Prefab house made of Neopor - experiences?

Daniel, your experience report is a great help, thank you very much for it.

I don’t want to talk you out of it, if you have a good planner and a good structural engineer who is open to the system, the baskets are planned in such a way that nothing has to go into the stones because you, for example, have a ceiling and not like me who has half the building without a ceiling and then all the window lintels and the ring beam have to be made in the stones. Then you can have all the baskets delivered ready-made in 10x10cm and just lay them or slide them in. That would bring a lot of work relief and if you also have someone who knows the system and has built with it more often, it runs three times as fast right away.

if you then also have someone who knows the system

I would generally recommend this for all formwork block systems, to always see them as a "system" and not just as a stone. They all have specifics that only their "inventor" really knows well. Therefore, from my point of view, the "package" aka "system" always belongs together: the tangible product, the planner experienced with it, and an experienced processor. Thank you for your exemplary factual and comprehensible contribution, and your efforts for fairness towards the manufacturer, instead of angrily attacking him. In my interpretation, your contribution must nevertheless contain the warning that with this manufacturer, the walls of the formwork until curing unfortunately only depend on the viscosity of the fresh concrete to fulfill their task. I consider this a significant and substantial defect – even if a note in the package insert may suffice as a first remedy.

The concrete must be perfectly adjusted. Attached is a picture of the first concrete; it flowed well and then stopped like a wedge. Also, no wall was pushed away on the inside wall there.

It was fatal that the Euromac2 guide did not adjust the second mixer and the concrete was far too thin.

The next problem is that if the concrete is too thick, it won’t go past the rebar.

Here are some pictures from my neighbor. 5 days for Bpl and ground floor walls including supports. This morning the filigree ceiling was delivered and just finished being concreted. 6 days of work for the entire ground floor. Impossible with Euromac2. Look: 6 x 9 hours x 3 people x 35 euros = 5670 euros labor cost...
You sometimes wait already 2 weeks for the guide to come and show you how the system works if things go badly. For me, he was always only there around 11. Then 2 to 3 hours of explanation and gone. And you still struggled for 3 days until everything fit.
Then the ring beams were supposed to go into the ceiling on the 17. 5 cm walls. Then you had the problem that the Euromac2 elements lie on top and you only have 10 cm space left, barely enough for the ring beam. Oh everything not 100% right and the biggest problem is that no mason knows how to handle it. And a 3-hour briefing is just a drop in the ocean.

The salespeople talk down every negative point... There is a reason why hardly anyone builds like this

Thanks Daany29 for the great report.
We started building with Neopor stones in mid-2019. But not with Euromac, rather another manufacturer. I think the manufacturer doesn’t really matter here. They’re all pretty much the same.

We also had some complications, although not all of them can be attributed to the stones. For example, the earthworks took the contractor more than 2 months. Some of what you write I can confirm, other parts not.
Unfortunately, I don’t have much time right now. But I also want to post a report similar to yours here.

In short, just to say
- The structural engineer is crucial
- I only have the walls made of Styropor, ceilings and roof are classic. Filigree and wooden shed roof
- Basement with the system is not optimal even though the seller says so
- I can confirm crooked walls
- We also had cracked stones, etc.
- Concreting the walls is hard work.. not to be underestimated
- In the non-basement walls we have hardly any steel. Above all doors and windows however similar to you
- It’s not quick, unless you always know what you have to watch where and how. And even then you can’t compare yourself and one or two helpers with 3 masons who do it daily.
- The instruction is a joke
- Follow-up trades are often complicated to coordinate, except electrical, that’s a dream

So for brevity, that’s it for now. I hope your construction is now progressing properly. We want to move in within the next 2 months, so I can’t get around to a report right now.

Regards
Red

PS: Despite all the "problems," I have to say that it’s a project. You/we are simply not experts in this field and therefore it can’t be as quick and perfect as 3 masons who do this every day. If a construction crew that does this daily did it, it would look very different. Doesn’t mean I recommend the system unconditionally, but you have to look at it from a different perspective.

What I have to say is that the Euromac2 block is really stable. We poured the 25 cm block at the upper floor at 3.6 m in one go. Because there was an 80 cm high ring beam inside and a 20 cm ring beam far below, we had to add flux and make the concrete thin. So it could go through the ring beam. Then we used the vibrator bottle inside and compacted. And nothing burst. Everything held. Also, concreting with the pump and the fact that you can pour 3 m of wall including the ceiling at once is very convenient. You don’t have to carry anything.

The weak point is the side slider. It only holds securely if it is inserted at the beginning of the block. Otherwise, you have to support it. The supervisor didn’t say a word about that, and when three sliders popped out, he said yes, it has to be supported. I just thought great, that you only say that now. There were piles of boards and supports on site. One hour of work and everything would have been supported.