Today, we have multiple types of walling bricks to achieve the best results in our walling projects. World of Stones USA lets you dive deep in the world of walling bricks. Let’s have something thorough and useful info regarding bricks in walling.
In our earlier discussions about cobblestone pavers & block paving, we learned something about stone bricks used for paving purposes. Today, our prime focus is walling bricks. Fundamentally, it is a vast subject in itself, but we may try to concise it at our best efforts.
Similarly, we learned about different kinds of walling, such as retaining walls, garden walls, drywalling, and various wall design ideas in our previous blogs.
What Is Walling Brick?
Walling brick is a term referring to a rectangular building unit composed of similar materials and used to build walls. We know walls may be load-bearing or not. So, it influences the selection of brick types too.
Purposes & Benefits of Walling Bricks:
We know that walls can serve different purposes. Briefly,
- Structural/load-bearing like core building walls, retaining walls, piers, columns, and stairs/steps. Bricks have hardness, durability, & (high bending moment) load-bearing capacities next to natural stones.
- Non-load bearing, such as partition, facing or siding, fencing
- Insulating.
- Weatherproof: Bricks offer protection against wind, water, heat, and frost/snow.
- Soundproof, as bricks have sound attenuation properties. For 4.5” brick thickness, it is 45 Db (decibel) & 9” thickness, and it is 50 Db.
- Wear & Tear Resistance: Bricks have wear & tear resistance next to natural stones.
- Safety & security aspects like fireproof and disaster-proof. And can withstand earthquakes, storms, & other natural & human-made calamities.
- Aesthetics appeal, including texture, colors, tones, and patterns.
- Composite walls like brick veneers on RCC structure.
Natural Stone Pavers Collection |
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Exotic Collection |
Premia Collection |
Porcelain Pavers |
Steps Stones |
Window Sills |
Pool Copings |
Types of Walling Bricks
When we are going to categorize anything, we need base parameters for the same. So, we can categories walling bricks based on the following main parameters.
Types of Walling Bricks based on Functions
Structural & Non-structural Bricks:
A Wall in the Construction Industry |
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Structural or load-bearing walls need bricks with required strength to stay with estimated live & dead loads, horizontally as well as vertically. Application areas are:
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Non-structural bricks usually server other purposes than load-bearing, such as:
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Types of Walling Bricks based on Materials Used in Manufacturing
Natural Stone Walling Bricks:
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Clay Walling Bricks:
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According to Wikipedia’s article on bricks, humans began the use of clay or mud in the production of symmetrical bricks before 7,000 BC. |
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Shaping Methods for Fired Bricks: |
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Molded Bricks:
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Dry-pressed Bricks:
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Extruded Bricks:
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Chemically Set Wall Bricks with Autoclave Method:
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Sand-lime Bricks
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Fly-ash Bricks
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Advantages:
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Concrete Masonry Wall Bricks:
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Types of Walling Bricks on the Basis of Typical Use
Engineering Wall Bricks:
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There are two types of bricks based on their typical use: Common Bricks & Engineering Bricks. We know much about standard bricks. Now, let’s learn about engineering bricks at a glance. According to Wikipedia on Engineering Bricks, a kind of hard & dense fired bricks with some specific properties to meet particular requirements are called engineering bricks. For instance, specific applications demand particular strength, porosity to gain water resistance, and chemical compositions to be acid-resistant. According to § 6.4.51 of British Standard BS ISO 6707-1;2014, we can classify engineering bricks into the following classes. |
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Class-A Bricks
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Class-B Bricks
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Types of Walling Bricks on the Basis of Physical & Mechanical Properties
First Class Bricks:
- These are top quality bricks with deep red, copper, or cherry colors.
- They burnt thoroughly.
- Neat & smooth surfaces & uniform texture.
- Sharp edges, dense mass, and precise shape/size.
- Scratch-resistant, anti-skid, and no water-soluble.
- Metallic ringing sound when they struck against each other.
- Hard to break, crack, and fracture.
- No lumps of lime or salts on drying.
- Water absorption – 12-15%.
