foam sheets (EPS) as insulation in the packaging - that's enough. EPPS is a heat-insulating material that does not rot, does not swell and does not get wet, does not shrink, and is durable. Manufacturers of extruded polystyrene foam recommend it for insulating foundations, plinths, blind areas, floors, flat roofs and other structures. To isolate the cold bridge, it is enough to insulate the armopoyas at a distance of up to 1 meter from the entrance to the house. This insulation is sufficient to prevent heat loss at this point. However, for aesthetic purposes, we insulated the reinforced belt along its entire length: it is visible both from the veranda and from the street, so we decided to make it the same size (same thickness) from all sides. In order to purchase the required amount of EPS, it is necessary to calculate the area of insulation. You will also need a composition for reinforcing and fixing the EPSP slabs to a reinforced concrete beam, which is also an armored belt. We used "Glue-114" for polystyrene foam insulation boards. The rules for use and the required amount of glue can also be calculated using the instructions on the package. And the last thing you need:
- mesh for reinforcement - its area should exceed the area of insulation by 2.3 times;
- "Mushrooms" for attaching the insulation to the armopoyas.
What is the best technology to use to achieve this goal?
What materials to use?
Much will depend on the materials of the walls of the house and its design features. It will be rather difficult to consider all the possible options, so we will focus on houses that are popular in our time, built from blocks of various types and insulation made of expanded polystyrene or polystyrene foam.
To achieve an optimal result, it is important to correctly install the thermal insulation, protecting all parts of the residential building from the effects of cold.
Insulation of the house from the outside acts on the principle of a thermos that can keep the temperature inside for a long time. In a thermos, this effect is achieved partly due to the air gap surrounding the inner flask, in our case, the insulation of the house from the outside with polystyrene or expanded polystyrene will help to reduce heat loss.
The greatest effect can be achieved if you install thermal insulation during the construction process, since it is more difficult to insulate a house with high quality, if you already live in it.
As a good thermal insulation for block walls, ordinary foam or expanded polystyrene is suitable. But before proceeding with the installation, you must perform the following preparatory work:
- Put insulation on the upper armopoyas, with which the last row of foam plastic will dock.
- Hammer in the beacons for pulling the threads, along which they will be guided during the installation of thermal insulation.
- Fasten the galvanized iron guide profile along the wall at the bottom, which serves as the basis for the first row of insulation boards.
Warming armopoyas at home
For warming the armopoyas, pressed mineral wool 100 mm thick is best suited. It must be laid in such a way as to protect all structural elements of the upper part of the wall from freezing. First of all, you need to pay attention to the mortgages built into the armopoyas. After the trusses are installed and fixed in the desired position, it is necessary to cut out parts from the mineral wool in order to insulate the anchors on all sides, on which the supporting structures of the roof are held.
The space under the heels of the trusses must be filled with concrete.
Insulation elements in this case will serve as formwork.
The protection of the anchoring from the cold will not be complete if you do not close it on top with insulation.
It is also important to fill all the gaps between the insulating parts with foam.
When all the fastenings of the trusses are protected from the cold, you can cover the rest of the armopoyas with insulation, foaming the joints between the installed thermal insulation elements (1), as well as their connections with the concrete surface (2).
Installation of beacons
The next step leading to the installation of thermal insulation on the wall is the preparation of beacons that will help to correctly install the foam, creating a strictly vertical plane. For lighthouses, it is best to use 16 pieces of reinforcement about 30 cm long (4 for each wall).
The pin is driven into the wall at a distance of 10-20 cm from the corner (so as not to chip off a piece of concrete). To do this, holes are pre-drilled with a perforator to a depth of 5-10 cm, the diameter of which must correspond to the thickness of the reinforcement. One pin must be hammered in each corner of the wall, above and below.
As you can see in the two previous photos, a fishing line is stretched between the upper and lower reinforcement, which is important to set along a plumb line. Its distance from the wall should correspond to the sum of three components - this is the thickness of the foam, the thickness of the layer of the adhesive mixture and 2-3 mm of reserve, which will not allow the line to touch the installed insulation. For 100 mm foam, this distance is usually about 12-15 cm if the wall plane is sufficiently flat.
Movable horizontal lines are stretched between the vertical lines, along which they are mainly guided when installing thermal insulation.
