Brick: types, properties, applications

Brick is perhaps the most recognizable building material in the whole world, since the technology of its manufacture has been known to many civilizations since ancient times. At the same time, different peoples made it from scrap materials and with their own local characteristics, and today, in the age of developed technologies, its different varieties began to differ even more from each other. Over the millennia of use, this unique building material has not lost its significance and has not yet retreated in front of more modern alternatives. If only for this reason, it is worth considering what he is today.

Most of the "classic" types of bricks (for example, adobe, ceramic or silicate) are made from what literally lies under your feet. For the first two, the raw material is clay, in the case of adobe it is also diluted with viscous grass or manure, in the third case the basic material is lime and sand. Initially, each person was engaged in the procurement of raw materials as needed, and the further production of bricks took place in the same way - many enterprising owners today prefer to make adobe for buildings on their own site with their own hands. In ancient times, there were no special technologies, therefore they were engaged in shaping by hand (a little later - also by hand, but with the help of specially made forms), they were usually dried in the sun, and burned in special ovens, also homemade.

About 160 years ago, a revolution took place in the brick industry when mass production technologies appeared. - for example, the ring kiln and belt press, and even a few decades later - special clay processing machines and dryers. Thanks to this, the appearance of cities has changed beyond recognition - instead of wooden huts, even relatively poor people began to build brick houses, because the process, which remained unchanged, began to be almost completely performed by machines, working at a much higher speed. Thanks to the organization of production in a specially equipped room, brick factories could work all year round, without being tied to summer, as they did before, to dry the bricks.

Today, there are many more varieties of bricks, because traditional "recipes" have been improved with numerous new ingredients that improve basic properties - increase strength and durability, reduce thermal conductivity, weight and cost, and improve design. In each case, the production technology may be slightly different, but in general the stages are the same - the preparation of raw materials, its molding and hardening through drying, firing or other procedures.

Today, you can count many varieties of this building material, differing not only in composition, but also in properties. Such competition persists not just because each has its own advantages and disadvantages, but also because of the focus of each type on a specific area of ​​application. It is for this reason that, before starting construction and choosing the type of bricks, it is worthwhile to figure out why at least the most popular types are needed.

In the post-Soviet space, the most popular is silicate brick - that very characteristic white shade. It is made on the basis of lime and sand, of which there are many in any region, therefore such material is inexpensive - it is easy to get raw materials for it, and the finished product does not need to be transported far. Production also does not require outstanding technology - the trick is usually just a very careful pressing. Unfortunately, a mass product rarely has impressive consumer characteristics, so silicate brick does not impress with its ability to retain heat, and it is also afraid of moisture. Such material weighs a lot, but it does not differ in particular strength, which affects the scope of its application - load-bearing walls and internal partitions are laid out of it, but not foundations, fireplaces or stoves.

Fired ceramic bricks are also recognizable for their characteristic red hue. By the way, the color in this case is an indicator of quality, since fire was spared for too light, and too dark, burnt, on the contrary, was overexposed in the oven. The firing temperature of high-quality clay, which is the main raw material for this building material, should be equal to a thousand degrees, then they will have all the best qualities - the highest strength and resistance to destruction, so that red brick can be used almost everywhere, including the same foundations and pipes. The only indicator by which this variety is worse than silicate is the thermal conductivity, which is lower for the latter.

Both of the above-described species, like some others, are full-bodied and hollow. The first is a solid piece of material without any voids, while in the second case, characteristic through holes are usually noticeable, forming the same pattern on each copy. Less raw materials are always spent on the production of hollow bricks, therefore they are lighter and rather cheap, their other advantage is the reduced thermal conductivity caused by those very voids. However, such material is more fragile than reliable solid bricks, therefore it cannot be used for the construction of load-bearing walls. The latter, in turn, are built more often from solid building materials, but then additional insulation is indispensable.

Double bricks, also known as ceramic stones, are visually significantly larger in size, for which they got their name. Contrary to expectations, the elements of such masonry are not always heavier than ordinary ones, since they are always characterized by high porosity, which also favorably affects the price. The abundance of pores helps to reduce thermal conductivity, so the scope of application is obvious - external walls. The advantage of such a material is also the fact that it significantly saves the solution, because there are much fewer seams in such a wall.

Hyper-pressed concrete bricks are made from concrete, only it is not poured into molds at the construction site, as is usually the case, but arrives there in the form of ready-made blocks of the same size and shape. Contrary to popular belief, such blocks are not necessarily gray - modern manufacturers allow you to choose a shade at the request of the consumer. Concrete brick is often called artificial stone, and its versatile characteristics allow it to be used for the construction of any part of a building or its entirety.

