simprolit ^®

Simprolit blocks for facade and partition walls clearly distinguish themselves from other Simprolit products by their unique relation between: quality - low thermal conductivity - durability -good soundproofing - good waterproofing - small weight of structure - cost-effectiveness. These blocks have excellent sanitary-epidemiological properties.

Walls made of Simprolit blocks are declared as ''dry'' (with less than 4% humidity). In case of plumbing damage and excessive water flow, wet walls dry quickly without permanent loss of physical properties. When exposed to flood, walls made with Simprolit blocks do not absorb water capillary the way that brick, Siporex, gas concrete, expanded clay concrete or other similar materials do (walls made of these other materials absorb water all along their height and afterwards it takes a long period of time for them to dry - sometimes more than a year).

On the other hand, level of water absorbed by Simprolit blocks is just 3-4 cm higher than the flood level and after the removal of the excess water Simprolit block walls dry very quickly which is a fact that has been certified by the lab tests conducted at the Institute for materials and structures - Faculty of Civil engineering in Belgrade.

In the class of light-weight concretes Simprolit polystyrene concrete is one of the lightest composites and the weight of Simprolit products is up to several times smaller then the weight of similar materials. By using Simprolit blocks for facade and partition walls the load carried by structural members becomes considerably reduced, consequently reducing dimensions, required reinforcement and weight of these members which has direct influence on the price of the building.

Thanks to the light-weightiness of the material, building with Simprolit blocks is very suitable in case of adaptation of existing structures or additional building of attics on the top of flat-roof structures. As a rule, when adapting a flat-roof structure the total load of the adapted or additionally built part of the structure is smaller than the weight of all layers of a conventional flat roof - so there is no need for any foundation strengthening.

For example, if it is possible to add two extra stories to the existing structure using other materials, it can be shown that with Simprolit it is possible to build three stories keeping the same weight of the additional structure. Also, the light-weightiness of Simprolit blocks together with simple and fast construction method makes it possible to perform the adaptation without moving out the tenants of the adapted building, which often represents a large difficulty for other similar methods using lightweight materials and prefabricated metal or concrete bearing elements.

The fact to be particularly underlined is that Simprolit blocks have no real competition in their category when it comes to building rooms subjected to increased humidity - such as kitchen or bathroom walls including plumbing.

Practically, Simprolit blocks do not burn because polystyrene granules coated with special admixtures and cement vaporize under high temperatures, leaving only concrete "truss" which in prolonged fire conditions becomes porous cement stone - keeping almost all of its physical and thermo-technical properties. The smallest "rib" thickness of a hollow Simprolit block amounts to 4 cm and because of that the fire-resistance tests were conducted using 11 cm thick 3-layer samples (4 cm of Simprolit on both outer sides and 3 cm thick styrofoam plate in the middle).

Having in mind that the tested samples had no plaster coating at all and that they kept their fire-resistance for more then 90 minutes, it is obvious that a wall made of Simprolit blocks and plastered on both sides would remain fire-resistant for far more then 90 minutes.

Walls made of Simprolit blocks, filled with concrete, have high strength and seismic resistance - a degree higher then walls made using other block types. Simprolit walls remain resistant even after a very long exploitation period (100 and more years). Using Simprolit blocks, it is possible to build light-weight but also highly-resistant walls, because Simprolit blocks possess vertical and horizontal cavities which allow fitment of steel reinforcement together with monolith concrete.

It is well known that there is a contradiction between structural members' bearing capacity and thermo-insulation ability (bearing capacity demands higher density of the material, and higher density implies lesser thermo-insulation ability). This problem could be solved using Simprolit blocks - they are made of super light-weight polystyrene concrete (max. density 200kg/m3) having also high thermo-insulation ability.

On the other hand, full bearing capacity of walls built with Simprolit blocks is achieved by filling the hollow spaces with concrete, depending only on the applied class of concrete.

The total weight of Simprolit wall is small, regardless of the fact that Simprolit blocks must be filled up with concrete. For example, a 225mm thick outer wall made of Simprolit blocks (200mm thick Simprolit block, 15mm inner plaster and 10mm outer plaster) weighs together with plaster and concrete 165 kg/m2 (Simprolit block itself weighs around 3.1 kg/piece or less then 27,5 kg/m2 of a wall), and a 140mm thick partition wall made of Simprolit partition blocks (120mm thick Simprolit block and 20mm plaster on both sides) weighs together with plaster and concrete 121 kg/m2 (Simprolit block itself weighs less then 2 kg/piece or less then 20 kg/m2 of a wall).

Comparing the weight of a (60% thicker) plastered facade wall made of 20cm thick Simprolit blocks (121 kg/m2) with the weight of plastered partition wall made of 12 cm thick bricks (296 kg/m2) it is obvious how light-weight Simprolit walls really are.

Concrete poured into hollow spaces of Simprolit blocks contributes not only to the bearing capacity of Simprolit walls but also to many other important properties, such as sound-insulation, summer stability, thermal capacity, etc.