Installation of the guide perimeter profile
The width of the galvanized profile must correspond to the thickness of the thermal insulation board. It is installed in such a way that it lies on the horizontal surface of the foundation insulation.
The profile is fastened with the “quick installation” dowels (1), having previously exposed its outer edge along the thread (2) stretched between the two lower beacons.
As you can see in the illustration, the profile is not mounted to the cinder block, but just below the level of the top of the foundation. Thus, by installing a profile with a width of 100 mm close to the concrete, you can expect that a certain space will remain between the insulation to be installed and the wall for the adhesive mixture. This is possible due to the fact that the vertical surfaces of the foundation and cinder block are not on the same level, but there is a small step between them.
If the construction of the building is such that the surface of the foundation and the wall are the same plane, or if the profile is installed above the level of the foundation, then it will be necessary to make special brackets that allow you to leave some distance between the wall and the profile during its installation.
This space must be filled with polyurethane foam.
Please note: It will not be easy to mount the profile so that its outer edge is strictly parallel to the thread, due to the fact that for the fastener you need to drill a hole in the concrete through the metal of the side wall of the profile. Deformation of the sheet metal in one place can provoke a change in the shape of the product in its adjacent parts. Therefore, when doing this job for the first time, you may have to adapt. When driving in the dowel, you should also be careful not to bend the edges of the profile, which may cause its outer side to rise.
Installing thermal insulation on the wall
When the preparatory work is completed, you can proceed with the installation of thermal insulation. For the first row of slabs, the previously installed guide profile serves as the basis. To fix the foam on the cinder block wall, use the assembly mixture intended for this, which is pre-mixed with a mixer.
The finished substance is applied in the form of several blunders on the inner side of the insulation, evenly distributing them over the surface.
When installing the first row, the lower part of the insulation slab is tilted into the guide profile, carefully bringing its top to the wall surface.
As can be seen in the photo of the installation of the first row of insulation plates, illustrating the insulation of walls from a cinder block, so that the line does not interfere with installing the foam in its place, it must be temporarily pulled back. Later, when the bloopers touch the wall, the line must be released, and gradually press down on the top of the plate until a gap of about 1-2 mm is formed between it and the thread.
Please note: Once the foam has been pressed against the wall, it should not be pulled back. Distributed under pressure in a narrow space, the thickness of the layer of the assembly mixture decreases, due to which it can no longer perform its function. Therefore, it is better to press the slab against the wall as carefully as possible in order to expose it along a string the first time.
The installation of the second row of plates is carried out in a similar way, only without a guide profile. First, the bottom of the foam is set at an angle, and then its upper part is exposed along the thread.
To reduce the likelihood of errors, you can install the second row on two lines.
When installing the second and subsequent rows of foam, it will be necessary to cut out parts from whole plates for installation in places of window and door openings.
It is also important to carry out the installation of insulation according to the principle of brickwork (each next row is shifted by half the length of the slab).
After the top row of slabs docks with the mineral wool lying on the armored belt (1), all the seams between the insulation elements should be foamed (2).
In addition, the boards need to be reinforced with plastic dowels. To do this, you need to perform the following 3 operations:
1.In the wall through the foam, drill a hole with a puncher.
2. Insert the mushroom dowel there.
3. Carefully hammer a plastic nail into the hole in the dowel.
Please note: Installation of umbrellas must be done in such a way that their caps do not rise, but are recessed by 1-2 mm in the foam.
The places where the dowels are driven in must subsequently be covered with an adhesive mixture.
Of course, the insulation of a cinder block house performed in the above way is not all that can be done to increase its energy efficiency.
You can also carry out a number of insulation measures inside the building, and install a more economical heating system in it.
Nevertheless, having carried out only external insulation in the correct way, you can already significantly save your costs during the heating season.
Aerated concrete is an excellent alternative to brick. However, unfortunately, the value of the strength index of aerated concrete blocks is much lower. The material does not hold fasteners well on its surface.
Aerated concrete masonry has its own characteristics:
- Walls must be erected on a solid foundation.
- In the process of work, it is necessary to regularly check the evenness of the structure.
- Along the entire perimeter of the building, the walls should be reinforced with a reinforced belt made of reinforced concrete.
When carrying out construction work in violation of technological rules, cracking of blocks may occur under the influence of roof pressure.
