File: competing against other materials

MORTARLESS
BLOCK SYSTEMS
An analysis of the six systems on the market

By Pieter VanderWerf
oncrete masonry is losing projects to tilt-up, often were so impractical or expensive that they

C precast panels and steel frame at an alarming

rate. Although masonry has many strong points,
customers are swayed by advantages they often
negated the savings from mortarless stacking.

The next generation

perceive in these other systems: lower installed As the history of innovation consistently shows, a
cost, shorter site time and greater construction pre- successful innovation starts in a market niche. Innova-
dictability. tive mortarless systems have improved with time
Market losses have accelerated in the past few and are now more competitive in many more market
years because innovation has significantly improved segments than before.
other building systems, unlike block. In many appli-
Each of the six systems available in the United
cations, block now requires more labor hours by
more highly skilled (and highly paid) workers. This States was invented in the last 12 years, and each is
means higher total cost and more site time. The de- well suited to one or two applications, where it com-
pendence on a small pool of highly skilled labor and petes effectively. One or more could be modified to
the extensive use of wet material (mortar) onsite suit other applications. All are useful here and now.
makes block more susceptible to schedule and
weather delays. The big problem
This problem was sup- By far the greatest challenge to the mortarless sys-
posed to have been staved tems has been the inability
off. In the ’70s and ’80s, of conventional machines
companies announced to produce block economi-
mortarless (or dry-stack) cally with less than a 1⁄16-
systems that allegedly inch variation in the
eliminated all three prob- height dimension. Varia-
lems with one block. The tions of 1⁄16-inch are enough
ability to use less-skilled la- to cause a freestanding,
bor, stack faster and elimi-
mortarless, running-bond
nate wet material was in-
tended to cut cost, site wall to deviate from plumb
time and delays. after just three or four
However most of the old courses. There is no such
mortarless systems creat- problem in conventional
ed more problems than wall systems because the
they solved. Mortar serves mortar forms a plumb, sta-
several important func- ble wall by compensating
tions related to compensat- for height differences from
ing for block tolerances, block to block.
joint sealing and flexural
strength. The mortarless The systems
systems tried to accom- Each mortarless system
plish these same functions solves the problem of unit
through special steps in Workers stacking a wall of Durisol block. In select appli- height tolerances differently.
manufacturing or installa- cations, all of these systems have produced huge time The Azar Dry-Stack
tion, but these extra steps and cost savings. Block system was released
in 1997, initially for the construc- hits the wall to drain to the base.
tion of house foundations, but it al- Grout Haener Block have been on the
so has been used in firewalls. Each The Azar, Faswall and Durisol domestic market longer than any
block interlocks with the next along block must be fully grouted. As a other mortarless system, thanks
both the vertical and horizontal rule, this means that all three re- largely to the persistence and
joints, providing stability during quire more grout than conven- adaptability of their inventor, Juan
stacking. The interlocks along the tional block about 95% of the time. Haener.
head joints are formed by a core In some extremely high-load situ-
The block’s webs have raised lugs,
puller added to the production line. ations, conventional block re-
quire more. Faswall and Durisol formed with a special contoured
The system uses two types of unit:
rely on grout for their strength shoe during manufacture. The webs
a stretcher and a corner. Unskilled
because they have a lower com- are offset from their conventional
workers routinely stack 100 block pressive strength than conven- locations so that the lugs align and
each per hour. This compares to 20 tional CMU. Sparlock has signifi- lock each block into correct position
per worker per hour for conventional cant bending strength due to its during stacking. Some practiced
mortared block (40 per hour for one overlapping joints and probably workers stack more than 100 block
mason and one laborer). After stack- has more compressive strength
than conventional CMU because per hour.
ing, crew members must check and The manufacturer’s instructions
of its considerably smaller cells.
adjust the wall back to plumb, using So, it needs less grout in most ap- leave it to installers to decide how to
temporary bracing where necessary. plications. Haener and IMSI block compensate for block-height varia-
Then they fully grout the wall, locking are grouted selectively with about tions. Some crews use shims, such
the plumbs into place. the same amount of grout as con- as brick ties, as necessary. Others
Even for foundations, the manu- ventional block. have reported using mortar every
facturer specifies no damp-proof fourth course.
parging or drainage layers. Water is controlled by an Other than the special shoe and adjustments to
integral water-repellent admixture; a water-resistant, cubing, manufacture is conventional. The original
minimum-water grout formula; vibration during system includes three block (a stretcher, a corner
grouting; and scores molded into the block’s face in- and a half). A new two-block system is available,
tended to create open channels that help water that which features a combined stretcher/corner and a