Rubble brick is often confused with rubble stone, but these are fundamentally different things. A brick of this type, also known as construction, ordinary or masonry, is more correctly called a backbone, since its main field of application is the construction of a backbone, that is, the middle part of the wall, which is not visible either outside the house or inside it. In fact, this category simply includes not the best examples of the usual red bricks made of baked clay - either somewhat burnt, with a characteristic blackening (but not completely burnt), or simply unsuccessful in terms of shape.In this regard, it is the complete opposite of facing brick, for which an attractive appearance is fundamental, although this does not mean that strong walls cannot be built from it.

Acid bricks are made from clay with numerous additives such as dunite, chamotte powder and sand. Each copy is fired at a temperature of more than 1300 degrees, due to which an alloy is obtained from all of the above. A characteristic feature of such a building material is its chemical neutrality - even a strong acid will not take it, as well as its ability to withstand extreme temperatures. The scope of application of such a brick is rather narrow - structures are built from it, directly adjacent to pipes and other communications of chemical industry enterprises.

Diatomite brick is made on the basis of diatomite - a special mineral formed from the fossil remains of prehistoric diatoms. It also undergoes firing at a temperature of about a thousand degrees, and in terms of its operational characteristics it is very similar to the above-described acid-resistant building material, although its main advantage is still fire resistance. It is noteworthy that under the influence of high temperatures, masonry made of such a material not only does not collapse, but also does not lose its basic properties, including low thermal conductivity and high sound insulation. It is used both for the construction of residential buildings and in the process of constructing furnaces at industrial enterprises.

Vibro-pressed bricks can contain particles of natural stone (marble, dolomite), limestone and shell rock, while ordinary Portland cement is the bonding agent for all this heterogeneous mass. The production technology makes it possible to produce such a building material with a surface that fully meets the wishes of the customer - even if it is perfectly flat, even if it is aesthetically torn. The color can also be changed at your own discretion, because this type of brick is usually used for facing the outer walls of houses.

A few decades ago, when only "traditional" types of bricks were widespread, the shade of the building material spoke of the raw material from which it was made. Thus, the white blocks indicated the silicate origin of the building material, and the red ones - the clay. In the latter case, a shade could also indicate the quality of production, because too light meant an insufficiently high firing temperature, and too dark, especially with obvious blackness, indicated an excessively strong effect of an elevated temperature. Colored bricks were practically absent altogether, making it impossible to diversify the design of buildings.

In recent decades, more and more attention has been paid to the diversity of the composition of building materials. Many manufacturers began to move away from traditional recipes, adding more and more new ingredients. Many of them were added solely for the sake of obtaining some new properties, for example, increased resistance to extreme temperatures, however, due to their own color, which differs from the main range, they could introduce a certain variety of shades.

Over time, manufacturers came to the conclusion that the client has every right to independently choose the appearance of the product, therefore, varieties of blocks began to appear that differ from their counterparts only in color. At first, of course, the range was close to the existing one - the first to appear were such shades as brown and terracotta, "ivory" and "chocolate".A little later, it became possible to choose a building material of absolutely any color, due to which the need for additional facing materials was partially eliminated.

In ancient times, the exact shape and size of each brick was not always followed, but today, in the age of universal standardization, there are generally accepted dimensional standards that allow not only to lay out perfectly even masonry, but also to accurately calculate the amount of required building material in advance. If the backing brick, used exclusively for laying hidden surfaces, may still have a slightly irregular shape (and even then with deviations of no more than a few millimeters), then for the facing variety, compliance with all parameters with the highest accuracy is fundamentally important.

As a rule, each side of ordinary blocks looks like a rectangle from above, that is, the length, height and width of the brick are different from each other. According to this criterion, three main groups of such building materials are distinguished in our country:

• single, or simple brick - 25 by 12 by 6.5 cm;
• one and a half, or thickened - 25 by 12 by 8.8 cm;
• double - 25 by 12 by 13.8 cm.

The above standards relate mainly to domestically produced building materials, while in Europe slightly different concepts and sizes are adopted. The permissible volumes in this case, by the way, are twice as much:

• DF - 24 x 11.5 x 5.2 cm;
• 2 DF - 24 x 11.5 x 11.3 cm;
• NF - 24 x 11.5 x 7.1 cm;
• RF - 24 x 11.5 x 6.1 cm;
• WDF - 21 x 10 x 6.5 cm;
• WF - 21 x 10 x 5 cm.

It is assumed that all the "normal" bricks described above have each angle of 90 degrees, so that a regular rectangle is obtained everywhere. However, consumer demand, again, forced manufacturers to think about producing figured blocks that significantly differ in their appearance. Here, fantasy practically knows no boundaries - for example, a corner brick can have one beveled side so that the house does not have one right angle, but instead it has two angles of 45 degrees with a small distance. An alternative solution can be a completely rounded block, which simply does not have a corner. What can we say about the blocks, some of which protrude outward, beyond the boundaries of the main masonry, imitating an old building made of poorly hewn stone.