The value of the armopoyas
A reinforced belt is a monolithic structure located along the entire perimeter of the building. Armopoyas protects the walls of the house from destruction and deformation under the influence of loads. The technology of strengthening the wall surface of an object implies laying an unloading belt between the ceilings of each floor and at the place of roofing.
To ensure the functionality of the armopoyas, its structure should be:
- Continuous.
- In a ring style.
- Closed.
The main components of the armopoyas:
- Reinforcing frame.
- Concrete mix.
- Formwork or blocks.
The purpose of the structure is:
- In the distribution of the bearing load from additional floors or roofs on the walls in order to give them strength.
- To protect the foundation and walls from cracks.
- Increasing the spatial rigidity of the building.
The design ensures the strength and reliability of the load-bearing walls, increases the resistance of the structure to the effects of wind, temperature changes, seismic vibrations, soil shrinkage and the construction object itself.
Armopoyas dimensions
The dimensions of the armored belt depend on the design features of the building material to which it must be attached. The wall can be indoor or outdoor. For each category, builders consider their specific requirements for the size of the structure.
- The internal structure is reinforced with an armored belt with a width indicator corresponding to the wall thickness.
- When strengthening the house from the outside, the width of the protective belt should correspond to the width of the wall, excluding insulation and formwork.
- The minimum height of the structure is one hundred and fifty millimeters. This indicator cannot be more than the width of the wall.
Options for creating an armored belt
It is possible to install an unloading belt for walls made of aerated concrete blocks in several ways:
- With wooden formwork.
- Using additional blocks.
When comparing these two methods, it can be noted that equipping the walls with an armored belt using wooden formwork is technologically more difficult to implement. The second method, with the help of additional blocks, is much easier, but you will have to invest more funds in it due to the use of expensive building material.
The unloading belt is not laid:
- For a one-piece reinforced concrete structure.
- Under wooden floors supported by blocks.
In case, it is enough to pour concrete platforms with a thickness of five centimeters under the beams, which play a supporting role, which will reliably protect the building blocks from punching.
In reinforced concrete structures, there is no point in additional protection due to the uniform distribution of the load on the walls
Creation of an armored belt using formwork
The formwork for the unloading belt is a wooden frame. It is made from scraps of boards, fastened together on the outside.
After the complete assembly of the formwork, its lower part is attached to the wall with self-tapping screws, and the upper part - with transverse board ties with an interval of eighty to one hundred centimeters. The screed is necessary to make the structure more reliable, otherwise, when pouring concrete, it may be deformed or crushed.
Before erecting a structure, you should worry about purchasing the necessary building materials:
- Edged boards, with a minimum thickness of three centimeters and 40x40 timber for the manufacture of formwork.
- Nails for fixing the board structure to the wall.
- Flexible wire for stiffening the structure.
- Reinforcing rods with a diameter of twelve millimeters.
- Expanded polystyrene for insulation.
Used construction tools:
- Drill.
- Hacksaw.
Formwork construction technology
The technological process involves the execution of work in several stages:
- Preparation of wooden boards.
- Laying a layer of polystyrene between the wall of the house and a wooden board for insulation purposes.
- Fastening the structure to the wall with self-tapping screws or long nails.
- Additional fastening of elements of a wooden structure using self-tapping screws and wire.
- Reinforcement cage assembly. Initially, you should lay the reinforcing pins inside the wooden shields. Flexible wire is used to connect to the frame of the reinforcement. It is not recommended to fasten the reinforcement to each other by welding due to the rusting of the material inside the concrete.
- Filling with cement mortar.
Reinforcement
Reinforcement is made from reinforcement rods with a diameter of eight to twelve millimeters.
The principle of the process is:
- In the horizontal laying of rods.
- In fastening them with an overlap with a flexible knitting wire along the entire perimeter of the wall.
- In tying the joints with rings of wire with a diameter of six millimeters.
The tying of reinforcing rods should be done directly in the formwork. When finished, the reinforcement cage is heavy. When the structure is assembled separately, it will be difficult to lift and place it. Between the aerated concrete blocks and the frame of the unloading belt, it is recommended to lay a layer of stones or bricks.
1. Pouring concrete
When purchasing a dry concrete mixture, it is necessary to use a material marking of at least M200.
In the absence of products of the required characteristics in the store, you can prepare it yourself using the following proportions in the ratio of the components:
- Crushed stone - 4.8 parts.
