[Greenbuilding] [BULK] FW: Aerated Autoclaved Concrete

[Jeannie Babb Taylor]

Beatrice:- It's not hard to notch the blocks for wiring and switches, etc
but it does need to be done (there are various ways) and I think it gets
overlooked in the analysis of how "easy" (cheap) the houses are to build.
It's time consuming whichever way you chose to do it,  and if you furr out
the walls to make that stuff easy,  you lose some of the value the thermal
mass if the system, as I understand it. 

Jeannie's response:  Can you explain this last statement?  It doesn't make
sense to me.  

Beatrice: -Attachment of whatever you'll want to attach to the inside,
outside -- both in construction and also for the life of the house is a
completely different animal than Americans are accustomed to (unless you
lived in NYC prewar apts with plaster walls....which only a few of us have
in our backgrounds) .  It may seem minor,  but I think it's something the
enduser or the construction person who plans to finish out these houses
needs to be aware of.   I've talked to some people here finishing up their
aac house and it seems like some of this took them by suprise. 

Jeannie's response:  I would consider this more a "benefit" than a
"consideration."  One of the things I love about living in an AAC home is
that I can hang pictures ANYWHERE!  I don't have to look for a stud.  I
remember when we hung our kitchen cabinets, the cabinets on the AAC exterior
wall were easy to hang.  My husband had a terrible time with the cabinets on
the interior wood wall, because of course you can only hang the cabinets on
the studs spaced 16oc, and they don't always end up being where you need
them.  You can buy special fasteners, but sheetrock screws work great for
most jobs.

Beatrice:  2.  I am an owner builder about to build my second house near
Eugene Oregon.  (First was 18 years ago , more like a cabin.)  I have
designed for ICF's, with a little trepidation about the "cost" to the planet
of this.  My choices are a little skewed by how different systems lend
themselves to my personal abilities.  (i'm smart and I'm experienced as a
cabinetmaker,  but I'm also 50 yrs old and weigh 135 lbs,  so I need to be
able to work this project with a helper...) I am pretty convinced that an
aac block house would probably be a better choice in a number of ways,  but
I'm really not sure if I can build it comfortably bcause I'd need to use 12
inch blocks.  

Jeannie's response:  Depends how physically fit you are.  My husband
constructed our house with 12" blocks (laid 12" wide in basement and 12"
tall in top stories.)  But he is a very big, strong and fit guy.  I know
that I could NOT do this kind of lifting all day long.  Even the 8x8x24
would be very difficult for me.  But I'm a super-sedentary office worker, so
I would not extrapolate my weakness to all women.

Beatrice:  THe aac people trash ICFs based on: 
1) leaking basements
2) gassy foam (sometimes suggesting poor air quality in house, sometimes
it's about getting out if there's a fire)
3) bugs will infiltrate the foam.

Jeannie's response:  I know very little about ICF basements.  I can tell you
that my AAC basement does not leak.  The worse water problem we ever had
down there was when a pipe burst because an animal tore off a vent door in
the crawlspace.  The basement is BELOW the crawlspace (hard to explain but
we live on a hill) so naturally the water poured through the door that goes
from the crawlspace into the basement.  We had several inches of standing
water on the slab.  It was awful!  But we all pitched in to vacuum and
squeegee the water out, and I'm happy to say there was no damage except some
wet sheetrock.  Even so, the sheetrock never did mold or anything.  I should
mention that we have lived here for 5 years.

Jeannie