Does anyone have experience with Autoclaved Aerated Concrete? (AAC)?
Question:Hi,
I checked Answers and see no discussions on AAC. Is anyone building with this? Is there anyone out there who can comment on living in an AAC home? I'm considering building my home with AAC and want some opinions and advice. Thanks!
Answers:
I believe that France has a large manufacturer of this product. There surly should be sales in the States for it because it is a very good building product.
IS SOMEONE PULLING YOUR LEG?? AUTOCLAVE REFERS TO HEATING TO STERILIZE ( THINK SURGICAL EQUIPMENT) IN A STEAM BATH UNDER PRESSURE, AERATED CONCRETE REFERS TO AIR FORCED INTO CONCRETE AS IT IS BEING POURED TO ACHIEVE POROSITY AND THEREFORE LIGHTER WEIGHT (THINK GUNITE) AS IN SPRAYED ON APPLICATIONS LIKE SWIMMING POOLS , EXTERIOR STUCCO ETC DON'T KNOW OF ANY APPLICATION WHERE THIS WOULD BE ALLOWED IN STANDARD RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION EXCEPT FOR STUCCO EXTERIOR.
It has long been widely used in Germany, and other countries. It goes under the commercial name of YTONG there. According to wikipedia, this is only starting to become popular here in the USA with 3 factories up in Feb of 2007.
In the sources you will find the wikipedia article, a link to the german site for ytong, which is in german and a link to the shanghai site for ytong, which is in english. To show what else this can be used for, I will also link to to a pdf (in german, sorry) that shows school children carving figures out of the AAC blocks.
To reply to one of the other answers, the blocks are not as weak as it seems. The static pressure the blocks can sustain is up to 1500 psi. The autoclaving is done after the concrete is aerated to cure it. Basically they make the aerated concrete, cut it into blocks and then put it in a (large) autoclave to cure the block at known pressure, humidity and temperature. Other uses for (small) autoclaves are for sterilizing medical equipment, producing aerogels and much more. So, I guess I will link to a link explaining autoclaves as well.
Hope this helps
not me
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