As in the case with different colors, the non-standard shape of the brick allows it to be attributed to facing, and if its ordinary brother is needed when erecting literally any brick building, then none of the facing options can boast such massive demand - it all depends on the tastes of the customer. For this reason, blocks of unusual shape often also have to be ordered specially, although the most popular varieties in large supermarkets must be in stock.

Although different bricks are designed for completely different uses, choosing only one of them for building a full-fledged brick house is usually stupid - this design is quite complex and involves different operating conditions in its individual parts. For this reason, all blocks purchased for construction should be divided into categories and the percentage for each should be correctly calculated.

For the walls of the house, in almost any case, an ordinary one will be used, he is also a building brick. As such, most often we mean ordinary, silicate or clay building material, for which there are no special requirements in appearance - it may even have visually noticeable deviations in terms of shape or size. Such shortcomings are not striking, since later they are hidden behind the internal and external decoration. Since the production does not involve complex technologies (even the size requirements are not met ideally), such building material is the cheapest.

Facing brick is relevant if the customer wants to do without exterior finishing and get a beautiful house made of brick itself. The procedure for making such a product is already somewhat more complicated, because at least it must strictly correspond to standard sizes and have the correct shape, and the latter quite often also implies some figuredness. The increasing complexity of the manufacturing process has a predictable impact on cost, therefore, facing blocks are almost always used only for exterior decoration, hiding less presentable material behind them. For the cladding of the building as a whole, a textured version is used, in which all the elements are the same, but for the decoration of windows and other complex architectural forms, shaped bricks are used, each instance of which can be purposefully unique. At the same time, bricks of both types are used not only for the construction of houses, but also, if there is sufficient funding, for the construction of beautiful fences. It is this building material that is usually colored.

The so-called fireclay brick was previously called simply stove brick, which largely reveals its main purpose. Under the general name, several types of bricks are hidden at once, made from different raw materials and differing in their characteristics, but theoretically any of them is suitable for the construction of an ordinary residential building. Any fireclay block differs from the usual one in increased thermal stability - it not only does not collapse under the influence of high temperatures, but also does not lose any of its advantages even with repeated heating and cooling cycles. Such building material can also be used for the construction of the whole house as a whole, but usually it costs much more than a simple ordinary brick, therefore, from the fireclay variety, only stoves, chimneys and other sections of the wall are often laid out, which will be regularly subjected to strong heating. Most types of fireclay bricks are intended primarily for industrial needs, for example, for the needs of metallurgy or the chemical industry.

For greater durability of the building, clinker bricks can also be used in the construction process. This variety is in many ways similar to a simple ceramic red block, but the production process is approached much more diligently - and the raw materials are chosen more carefully, giving preference to refractory types of clay, and the firing temperature is higher so that the mass is sintered into stone. The raw material, devoid of any foreign impurities, provides the final material with the highest strength and durability, as well as moisture-repellent and frost-resistant characteristics. Such a brick made of selected clay costs, of course, much more expensive than most others, therefore it is used to a limited extent - most often it can be found as plinth cladding or the main material for "eternal" garden paths. Since such material is not only distinguished by excellent performance, but is also in sight, it is almost always decorated with an unusual texture or bright shades, which slightly increases the already considerable cost.

Although the brick seems extremely simple, and most importantly - mostly the same, the durability of the building largely depends on its adequate choice. Even an experienced bricklayer will not build a building from bad building materials for centuries, therefore you need to be wise when choosing a brick. We have already talked about how to determine the type, we also mentioned the meaning of the voids in the body of the block - now it's time to reveal some secrets.

Take at least the same dimensions - only at first glance they are a matter of taste. In fact, the larger each individual block, the fewer joints there will be in the wall, and it is the latter that are rightly considered the weakest point of the masonry both in terms of strength and in terms of thermal insulation. According to this logic, double brick should be in high demand, but it has its own drawback - its large size may require too frequent splitting of individual blocks and even provoke the inability to accurately recreate the contour and planned dimensions. In the end, the double option is simply more difficult, because much more effort is spent on the delivery and packing of each individual instance.

A good indicator of the strength of a building material is its brand, but not everyone understands that the typical designation indicated in the technical passport has a specific decoding. Blocks of the M100 brand are capable of withstanding up to 100 kg of load per square centimeter of their surface, M150, respectively, 150 kg for the same area. In general, the brands vary from M75 to M300, and, of course, the higher the brand, the more reliable the structure, but along with the strength, the price also rises, so you should not choose the most expensive building material. Experienced builders point out that M100 will work for construction on a personal plot, and the same M150 is already more designed for multi-storey buildings, but sometimes it is worth making more serious calculations of the structure's weight in order to determine the optimal brand with high accuracy.

