2024-01-05 23:00:00
If you build a house using solid construction, you have the choice between several starting materials. Why brick is still popular here.
Stone by stone, row by row, progress is made steadily. It takes a lot of time and materials until the shell of a solid house is completed. The material it is made of varies from case to case. In addition to concrete or sand-lime brick, bricks are also popular. What is behind the building material?
The timeless classic: bricks dominate house construction
The brick is a real classic when it comes to building houses. According to several surveys and analyses, it is by far the most widely used building material in wall construction in both Austria and Germany. This is by no means a new trend: bricks have been leading the popularity rankings for decades. And not without reason.
Advantages of bricks: Robust & good for the indoor climate
The brick offers several advantages. As far as the material is concerned, it is durable and robust. The maintenance effort is correspondingly low. In addition to high fire protection, bricks also provide good thermal insulation. Last but not least, the bricks have a positive effect on the indoor climate of the house – heat and cold are stored in the bricks and released once more. They also have a diffusion-permeable property, which means that they can temporarily absorb air moisture. This counteracts mold formation. Of course, this property only comes into play if the interior wall of the house is made of bricks. As a house builder, you have a wide variety of options when it comes to installing bricks – the range is wide, from installing bricks in the interior or exterior walls to a completely brick house.
Optimal insulation with brick?
The classic brick does not have particularly good insulating properties. In order to comply with the applicable insulation regulations, additional insulation measures are often necessary for a building shell made of bricks. Such a measure depends on what type of bricks are used. In order to achieve good insulation, it is worth choosing a modern form of brick. For example, the thermal brick already contains an insulating material filling – the same applies to the flat brick. A simple brick can be had cheaply, often for a little less than half a euro. However, the more solid variant, the solid brick, is usually twice as expensive. For more special versions you usually have to shell out several euros per piece.
Tips for DIY Brick Projects
You should always rely on professionals to build building walls. However, if you want to tackle smaller DIY projects, such as installing a non-load-bearing wall, you can also try your hand at building something out of bricks yourself. This requires experience – the correct interaction of mortar, plaster and bricks needs to be learned. It is important that the wall is ultimately tight and, above all, stable. Also make sure that the respective wall or wall does not fulfill a load-bearing function in DIY campaigns. If this is the case, a specialist should be called in.
How is a brick made?
The raw material for bricks is either clay or clay. As far as production is concerned, a lot has happened here over time. Forms made of wood used to serve as models, but today the bricks are usually shaped in special presses and then cut to size. The previously chopped and moistened raw material is now dried. This is followed by the firing process in a special oven at high temperatures ranging from several hundred to over a thousand degrees. Finally, some final cutting and sanding work is necessary.
Norms and diversity: The brick formats
There are standardized formats for bricks. Normally a brick is 24 centimeters long, eleven and a half centimeters wide and just over seven centimeters high. There is also the thin format, the depth of which is around two centimeters less than that of the normal format. The normal format has replaced earlier units such as the “empire format” or the “monastery format” that was often used before. Depending on the degree of heat during the firing process, the surface or the shape, bricks are divided into different types: for example clinker, flat or perforated bricks.
This article is from the magazine Salzach Bridge from November 28, 2023.
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