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England’s concrete crisis could extend to hospitals and courts, experts say (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by thehatfox@lemmy.world to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

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[–] tal@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I do kind of wonder whether it would have been cheaper to, back then, go through and seal all of this stuff against moisture, if that is possible. It sounds like what kills it is exposure to moisture.

If they're already starting to collapse and inspections are finding a lot of instances of degraded concrete, though, I assume that it's too late for that.

EDIT: It also sounds like the stuff has been widely used in mainland Europe, not just the UK. I don't know whether the UK being particularly rainy might be a factor, but if the UK is seeing serious problems now, then it might be worth taking a look at usage in mainland Europe as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforced_autoclaved_aerated_concrete

RAAC was used in roof, floor and wall construction due to its lighter weight and lower cost compared to regular concrete,[1] and has good fire resistance properties; it does not require plastering to achieve good fire resistance and fire does not cause spalls.[2] RAAC was used predominantly in public-sector construction in Europe, in buildings constructed since the mid-1950s.[3][4] RAAC elements have also been used in Japan as walling units owing to their good behaviour in seismic conditions.[5]

Reading some other articles, it sounds like we in the US and the Canucks do have some as well, but not much, mostly because apparently wood is cheaply available and dominates as a material, and the American construction industry isn't very familiar with use of AAC. There is only one small (13 person) US factory that produces the stuff, in Haines City, Florida.

https://www.resilientdesign.org/aac-an-ideal-material-for-resilient-buildings/

It’s no secret that autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) has struggled to gain a foothold in North America. AAC is in widespread use in Europe, Mexico, and much of the world, but it has had trouble competing against wood-frame building here in the United States and Canada.

I couldn't find reference to specifically the reinforced form (RAAC) in the US, but looking at the factory's webpage, they list reinforced AAC roof panels as one variant that they can provide, so I assume that they must have sold some.