However, reinforced concrete walls are normally more expensive than Besser block walls of similar dimensions. Reinforced concrete walls are extremely strong, can be built as curved walls or as straight walls, can have openings of any shape and do not need to stick to standard thicknesses as Besser blocks do. Reinforced concrete walls have to be formed up and poured and are normally built by experienced concreters. If you want to build a strong wall or retaining wall but don’t want to use Besser blocks, these are your options: The best manual we have found for the design of Besser block retaining walls is available for free from CMAA Besser Block Retaining Walls. How to Build a Besser Block Retaining WallĪ Besser block retaining wall can be built by a builder, a landscape gardener or by a professional block layer.

The best manuals for building with Besser Blocks are available at CMAA. When hollow concrete blockwork is reinforced with steel reinforcement and filled with concrete it becomes a very strong, durable external wall. If a Besser block is only supporting vertical down loads like the weight of a floor or a roof then unfilled blocks might be ok – but it is really unusual to have a Besser block wall that doesn’t need to be filled with concrete. Unfilled Besser blocks do not have much strength and so yes, Besser blocks need to be filled with steel reinforcement and concrete to make them strong enough to sideways loads like wind loads. Once the mortar has cured, a wall height of concrete block is filled with a special, flowable mix of concrete called grout (a mix of cement, sand, and water that often uses smaller stones than normal concrete) to fill all or some of the hollow cores.Ĭoncrete Besser Blocks can also be used to form retaining walls and even elevator walls in buildings up to 8 storeys. Steel reinforcement is also placed vertically in some of the hollow cores once a certain height of the block wall is built. Steel reinforcement is placed horizontally in special blocks called knockout blocks as the wall is built.

This is just a concrete glue trowelled between individual blocks to hold them together. In construction, concrete Besser Blocks are stacked in layers called courses with half a block offset in what is called a stretcher bond.īesser blocks are ‘glued’ together with cement mortar joints. 390mm long x 190mm high x 90mm wide (100 series bricks).390mm long x 190mm high x 290mm wide (300 series blockwork).You can also find Besser blocks in these sizes:

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