Hollow bricks and mineral insulation unfavorable?

Hello everyone!

Today we had a construction consultation meeting with a friendly small company from the surrounding area that only works with monolithic wall construction. From my point of view, this is welcome, but unfortunately not affordable for us with this company.
We would have liked at least a mineral external insulation and *no* ETICS.
In the conversation, it was said that mineral external insulation would clump, lose insulation value, and possibly (especially with a clinker facade, which would be rather too expensive for us) become damp and thus completely unusable.
However, I have fortunately seen mineral insulation blocks on the outside more frequently in the area during renovations/new constructions, which in the seemingly sometimes longer (I drove by often) construction phase were definitely rained on completely several times.
But shortly after the rain, they neither looked clumped nor otherwise damaged...

What do you think of mineral external insulation as an inexpensive compromise between monolithic construction and ETICS?
Which materials or possibly even products are recommended based on experience, among other things because they are robust and durable?

Everything with hollow bricks...

Thank you very much in advance!

Best regards,
Christian

In the conversation, it was said that the mineral external insulation would clump together, lose insulating value, possibly (especially with a clinker facade which is rather too expensive for us) remain damp and thus become completely unusable.

I hope that and the

construction consultation with a friendly small company from the surrounding area that only works with monolithic wall construction

were two different conversations – that is, with different interlocutors (?)

What do you think about mineral external insulation as a cost-effective compromise between monolithic construction and ETICS?

First of all, mineral insulation on a wall is also an ETICS.

And I’d like to burst your bubble that this is a cheap alternative. The surcharge is around €35 per sqm compared to ETICS with EPS. Besides the higher material cost, the installation effort is higher because EPS is simply glued onto a smooth substrate (which should be given in new construction ), while mineral wool is fixed with dowels. The dowels cost money and especially labor time. Depending on the house, this can mean an additional cost of around €10,000 compared to EPS. It’s not insignificant.

Apart from the mineral wool, which doesn’t like to be soaked in water (process quickly and apply exterior plaster, then that’s done) because it loses its insulating effect. However, "mineral insulation" does not necessarily mean mineralwool. There are also mineral insulation boards, e.g. Ytong Multipor or W. Therm MD. However, these are not cheap either, and their disadvantage is the poorer thermal conductivity group 045 (mineral wool and EPS 035, Neopor 032), i.e. the boards are somewhat thicker to achieve the same insulation.

Please consider, regardless of the wall construction, not to take horror stories too seriously. All building materials have their advantages and disadvantages, and nobody installs total failures intentionally. Construction companies always proclaim as super great what they themselves like to install.

Please don’t take horror stories too seriously, no matter the wall construction. All building materials have their pros and cons, and no one intentionally installs total failures. Construction companies always proclaim as amazing whatever they like to use themselves.

And remember my mantra (available in full text here from several threads on exterior wall debates – see search function) that it is unwise to try to “re-educate” a builder: if he masterfully handles wall construction X, you shouldn’t want to be a guinea pig for him to learn wall construction Y.

It was said in the conversation that the mineral external insulation would clump together, lose insulation value, possibly (especially with a clinker facade that is rather too expensive for us) still become wet and thus completely unusable.

Why should the insulation behind a clinker facade get wet? That is certainly not correct.

These damages exist. Just like green ETICS or water-saturated aerated concrete.