Hobson's Choice

There being a severe shortage of aircrete blocks, companies are charging a hefty premium for them and estimating the end of July at the earliest for the delivery of fresh supplies.

Not getting the blocks until late summer or autumn does not give us enough time to build the plinth walls; raise the cruces; fix the bales and get the outer lime render on and cured before the weather deteriorates and the frosts arrive. So if we wait until we can get aircrete blocks we will have to mothball the project until next year.

There is no problem in getting dense concrete blocks. Using dense concrete blocks will have a negative impact on the thermal conductivity of the walls but with the amount of insulation we are going to have this impact will be negligible. On the positive side using this type of block will give us increased thermal mass storage. Dense concrete blocks are also MUCH heavier meaning that the blockwork will be much more physically demanding.

This afternoon PayPal informed me that Less2Build have now cancelled the order for the aircrete blocks and issued a refunded. This is a weight off my mind and allowed us to order some concrete blocks, cement and builder's sand for delivery on Monday.

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