- The Crushing Strength – 10 N/mm2 or 105 Kg/sq. Cm.
Second Class Bricks:
- Somewhat faint in colors and texture.
- Small cracks and bump/pits apparent due to rough finishing.
- Inferior in scratch resistance, breaks, and fractures.
- May have rough edges.
- Water absorption is about 16-20%
- Crushing strength – 7.0 N/mm2 or 70 Kg/sq. cm.
Third Class Bricks:
- Those are dull in colors and texture.
- Produce dull sound when struck against each other
- They are under burnt, so have rough finishing.
- Inferior in scratch resistance, breaks, and fractures.
- Water absorption is about 25%
- Crushing strength below – 35 Kg/sq. Cm.
Fourth Class Bricks:
- Overburnt.
- It is severely distorted in shape & size.
- Brittle in nature.
- The ballast of these bricks used for filling ground, foundation, and preparation of road/path base.
Types of Walling Bricks on the Basis of Volume/Mass
Bricks are made with rectilinear dimensions or may have depressions on a side or both. It may have see-through holes in it.
Solid Bricks:
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Frog Bricks:
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Core Holes Bricks:
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Perforated Bricks:
- Have honeybee like perforation by small but thorough holes.
- Holes never exceed 25% total volume of the brick.
- They were mainly used for non-structural purposes.
Cellular Bricks:
- Have honeybee like holes closed at one end.
- Holes never exceed 20% total volume of the brick.
- They were mainly used for non-structural purposes.
Walling Brick Compositions:
Earlier, we have seen the composition of different brick types at a glance. However, the industry mostly uses fired clay bricks. So, our focus would be on listing compositions of fired bricks here given in Wikipedia.
- Silica (sand) – 50% to 60% by weight
- Alumina (clay) – 20% to 30% by weight
- Lime – 2 to 5% by weight
- Iron oxide – ≤ 7% by weight
- Magnesia – less than 1% by weight
Walling Brick (Optimal) Dimensions:
Standard sizes of bricks are varying nation-to-nation. So, I have listed only the most significant countries here. Data picked from Wikipedia.
USA |
UK |
AU |
IND |
The USA has the smallest size while Australia uses the biggest one. Similarly, the UK has a smaller brick size than India.
Walling Brick Faces:
General Terms-
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The orientation of the Brick-
A brick has six sides. Based on the laying pattern of the brick corresponding to its different sides, we can give each side of a brick a unique name.
Horizontal LayingStretcher – A brick laid flat with its stretcher side open. Header – A brick laid flat with its header side open. |
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Stretcher Face |
Header Face |
Vertical LayingSoldier – A brick laid vertically with a stretcher face open. Sailor – A brick laid vertically with bed face open. |
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Sailor Face |
Soldier Face |
Side-LyingRowlock – A brick laid on the side with a stretcher face open. Shiner – A brick laid on the side with a bed face open. |
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Shiner Face |
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Walling Brick Laying Bonds:
Now, we know about different faces of bricks and their laying patterns during walling. If we use such faces alone or combinations of other faces, it gives us different bonds with different significance in load-bearing and, most importantly, in the appearance of the entire wall when left uncovered/open. Let’s know the most common brick bonds.
Stretcher Bond:
All rows have stretcher faced bricks. Most advisable in siding or facing walls.
Flemish Bond:
Header and stretcher face laid alternately in a row. All rows repeat the same pattern—the highly used and popular bonding pattern for structural walling.
English Bond:
Alternate rows of stretcher and header laid in a repeating sequence. It has significance in structural walling.
Monk Bond:
Two stretcher faces followed by one header face repeating in the same sequence. It rarely used but good in structural walling.
Which Brick Type Is ideal for You?
It is a crucial question, but if you have a budget and, most importantly, a foresight, I may recommend natural stone bricks for most of the projects. Natural stones have distinct advantages against the rest of the brick materials. Moreover, you can use veneers to get expected look-n-feel on your walling projects.
We offer free consulting services by our stone experts and engineers online to help you out from the selection dilemmas. Please, grab it and get the best out of your investment today.