Brique Alveolaire

[Artois]

Would be most grateful to hear from anyone with experience of building with Briques alveolaire?

We plan to buy them from Brico Depot but they have been unable to tell us what colle to use and insisted that they should be cemented.

 We were advised that a special tool was required for applying the colle but the staff now tell us such an implement does not exist.

 They were unable to tell us how much they weigh for tranportation purposes, only that the hire van will only take one pallet load per trip (60). Given that we require 1,200 it is becoming rather a mammoth task.

Off to the dechetterie to take a 3rd load of torchis, looking forward to a night or two without the front wall, fingers crossed it doesn't rain.

Artois

[napoleon]

Could you please let me know what "briques aveolaire" and "torchis" look like? Thanks,

[Deimos]

My local Point-P has a stand in their showroom section a year or so ago and the pictures looked like the "glue" was being applied with a sort of roller. I would doubt that cement would be any good. I seem to remember that the layer of "glue" is actually pretty thin (compared to cement with bricks).

To be honest I did not look that closely and have no personal experience but I would double/treble check as I would have doubts about normal cement. Maybe call in at a local builders merchant and ask what they would sell you for the job ?

Ian

[moonraker]

All you need to know about "briques alvéolaires"!

http://www.init-environnement.com/?page=cloisonex

 

[Artois]

Torchis is similar to wattle and daub.  The walls were constructed on a timber framework and then straw, mud and possibly cow dung applied. A lime wash was applied. A very good material in fact, strong insulative and environmentally friendly.

Our house is approximately 200 years old and I suppose everything has a limited life. We recently found our doors wouldn't shut and our upstairs floor was sagging. On closer inspection we found the timber frame in large parts of the wall had rotted to a powder due to water ingress. We are now rebuilding all our walls. We have chosen to use Briques Alveolaire for speed and ease of use and their good insulative values. For further info I found the website posted here very useful.

[Artois]

Thank you Moonraker, a very interesting website. Maybe we should be using torchis again.

There is a move in this area to encourage people to re-torchis their houses but sadly it is all rather late as most has disappeared during recent years, much of it replaced by unrendered blockwork.

Artois

[Artois]

Thank you Ian.

Point P do indeed stock them and have been helpful. They use the Porotherm system.

We have opted for the Brico depot ones for financial reasons (they are half the price) but of course you get what you pay for. They are slightly less insulative. The worst aspect of course is the complication of dealing with BricoDepot. They don't deliver and it was going to cost us 450 euros to charter a lorry with an extra 200 for a forklift at the other end. We are now making 11 trips in the Brico hire truck, not an easy option.

We were also mis-sold a product which turned out to be a cement which of course fell in the holes. We also soon worked out that even with the correct product you really need the special roller tool to apply the colle.

BricoDepot  now tell us the glue will not be available until the new year! They are still selling the blocks of course but hopefully no longer recommending cement? In the meantime we are off to Point-P to purchase the colle

Artois.

 

[napoleon]

Thanks for the added information. Very useful website.