Concrete Walls
Why are Concrete Walls Optimum?
Concrete walls are a a strong and durable wall structure for residential and commercial purposes. The most common types of high-load capacity walls are concrete and block walls. Each have their advantages and disadvantages depending on their application. Let’s take the construction of a stem wall for example.
Stem walls are typically meant to be a vertical load-bearing structure for walls and other similar structural loads. In most cases, building a stem wall out of concrete or block works well. A concrete stem wall however has better lateral strength compared to block stem walls. Soil and water pressures surrounding stem walls can produce significant loads the deeper they are and the more water the surrounding soil tends to hold. Concrete walls overall are also more effective at water proofing since they do not contain joints like blocks do. If strength and load-capacity is a significant characteristic of your for a certain stem wall plan, a concrete wall is most likely the best solution.
In regards to thermal characteristics, concrete itself does not have a high R-value. An R-value is a measurement that depicts the strength of a material’s thermal resistivity. The higher the R-value the better thermal resistivity the material has. However a concrete wall can have layers of insulation applied to it within giving it the thermal requirements for any build.
Where concrete walls become the best options for thermal applications is in areas where there are significant temperature changes from night to day. For example, areas in Arizona that tend to get really hot at night and suddenly cool off in the day are great areas of applications for concrete walls. The reason for this is that since concrete tends to easily absorb and dissipate heat. Imagine an area surrounding a concrete structure that is cold at night, then hot in the day, then cold at night again. The first night that it is cold, the concrete wall will become cold, as the day begins to get hot, the wall is still cold from the night, so it is able to stay cool off the structure throughout the day compared to its surroundings. As nighttime approaches and the surroundings get hot, the concrete wall is now warm from the heat it absorbed throughout the hot day, and is able to keep its inhabitant warm.
Concrete Wall Reinforcement Types
Concrete wall reinforcement materials are very similar if not the same as concrete reinforcement used in concrete slabs, depending on the requirements and characteristics of the application. Where concrete walls differ the most from concrete slabs in in the many different engineering designs that are used to increase their reinforcement for their use case. For example for retention walls with high-load the use of a counterfort wall may be the best design.