Insulated Cement foam block
Insulated concrete blocks can accommodate many walls in a home. Their cores are filled with insulation (except for those cells requiring structural steel reinforcing and concrete infill), which raises the average wall R-value.
Concrete Block Insulation
A wall’s thermal resistance, or its R-value, is its ability to slow the transfer of heat from one side to the other. Concrete block makes a cost-effective and structurally sound wall, but it has little thermal resistance. Depending on the density of the blocks, an 8-inch thick block wall without any other type of insulation has a thermal resistance value between R-1.9 and R-2.5.
Types of concrete block insulation
There are several ways to incorporate foam insulation – such as polystyrene, polyisocyanurate or polyiso, and polyurethane – into concrete blocks. The hollow cores of concrete blocks can be filled by pouring and/or injecting loose foam beads or liquid foam.
Polystyrene
Polystyrene concrete is a relatively new building material that has broad applications and solves many problems of traditional concrete blocks. It is made from a combination of different materials to create a product that is durable, lightweight and offers lots of architectural design potential. Different manufacturers have different combinations of materials, polystyrene concrete is generally made from a mix of cement silica aggregate, recycled polystyrene granules and modifying agents such as setting accelerators. The end result is a product that offers both construction and insulation properties.
A polystyrene block can be used solely as an insulation system for new or existing buildings, or it can be used as a construction material in a variety of ways. Because the bricks are lightweight they reduce the labor required for construction of masonry walls, and at the same time, increase the speed of construction.