Polystyrene concrete lintels and their features

Among all types of lightweight concrete, polystyrene concrete has a significant place, a feature of which is the highest strength. Therefore, it is used not only as a heater, but also as a structural material, including in the manufacture of such critical building elements as window and door lintels. Next, we consider the main features of these products and their area of ​​application.

What is polystyrene concrete

So, first of all, let's get acquainted with such material as polystyrene concrete, since not everyone knows what it is. Unlike ordinary concrete, it includes not only sand and cement, but also granulated polystyrene. Since the thermal insulation properties are largely dependent on the density, the presence of such granules can reduce the bulk weight and thermal conductivity of polystyrene concrete products.

Basic properties

I must say that aerated concrete, foam concrete and polystyrene concrete belong to the same class of cellular concrete. The differences between them lie in the fact that the structure of the first two materials contains cells filled with air, and in the structure of polystyrene concrete there are warm granules.

Now compare the characteristics of these types of cellular concrete:

As a result, a polystyrene concrete wall is obtained by 10 or even 15 percent "warmer" than a similar wall from other cellular concrete. In addition, it should be noted moisture resistance of this material.

If, when moistening foam and gas concrete, voids are filled with water, then polystyrene does not let moisture through. Due to these properties, its frost resistance is several times higher than gas and foam concrete, and moisture absorption is several times less.

Virtues

Among the main advantages of the material, as already mentioned above, we can highlight its strength. Unlike other porous concretes, it carries loads well, as a result of which it is widely used as a structural material, which, in addition to its main function, provides thermal insulation. An example of that is the jumper.

In addition, polystyrene concrete is the only material from the group of cellular concrete that can work in bending. This property is due to its high plasticity. Even under the influence of large loads, it does not crack, but only deforms.

Among its other advantages, it is possible to single out such moments as:

• Low price compared to other building materials;
• Durability.
• Ease of processing. If special equipment is used to process reinforced concrete, for example, often during construction work, cutting of reinforced concrete with diamond circles or diamond drilling of holes in concrete is performed, then for the material in question you can use ordinary tools, even hand tools. In particular, it can be cut with a regular hacksaw.
• Due to their low weight, they have a negligible load on the foundation..

All these properties make this material almost ideal for the manufacture of construction of lintels.

disadvantages

As for the drawbacks, they include low vapor permeability, as a result of which, in rooms with walls made of polystyrene concrete, it is necessary to use additional ventilation.

In addition, it has a high shrinkage in comparison with ordinary concrete. This indicator is about 1 mm / meter. However, all these disadvantages are not displayed on the quality of the beams.

Application area

Reinforced polystyrene concrete lintels are used when laying exterior walls above door, window and other openings. As mentioned above, they perform both structural and insulating functions.

Due to the low weight and high frost resistance of these products, they can be used in conjunction with many modern wall materials.

In particular, they are widely used in the construction of houses from:

• Foam block;
• Bricks;
• Gas blast;
• Arbolita and others

However, only the scope of their application is not limited to private housing construction. As a rule, during the construction of frame multi-storey buildings, the external walls are erected from porous blocks. Accordingly, lightweight windows will also come in handy.

Note! These jumpers can be used in regions in which the estimated air temperature is up to -46 degrees Celsius.

Special features

The main requirement for lintels is strength, since they need to withstand their own weight, as well as the weight of blocks that lie above the opening. Therefore, for their manufacture of these beams, according to GOST R 51263-99, they use concrete with a density not lower than D300-D600.

Among their features are the following points:

• High precision mold tolerances are ± 1.5-3.0 mm. Due to this, installation can be performed on glue with a thickness of seams of 3-5 mm. The small thickness of the seams allows to improve the heat-shielding properties of the wall.
• Low weight - which allows installation of beams by two or three workers with their own hands, without using lifting equipment.
• The service life is up to 100 years.
• The sizes of polystyrene concrete lintels can be very different, which allows you to choose the most suitable product depending on the parameters of the constructed structure.

Note! The instruction for the installation of jumpers assumes the area of ​​their support on the wall at least 200 mm on each side.

Here, perhaps, are all the main features of polystyrene concrete jumpers.

Conclusion

The jumpers made of polystyrene concrete are widely used in construction. This is due to their unique properties and the many advantages of this type of concrete, such as good strength, low cost and ease of installation.

In addition, in most cases, they do not need additional weatherization. From the video in this article, you can get additional information on this topic.