Brick

•What are they made of? Bricks may be made from clay, shale, soft slate, calcium silicate, concrete, or shaped from quarried stone.

•What are they used for? they are used in masonry construction.

•How many types of brick are there? There are different varieties of bricks depending on their role in the construction process. Firstly there are three ways that bricks can be shaped: -Solid: These are bricks that are flat on all sides, a perfect rectangle. -Frogged: These have an indented, smaller rectangle on the top. Frogged bricks should always be laid with the frog at the top so that the load is spread equally across the width of the brick, not just across the edges. -Perforated: A perforated brick has holes through from top to bottom.

•What is the meaning of brick laying techniques? Brick laying techniques are the different ways to make brickwork, it means: the laying of rectangular pieces of baked clay called bricks one after another, layer upon layer until a desired height is reached. A composition of lime and sand called mortar is spread between each layer which hardens and bonds the bricks together to form a solid mass.

•Describe 2 brick laying techniques: The first bricklaying technique refers to Runnig, the most classical: it consits in bricks one by one above another in the middle way. The second reffers to the common american bricklaying: In this technique there are two types of bricks, a short brick and a large brick as in the picture.

•What are their advantages and disadvantages? -About the advantages: the use of brick can increase the thermal mass of a building, giving increased comfort in the heat of summer and the cold of winter, and can be ideal for passive solar applications. also brick typically will not require painting and so can provide a structure with reduced life-cycle costs, although sealing appropriately will reduce potential spalling due to frost damage. Non-decorative concrete block generally is painted or stuccoed if exposed. -About the disvantages: Extreme weather causes degradation of masonry wall surfaces due to frost damage. This type of damage is common with certain types of brick, though rare with concrete block. If non-concrete (clay-based) brick is to be used, care should be taken to select bricks suitable for the climate in question.




 * What construction material would you use to build your own house? Why? **
 * I would like to use concrete as material to build my house because I really like the characteristics of this material like natural colour, texture treatment in walls and the contrast that it can do with the light. **