Lorenz

Reminds me of a weld, if you wire brush if off before painting it would show up if it was, which I hope is unlikely. Condensation is the thing indoors.

Would it get a mortgage with all that spray in foam? Liked the stonework, but the leadwork is the worst I have ever seen, I guess they did it, hope it does not get windy there and that the birds stay away. When they had to demolish it, I think they should have drawn new plans up, I was not taken by it.

I had some to look at and it did not seem that different from AAC blocks strength wise, and I know they can have issues if not done well. Wondering why no one has come out with a competitive foamed glass block? Also why no more highly foamed for better insulation? I have worked with microspheres and there was a similar but larger bubbled glass product available, though I don't seem to be able to find it at the moment. Problem is something to stick them together without creating other issues, I guess.

Has Foamglass ever been used for the main structure, I saw some listed a while back and thought, are prices coming down, as it seemed relatively cheap. But would it work, I know they can dint etc, but once a skin is on them, should be OK and they should not have a problems as they are load bearing. Would need some protection for point loads and such, but....

But it should be thin joint.... this looks like an apprentice has had a go?

Tape and plaster over is one way passive wise.

Someone who does not understand or care what aircrete is about, dreadful.

I did not know it was edible, but look it up on the net, should have large hollow stems, used to make all sorts from it as a kid.

If you look at the link I sent it should explain somewhere. There will be more activity on the outside wall, so more damage.

You not heard of the volcano erupting on La Palma, if it slips CO2 will drop in the UK and many countries bordering the Atlantic, if it blows it could cause a mini ice age. Just read some new research on Krakatoa and it says it caused a mini ice age from 1300s to the 1900s and we are just coming out of it, had some colder spots in the middle too.

Looks like an old problem and they have used paint to try and make it look better. Sadly this chap past away a couple of years back, but his site is a good place to start in understanding things; Damp Wall & Wet Cellar - Rising Damp Scam, Saltpeter & Capillarity in Old Buildings - a Hoax of Moisture & Salts (konrad-fischer-info.de)

How have we eliminated the risk of a mini ice age?

We are with Calor gas and it has been costing a fortune, have asked if it was leaking, but they said no. However a couple of months ago they came to check things a few times and replace the anodes. We looked yesterday and it was still at 60%, that is a huge drop in consumption over previous months and looks like it will last into November, it is a couple of months at least since we last had it filled. Last summer we were having to fill it every couple of months and in winter it was costing a hundred a week at least. So I am hoping there will not be an increase, but on the face of it, it looks like we will be buying much less of it this year.

Octopus and Bulb were supposed to being going bust last week.......

So it looks like the ground around your house is higher and when you have repointed using portland? it will have created a waterproof trough stopping the water and forcing it to come up through the inside of the walls. Also that reminds of a granite barn I had at the old place and part of the slope it was on, was dug away and a hole knocked through to get tractors in. Originally they must have dug a trench and rolled in boulders and chucked in mortar to make the foundation. So it looks to me like the builders have dug down around the barn so that they could get 2 floors inside or something like that. So the old ground level will have been higher.

May have happened already? There is the EPS mesh sandwich panels, which have been used in the UK. A friend of mine had some offcuts from a big project in Doncaster that used them about 15 years ago. I don't know what the logic is behind them, because they are full or cold bridges, so do not make sense to me at all, and they do not need to use metal to tie the sides together. So there must be some kind of advice for architects using foam blocks for building. Here is a company in the US; PROJECTS | strata (strataus.com)

My sister's old house which was built in the 30s or maybe post war had very shallow foundations, or they stepped in, instead of out, as when we dug down to plant, there were only one or 2 courses underground, that surprised me. I am not suggesting them for your place, just what I had at an old place. It is what can happen, given the wrong things being done. If the place is old, they will have used lime mortar which kind of throws water out, modern portland cement mortar blocks water, so depending on the type of building material it can come out through that and destroy it, brick stone or whatever. This will also depend on what is in the ground that the water brings with it. You sound to have only a very slight problem, at my old place there was a pond across the road, maybe 40 metres or more away and in spring the water table would rise and then there would be a moisture problem. Around this old place, there had been a cobbled strip, which will have been bedded in lime mortar to take rainwater away from the foot of the walls, this may have been done prior to gutters being used, or may have been a belt and braces approach.

They do build them several stories high from what I have seen. They have a reinforced outer skin, similar to ferrocement but using synthetic fibres these days, so similar types of structure have withstood Hurricanes and debris smashing into them in the States, so I do not think they will have a problem with high winds, especially as the surrounding more conventional builds were blown away. With the Polish example mentioned, they mostly seem to line it with plasterboard, but many are treated very much the same as the exterior with what I think of as a ferrocement type layer. I prefer this reinforced stucco type layer, as I may be wrong, but I think of it as stronger and having better characteristics than plasterboard. Depending on how the plasterboard is applied and how a fire might start, it might be burning behind the board before people become aware of it. There is a website somewhere, I came across it a few years ago, which lists different innovations in Styrofoam type buildings, but I have not come across it in recent searches.

But surely you want it to be permeable, to cast off rain quickly but to let moisture out, otherwise it is just adding to a problem and forcing water up through the old structures wall and wherever else it can find a way to escape?

I have made an enquiry and wait to see if they answer, I did look at it in the past and toyed with the idea, but moved back to the UK. I think it lends itself to any design possibility, it is just a question of whether it is doable in the UK. I would like a passive Off Grid set up and this could work with that, and could dress it up to look like any style of building.

Pictures would help and the topography, but how will a thick layer of anything help?

Russia did a deal, where Crimea was transferred to Ukraine, but Ukraine lost valuable farmland, I have not heard of Russia returning this farmland to Ukraine? Russia occupied parts of Georgia. Russia still occupies part of Latvia. Russia still occupies Kaliningrad which should have been returned to Lithuania, and so on.. half of Finland

Nato has taken in countries that wanted to join, Russia has annexed areas of other countries against their will, there is a big difference. All of the EU. Factories are built and or machinery purchased for them with EU funds and then the venture collapses or never works and the place is shipped over the border. Continously milking the EU. Gas is power, carrot and stick.

Does it have a foundation? Lime mortar springs to mind. I had a building where they had covered the half basement floor with a thin layer of concrete, the results are a textbook of everything that could go wrong, being brickwork it was very bad. Spalling, bricks being pushed apart by the lime mortar expanding from crystal growth and just on and on. I saw a similar basement tanked in another property and just thought wow, that is going to be a really expensive problem for someone in the future.

They have been expanding ever since the break up. They are playing with the EU, they have the eu pay for new equipment, then ship it over the border to Russia. Now prices have risen they will be making more money, carrot and stick.