Among the technological improvements of hollow bricks, the insulation qualities, not only thermal, but also acoustic and water-repellent, as well as fire resistance. Masonry designs have been developed that allow increasing the thermal insulation values of the walls, reaching the levels required by the new current legislation without the need to add insulating materials.
In parallel, load-bearing bricks have been developed that, at the same time, are thermoefficient, resulting in walls with an excellent cost/benefit ratio.
With regard to installation efficiency, it is worth mentioning the appearance of modern sleeve placement mortars and single-layer plasterswhich have accelerated the pace of placement, reducing work times.
With the objective of standardizing this methodology for the calculation of total thermal resistance of hollow bricks, and that can be verified by third parties, in April of this year the IRAM published the IRAM standard 12738: “Masonry of hollow bricks or ceramic blocks: Calculation procedure by numerical methods to determine the thermal transmittance of a wall.”
Applying this standard, it can be determined, through the use of calculation software existing on the market, the thermal transmittance of ceramic brick enclosures.
“From now on, the ceramic brick producing industry, which has been offering increasingly more efficient products from the point of view of thermal performance, has a valuable tool both for the development of new designs as to guarantee the user the characteristics of these”, stand out from Unicer, a civil association that represents ceramic brick manufacturers from several provinces.
Efficient load-bearing bricks
Unicer member industries made significant investments in the development of a new product standard: the “Klimablock”, a load-bearing brick that allows the insulation levels required by current regulations to be achieved without the need to add other materials to the wall. It is worth clarifying that the traditional 18 cm load-bearing brick does not meet the hygrothermal requirements.
By using the Klimablock you obtain 27 cm thick walls and a thermal transmittance of 0.80 W/m²K, which meets the “B” insulation level in most of the Argentine territory and, at the same time, meets the requirements of the Regulation for masonry constructions CIRSOC 501-E (2023), being suitable for the construction of structures load-bearing up to 10 meters high (PB + 2 floors). With the advantage of its availability in any corralón in the country.