In the good old days, just a few years ago, it was impossible to find skilled labor to do home improvement projects. It was time when your local contractor was a millionaire. Soon after reality set in and the overinflated construction skills came back to earth. If you have been contemplating putting up that concrete wall now is the time. You can surely get many good bids and expediency in the construction of your new block wall.

The seemingly simple task of building a block wall is actually a little more complicated from selecting the concrete block to getting it just right, it is a complicated process. Often the most complicated process is getting the building permit. The coveted building permit from your city or county which often seems impossible to get. The reason is that there is a lot of technical detail and information needed to show a building planning commission what you intend to build.

Concrete blocks are classified as solid or hallow. The hollow concrete blocks are those blocks that are 75% or more hollow of the whole. The strength of the concrete varies quite a bit as well. The strength of the concrete block is determine by the materials that go into making the block. The weight of the concrete is generally categorized as either regular weight or or lightweight. The distinction in weight comes from the type of concrete used. There is concrete that weighs 125 pounds per cubic foot and there is concrete that weighs 85 to 105 pounds per cubic foot.

The installation of concrete block walls has to account for such things as shrinkage, temperature expansion and contraction and excessive stress forces. All of these things can cause cracking in the concrete block wall. The cracking can be controlled to some extent by taking into account these factors and using the proper blocks of the proper moisture content and by using sufficient reinforcement of the horizontal joints. The reduce cracking vertical reinforcement is often used at intervals. To prevent moisture invasion mortar joints should be made in concave shape and should be weather tight.

Join reinforcement is done by one of two techniques. The two types of reinforcement are called truss type and ladder type. If it is a load bearing concrete block wall then truss type joint reinforcement should be used, because it does better in load distribution of the load bearing walls. Concrete block walls can be insulated by using perlite or foam to fill the voids inside the concrete walls.

Retaining walls built from concrete block need to have a concrete footing to level the wall and to better distribute the weight of the loads to the subsoil. Often the concrete footing and the wall are reinforced. The voids in the concrete block are filled with grout or mortar and the top of the wall is capped. The depth of the retaining wall needs to be deep enough below the frost line. The outside alignment tolerance for a block wall is +/- 1/2\”, the horizontal alignment is +/- 1/2\” in the total wall, and the vertical alignment (plumb) is +/- 3/4\” in the total wall.

You need not know all these details perse, but it helps if you know what it entails to build a wall, otherwise what would ask your contractor and how would know if he knows what he is doing ?

Author Bio: Getting bids for your concrete block retaining walls or other home improvement project.

Category: Home Management
Keywords: concrete wall, concrete block