First, what are designer concrete blocks?
Designer concrete blocks are designed to look more creative, attractive and appealing than your ordinary grey concrete block. They come in a range of contemporary, beautiful colours, as well as a variety of finishes, textures and sizes, to add a touch of designer elegance to grace any building project. If you’ve never come across these premium, decorative building materials, have a look at National Masonry’s designer range of concrete blocks here.
Now, down to the essentials – here are the eight most important things you need to know about designer concrete blocks.
You have choices
There’s a lot of designer value added to these concrete blocks, coming in innovative finishes, fine textures and beautiful, natural-looking colours. You can choose from finely textured, silky finishes, shot-blast finishes, honed finishes, smooth face or split face finishes and polished finishes. As well, all of these finishes can be found in a wide range of contemporary colours, meaning you have loads of choice when designing the look of your building project.
As well as looking great, they are low maintenance
Designer blocks may look like the high fashion model of the concrete block world, but they’re definitely no diva. This type of concrete block requires low to zero maintenance, meaning you can appreciate their good looks with no effort required on your part.
They are suitable for a wide range of applications
As well, designer concrete blocks are tough and versatile. They are suitable for load bearing as well as non-load bearing applications and have very high compressive strength. You can use them for retaining walls, feature walls, and both external and internal walls for both residential and commercial projects.
They can be core-filled for reinforced concrete wall applications
Need even more strength? Designer concrete blocks can be core-filled with steel reinforcement and concrete to make them strong and durable enough to work in reinforced concrete wall applications. They’ll be able to withstand enormous amounts of pressure and wind loads when core-filled, making them even more versatile.
They offer high fire protection
Designer concrete blocks offer more than good looks however, they also provide a great safety advantage. In the event of a fire, you want to hope you’re inside a building made from concrete masonry, as this provides the greatest fire protection for both the building and its occupants. Your designer concrete blocks can withstand the extreme heat of a fire for a significant amount of time (much longer than other building materials), which will prevent structure loss and give occupants a better chance of survival. Fire can be more easily contained and more quickly extinguished in buildings made from concrete blocks and can help minimise the fire risk of a building.
They offer excellent thermal and acoustic performance
As well, due to their sound absorption qualities, designer concrete blocks can protect you against noise pollution.
They will increase your resale value
When it comes time to sell your home, its resale value will be increased by the use of designer concrete blocks. This is because designer concrete blocks offer so many useful properties as well as looking amazing.
Believe it or not, they are a good environmental choice
Concrete may not sound like the most eco-friendly product around, but it might surprise you to know that concrete masonry generally needs less energy to produce than many other building materials. And the manufacturing process doesn’t deplete the earth of scarce and valuable resources, but rather uses readily available natural materials. As well, minimal waste is produced by the manufacturing process.
And it’s not just in the manufacture of the material that environmental benefits are found. The use of designer concrete blocks increases the energy efficiency of a building, meaning you’ll need less power to heat and cool it.
So, now that you have the low down on designer concrete blocks, where can you buy them? Go to National Masonry to have a look at their wide range of choices when it comes to designer blocks – we guarantee you’ll have a hard time choosing just one! Check out the range here.