The indicator of frost resistance of a brick is somewhat similar, but the figure, contrary to popular belief, here does not mean the minimum possible temperature, but the number of defrosting and freezing cycles. In our area, every winter is frosty, therefore this indicator should be high - at least Mrz 50, and even better Mrz 100. At first glance, this may seem illogical, but in the Far North, high frost resistance rates are not even so fundamental - there for winters are not characterized by periodic thaws, because the cycles are usually somewhat less than in those regions where winters are not so severe.

Even in high-quality products, there are periodic rejects, which greatly affect the properties of the building material. The fact that a burnt or unburned brick has much weaker performance has already been mentioned, but this can be determined not only by the external color, but even by the shade gradation in each individual instance - the "filling" should always look brighter and more saturated than outer layers. Any external damage also suggests that such blocks should not be taken - if they managed to get damaged during a relatively short storage, then it is difficult to say what will happen to them during the operation of the building.

If there are inclusions in the form of white dots on a brick chip, it means that quicklime was present in the original raw material. For building material, especially facing grades, this is very bad, because upon contact with water, lime will be extinguished, and a spall will remain in its place - a small funnel. At the very least, it looks ugly, and in especially advanced cases, such phenomena can disrupt the integral structure of the brick and significantly reduce its strength. For this reason, builders are often advised to choose a trusted manufacturer with a good reputation - he will not risk his good name by neglecting possible inclusions of lime in his products.

The situation with efflorescence is somewhat similar to the one described above, when there are too many soluble salts in the composition of the brick, which in fact have no place there. With abundant contact with moisture, such "additives" appear on the surface in the form of characteristic white spots, which usually does not have a too bad effect on the operational properties of the brick, but it greatly spoils its appearance.Accordingly, such a problem is critical for facing blocks, but, on the other hand, there are special washes that will help solve the issue even if an error has already been made in the purchase of building materials.

For many consumers, a specific indicator of the quality of a product is also its price relative to competitors. On the one hand, this logic often turns out to be fair, on the other, you still need to understand how the price is formed. So, European bricks are much more expensive than average, and Belarusian ones, on the contrary, are distinguished by a relatively low cost, although it is not a fact that the difference in quality is so great. Elementary logistics is of great importance - the products of nearby factories are always, on average, slightly cheaper than imported ones. Building materials can also rise in price because of the mass of intermediaries - often the brick costs half the price from the manufacturer himself than from an outside seller on the market.

Finally, a few more simple tips:

• building and facing bricks must be of the same brand, otherwise there will be a discrepancy in terms of strength inside the wall;
• documents like a certificate of quality or a passport for a product can contain a lot of useful information and are often the only source of knowledge about something that cannot be determined by eye;
• before placing an order, check once again whether you ordered the correct grade of building material, otherwise the purchased bricks may not be suitable for the planned tasks;
• supposedly the same brick from different batches may differ slightly in color and even some other characteristics, therefore, for the integrity of the structure, it is desirable to use products strictly from the same batch;
• experts note that a seasonal increase in brick prices is usually observed in the summer, so you can save money by purchasing building materials in the spring, because by winter the brick stocks are gradually depleted, so it starts to rise in price again until the producers intensify production for the new season.

Silicate brick is not taken seriously by many builders - they value the fired red block much higher, which is characterized by increased strength and resistance to various influences. At the same time, for relatively small buildings on their own personal plot, such material is quite suitable - this is once again confirmed by the millions of houses made of this building material, scattered throughout the country. In this case, a certain variation in shades is also possible, but the fact that silicate brick usually has a very smooth and even surface is also very important for the external attractiveness of the building.

With red ceramic brick, the situation is even better - it is both stronger and more durable, besides, manufacturers produce it in dozens of shades, which allows you to combine different shades of building materials within the same wall to highlight accents. In the second example, it can be seen that color harmony can be achieved even with the roof - the red tile looks very dignified against the background of fired clay. The holistic artistic image is also complemented by a garden path, designed in the same color.

If you want to see, using one example, several completely different types of blocks involved at once, then you should look not so much at houses as at fences. It is precisely such small architectural forms that usually provide for various delights, because only a fairly wealthy owner can afford such a solution, and the impenetrability of the fence for prying eyes, and the outer gloss of such a wall, are certainly fundamental to him. In the photo, set as an example, you can see that a brick can be of different colors and shades, it can have a certain texture, as if protruding beyond the seams, and can also overturn the generally accepted idea that a brick should be strictly rectangular and lie only horizontally plane.For a pronounced aesthetic effect, the builders also used blocks of different sizes, due to which the columns have different thicknesses and are somewhat reminiscent of exquisite antique columns.

For information on how to choose a brick for building a house, see the next video.