To p To p
Stetcher Stetcher C o rn e r
C o rn e r

End
End
Half stetcher

Block and stacking of the Azar system. Block and stacking of the original Haener system.
half. Haener recently designed the Two-Block Insulat-
ing System, which adds space in each block to insert
insulation.
Haener Block has sold well as a do-it-yourself prod-
uct in the Los Angeles area; it has achieved success
for commercial projects in other locations, but it has
no single dominant application. Stetcher C o rn e r
The IMSI system produces an insulated, reinforced To p
wall. It also has provisions for running electrical lines
inside the wall. Although it’s been used for all sorts of
structures, its thermal and electrical features have
helped it carve out a steady market in above-grade
residential walls.
The IMSI stretcher has two rows of cavities. The
outer row is for insulation and running wires. The in- End Half stetcher
ner row is for grouting, insulating and wiring where
needed. While stacking, workers shim to maintain lev-
el, make cuts for electrical boxes, and place insula-
tion inserts, wiring and rebar as necessary. Because
mortarless stacking saves time, a typical crew can do
all this about as fast as it could erect a conventional
mortared block wall without insulation and wiring.
After stacking, workers trowel surface-bonding ce-
ment onto exterior and interior surfaces. This forms a
stucco-like primary finish, seals the walls and adds
bending strength.

Block and stacking of Sparlock system.

The Sparlock system avoids the height problem alto-

Expanded view of a wall of IMSI block, grouted and rein-
forced, with foam inserts, and surface bonded.
gether by placing block in a stack bond, where each
block rests exactly on the block below instead of overlap-
ping two units. So, if the block below are of different
heights it does not affect the wall’s plumbs or stability.
Sparlock units interlock like puzzle pieces. Workers
slide them down into place. Using half-high units for the
first course on one side of the wall (see illustration)
results in staggered bed joints. This arrangement adds
vertical bending strength to the wall system and re-
tards fire and sound from passing through: The result-
ing wall has 2- to 4-hour fire ratings and STC of 52. After a
few jobs, crews stack at a rate equivalent to nearly 40
conventionally sized block per worker per hour. No fur-
ther structural work is necessary after stacking for a
low- or moderate-load wall. If the block will be walled
over, as for a firewall, no finish work is needed either.
To date, the manufacturer has focused on the firewall
market. This system has enough strength and fire resis-
tance without grout to be an interior nonloadbearing
fire partition wall. There are no special provisions for
reinforcement in either direction although it is possible
to place vertical bars using a very high slump grout.
The block are produced in special molds on stan-
dard block equipment. Their unusual shape requires
some extra thought in cubing, but otherwise, no spe-
cial steps are necessary.
Durisol block are made from a mixture of cement
and mineralized-wood fiber, which create a material
that is almost as durable as conventional concrete. is sized to match a conventional full-dimension block in
They are easily cut with common wood saws and height and length (111⁄2x8x16 inches). This product is
readily nailed with ordinary wood nails. The insula- produced on conventional block machinery and came
tion value is about R 1.75 per inch. on the market in January 1998.
The block are stacked with an occasional shim to
maintain level. They can be assembled quickly be-
The future
Each system currently has a modest but sustain-
cause they’re easy to cut and relatively light. An able market share. Their inventors are working ag-
8x12x36-inch block weighs about 31 pounds. gressively to expand usage and add new versions
Crews reinforce as necessary and always grout the that will take their products into new markets.
wall solid. Each block has reduced webs (like a Many industry insiders point to the low number of
bond beam unit) to permit grout to flow horizontal- dry-stacking block sold to argue that these systems
ly and form a bond beam will never take over the
on each course. The grout mainstream. They may be
serves as the wall’s struc- right. But they may also be
ture as the Durisol con- missing some important
crete has lower compres-
points. These products can
sive strength than
conventional concrete. benefit many projects here
Mineral-wool inserts are and now. And if they ap-
available to raise the fin- pear to have limited poten-
ished wall’s R-value to a tial, they are in good com-
maximum of 21 for the pany. In the late ’50s,
thickest unit. This is an es- marketing experts at 3M
timated value for a 12-inch predicted that Scotch Tape
block with a 31⁄2-inch insert. would have total sales of
Durisol’s flexibility and $1 million per year. In 1960,
R-values make it attractive the press reported that the
for above-grade walls. To worldwide demand for
date it has been used computers would be about
mostly for houses and
100 machines. When the
high-rise apartments but
Internet was established in
also for commercial con-
struction. the ’70s it was supposed to
Faswall, like Durisol, is have no more than a few
made from a composite of thousand users.
cement and mineralized So at least one of these
wood fiber that provides systems could surprise us.
some insulation and is easi- But if there truly is no suc-
ly cut, and the block is de- cessful, improved version
signed to be reinforced and of the structural concrete
grouted to form a solid, block on the horizon, heav-
Cutaway view of a wall of Faswall block, grouted and re-
structural wall. But the unit inforced. en help the industry.