- Cement - 1 part.
- Sand - 2.8 parts.
To increase the density of the composition, crushed stone can be replaced with gravel. After mixing the dry elements, add water in small portions, the amount of which should correspond to twenty percent of the total amount of the mixture.
The concrete pouring technology provides for work performance standards, which should be performed to obtain the desired functional result:
- Pouring must be carried out in one cycle without interruption, avoiding partial drying of the concrete layer.
- It should be avoided in the solution for pouring bubbles with a void, which in the future, when the mixture dries, will reduce the strength characteristics of the structure.
- After pouring, it is recommended to compact the concrete using a hammer drill with a special nozzle. Also, to eliminate voids in the solution, a vibrating machine is used, and if it is absent, it will be necessary to remove air bubbles by stitching the solution with fittings.
2. Construction of an unloading belt using blocks
It is not wooden structures that can serve as formwork, but blocks of U-shaped aerated concrete. A prerequisite for such a building material is the presence of an internal cavity, which is necessary for laying a frame from reinforcement and pouring concrete.
Trough-type blocks are stacked the same width as the walls. It is convenient to arrange such a belt to the outer walls due to its additional insulating function, while excluding the formation of "bridges" of cold.
3. What is required
The method is simple and requires the preliminary acquisition of building material - additional blocks ten centimeters thick. Before buying, you should calculate the required amount of material based on the planned height of the structure and the perimeter of the object.
The process of manufacturing an armored belt structure using additional blocks
- Installation of additional blocks on the wall in the usual way.
- Reinforcement of the central part of the building material.
- Filling the resulting structure with cement mortar.
Armopoyas made of bricks
The loading belt can be constructed using masonry reinforced with mesh reinforcement. It is less reliable than concrete and is applicable only for small outbuildings. To increase the strength indicators of a brick structure, it is recommended to use reinforcement or metal welded mesh.
Features of the structure:
- When using a reinforcing mesh with a cross-sectional diameter of five millimeters, it is recommended to lay it through four rows of bricks.
- The width of the structure must correspond to the thickness of the wall of the building to be treated.
- The height of the structure depends on the type of building material of the walls of the house and on the type of roof. The average size of a structure for a wall made of aerated concrete blocks is forty centimeters.
Strengthening the walls with bricks with built-in reinforcing mesh cannot fully replace the giving of reliability to structural elements using a reinforced concrete analogue.
Warming armopoyas
The most important feature of aerated concrete is low thermal conductivity, which ensures the absence of the factor of freezing of the structure built from it, even at the lowest ambient temperature. Therefore, when constructing a reinforcing structure, it is important that it does not violate the thermal insulation properties of the house.
In the cold season, as well as during periods of sharp temperature changes, condensation may occur on the reinforced belt. In order to avoid this phenomenon, it is recommended to carry out work on the insulation of the structure.
Expanded polystyrene, polystyrene foam and mineral wool can be used as insulating heat-insulating elements. In some cases, aerated concrete blocks with partitions are used. When using mineral wool, a small ventilation gap should be left between the insulation and the facing surface.
Tips for organizational work for the insulation of the object:
- When constructing a structure for the purpose of its subsequent insulation, it should be performed with an indent from the outer edge of the wall, and not across its entire width.
- The minimum width of the unloading belt should be twenty centimeters when using in-situ concrete and twenty-five centimeters when using bricks.
- The resulting free space after pouring the armopoyas should be filled with insulation and closed with a foam block, previously cut in accordance with the required dimensions.
- When filling with a cement mortar, make sure that the elements of the reinforced mesh do not touch the walls of the formwork.
- To increase the functionality of the armored belt, the reinforcement frame is installed on the surface using a level.
- The strength of concrete after pouring is promoted by periodic moistening, especially in hot weather. It is recommended to moisturize the structure every day for five days. The best effect is achieved by covering the damp surface with plastic wrap.
- It is possible to remove the formwork in a week, but it will function as intended only after two weeks, when the cement mixture completely solidifies.
- If you plan to insulate the unloading belt, then you should not do it flush with the wall. Experts recommend displacing the formwork inward for the further purpose of filling the resulting niche with insulating heat-insulating material.
- You do not need to spend money on a reinforced belt if under the foundation there is solid soil not saturated with water, brick walls, as well as when building a one-story house with wooden beams, and not reinforced concrete panels.