A stack of rectangular cinder blocks

A cinder block (also mistakenly called a concrete block), breeze block, or Concrete Masonry Unit (CMU), is a rectangular block or brick used in construction. Cinder blocks are made from coal cinders and concrete, whereas concrete blocks are pure concrete. Concrete blocks of the same size can be upwards of 18kg whereas cinder blocks are lighter and cheaper. Cinder blocks are typically in the shape of two squares joined on one side to form a rectangle, with the insides of the squares hollow. This allows structures to be built in the traditional masonry style of overlapping rows, with the structure's weight carried by the "walls" of the blocks. Image File history File links Cinderblocks. ... Image File history File links Cinderblocks. ... Cranes are essential in large construction projects, such as this skyscraper In project architecture and civil engineering, construction is the building or assembly of any infrastructure. ... Pouring a concrete floor for a commercial building, (slab-on-grade) Installing rebar in a floor slab during a concrete pour For other uses, see Concrete (disambiguation). ... A brick wall built using the Flemish Bond Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar. ...

Cinder block is a very common building material for the load-bearing walls of buildings. Suburban houses with a basement typically employ a concrete foundation and slab with a concrete block wall on the perimeter. Large buildings typically use copious amounts of cinder block; for even larger buildings, cinder block supplements steel I-beams. The holes inside cinder block allow rebar and concrete (creating reinforced concrete) to run vertically through the block to compensate for the lack of tensile strength. Since the vertical rebar is usually anchored into the foundation or floor slab before the wall is built, it would present a problem in assembling the wall, since every block would need to be lowered from the rebar tops to its resting place in the wall. This is solved by using a style of open-ended block whose plan form resembles the letter "H", commonly known as a mortarless head joint or speed block. Speed blocks can be maneuvered between the reinforcing bars and tilted into place; the vertical spaces are then filled with concrete as with ordinary cinder blocks. Because most people find the appearance of cinder block to be drab and unattractive, exposed surfaces are generally given a decorative finish of stucco, brick, paint or siding. Structural engineering is the field of civil engineering particularly concerned with the design of load-bearing structures. ... Illustration of the backyards of a surburban neighbourhood Suburbs are inhabited districts located either on the outer rim of a city or outside the official limits of a city (the term varies from country to country), or the outer elements of a conurbation. ... Houses in Fishpool Street, St Albans, England For other meanings of the word house, see House (disambiguation). ... A basement is a story or several stories of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. ... The old steel cable of a colliery winding tower Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon being the primary alloying material. ... I-beams are beams with an I- or H-shaped cross-section. ... A tied rebar beam cage. ... Reinforced concrete at Sainte Jeanne dArc Church (Nice, France): architect Jacques Dror, 1926–1933 Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete in some countries, is concrete in which reinforcement bars (rebars) or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the material that would otherwise be brittle. ... Tension is a reaction force applied by a stretched string (rope or a similar object) on the objects which stretch it. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A weathered brick wall. ... It has been suggested that Dutch process paint be merged into this article or section. ... Corrugated steel siding, for the side of a barn. ...

Originally, clinker blocks were made from a mixture of clinker from boilers and furnaces, and cement. Clinker blocks were typically manufactured close to power plants and other producers of furnace byproducts. The blocks crumbled easily and were abandoned around the 1930s for the modern cinder block. Clinker has several meanings: In boat building, clinker is a method of constructing wooden boats by fixing planks to a frame so that the planks overlap each other gaining support from the frame and from adjacent planks. ... A furnace is a device for heating air or any other fluid. ... Cement is a material for bonding stone or brick. ... A power station (also power plant) is a facility for the generation of electric power. ...

In the United States, concrete masonry standards are maintained by the National Concrete Masonry Association.

External links

• http://www.ncma.org - National Concrete Masonry Association
• http://www.millardlumber.com/HowTo/blocks/concreteblock.htm - Block Sizes and How To