Pilotabroad

Hi all,
Seen many threads here from people doing their own projects etc so I thought I'd start a fresh one for many upcoming pleas and questions!

To start off...

Anybody know of any Portugal suppliers or manufacturers of solid engineered building blocks (AAC) é.g. Thermalite, aircrete, old school breeze blocks, etc.

Can find plenty of clay and hollow cement blocks but no AAC type despite being the main choice in 90% of Europe.

dingg

Mrf in caldas da rainha (I think you're near there) will have what you want I reckon


https://mrferreira.com/en/home/

Pilotabroad

Hi Dingg, funnily enough I'm going asking the guys there next week (I'm just staying off the road as I got nabbed in Caldas yesterday by police, luckily I had a genuine reason for driving during the Easter curfew!)

Architect and engineer both agree that for part of my project AAC blocks would be much better... However neither knew of anywhere in Portugal that supplies them.

dingg

If they don't have them, they will be able to point you in the right direction, they're very helpful 👍


These any good??

https://aclweb.pt/en/products/other-concrete/masonry-blocks/solid-blocks

Pilotabroad

Very close, perfect size, strength, etc but sadly I contacted them yesterday and they are the dense concrete type which weigh 25kg per block.
The ytong thermalite etc weigh as little as 4kg per block.
I'm think for internal load bearing short walls I may well go with those in the link, however for the beam block floor the weight penalty and ease of cutting/fitting the dense concrete ones are very prohibitive.

Genuinely thanks for even searching, I really appreciate it and more eyes more results etc

Pilotabroad

For anyone thinking I need to buy from silvercoast, I'm happy to buy from anywhere in Portugal, even Spain and France a consideration!

wellinever

Of no help to you, but I have never understood why the `Tijolos` could not be pre filled with insulation foam during manufacture and then cut to size.
My guess is that the bricks are made in one continuous length and then cut as they cool, so could be filled at some stage after firing,,,,,,,,,,Dragons Den?? Or blown to pieces by them smart *****

liveaboard

I know the blocks you refer to, popular in the Netherlands too.
My experience is that if a few shops in the country don't have it, no one has it. The product is probably not distributed here.
Builders are a conservative lot; there is little profit in a new product and the builder gets the blame if it fails.
There are strict inspections for new builds here, and it's possible the light blocks aren't in their system of certification.
A chicken/ egg scenario.

Probably your best strategy is to give it up and redesign to use material available.
But if you do find it in Portugal, let us know!

I'm looking for tapcon concrete screws, available in other countries for more than 10 years.
And Stelcon type concrete paving plates (2x2 meters, 14cm or more thick), a very common and inexpensive product in other places, apparently unknown here.

BillBullock

14 cm or more thick?

Pilotabroad

Not seen the screws in Portugal but there's a few in France, Spain, Amazon that do them and deliver (though I'm sure you already know)

​​​​https://www.spitpaslode.fr/en/Screws...fFR_189225.htm

The plates I've not a clue, they are huge!!!
Could you make a form and produce your own if financially viable?

liveaboard

Yes, 14 thick.
These are used for temporary shop + warehouse floors, and for temporary roadways for heavy vehicles into building sites. They're over a ton each, and second hand around 100 euros each in NL.
I will likely make my own; they will cost me more than 100 in material and a lot of time too.

I want a "temporary" workshop with a floor strong enough to drive my tractor on, fully loaded. But I'm not allowed to our a concrete pad where I am.

I ordered a pile of the screws from ebay UK before Brexit, but they never came. I was going to try Amazon next time, thanks.
I don't think they'd deliver those plates...

Pilotabroad

I had a similar idea, but after a conversation with a local engineer I found out that our local municipal 'El Presidente' had made it official that no matter how tempory a building was (even if it had wheels) as soon as it had any fixing of electricity/water etc it is deemed permanent in his opinion so therefore banned.... Might be worth a quiet enquiry or two incase your area has any similar enforcement.

liveaboard

I've been living here for a while.
I watch, I ask, I listen.

In practice, they come along and tell you to stop building whatever it is, and apply for permission to keep it as is.
So the idea is to erect the whole thing over the weekend; Christmas is a popular time for sheds.

If you ask in advance, no one believes it's really a shed you want to build; it's assumed you're really building a house of some sort.

Pilotabroad

Found a few suppliers of aerated blocks in Portugal and Spain, however they are all of the Ytong brand and not of the UK standard size of 440x215x10... Waiting for conformation from ytong themselves regards suitability of using their partition blocks in the same way as UK standard as the compression strength etc seem the same

Pilotabroad

NEW QUERY

IVA (vat)

Certainly in the UK and other EU countries there are schemes and incentives to be able to reclaim vat or offset it in construction. New build especially generous but restoration etc has ways to claim back.

Does anybody know of such avenues in Portugal?
My accountant is good at the basic income tax stuff but nothing else.

Spending 160k over the next 18months means saving or reducing 23% of tax would be a huge amount so any help would be appreciated as always