Any residential building, of course, must be strong, durable and easy to use. Houses, both private and multi-storey, can be built from a variety of materials. Very often, brick is used for the construction of enclosing structures of such structures. Buildings erected using this material can be found in almost every corner of the planet. What are the pros and cons of brick houses and is it worth buying an apartment in such a high-rise building or building such a building on a suburban area?
What is a brick
There are several varieties of such a stone. Facing, decorative, fireclay, silicate bricks, etc. are supplied to the market. But in the construction of houses, standard red ceramic bricks are most often used. This material, in turn, can be solid and hollow.
The first type of ceramic brick is used for the construction of heavily loaded structures. Tofor example, foundations and plinths can be laid out from it. For the construction of walls and partitions, in most cases, hollow bricks are used. The features of this material, in comparison with solid ones, are lower weight and degree of thermal conductivity. Walls made of such bricks put less stress on the foundation and better retain heat in the house.
Make red bricks from environmentally friendly material - clay. In the process of making such a stone, various ingredients are added to the mixture, which increase the strength of the finished stone and its moisture resistance. At the final stage of production, red ceramic bricks, among other things, are fired at high temperatures.
What buildings can be erected
Brick is used very widely in both private and industrial construction. Can be built from this material:
- low-rise houses and cottages;
- urban tower blocks;
- baths and garages;
- production shops and warehouses;
- outbuildings.
Scope, thus, the brick is quite wide. However, most often this material, since it has a relatively high cost, is used for the construction of various kinds of significant buildings. Most often, bricks are used for the construction of residential buildings. Also, baths and garages are often built from this material. Production shops and warehouses are usually built on frames with metal or wood sheathing. The same applies to all kinds of household structures, including private ones.
Basicbenefits
So what are the pros and cons of brick houses? Let's start our review of buildings of this type with their advantages. The most important advantage of houses made of this material is, of course, a long service life. Brick is a stone resistant both to various kinds of physical stress and mechanical stress, as well as to adverse weather factors. Since this building material is fired during the manufacturing process, it, among other things, is also not afraid of moisture. A feature of the brick is, among other things, that after getting wet it dries very quickly, without losing its operational and technical characteristics.
The world has preserved buildings erected from such clay stone, built many centuries ago. The brick houses laid out in our time are also able to serve at least 100 years.
In addition to durability, the advantages of buildings made of this material include:
- ecological cleanliness;
- good sound insulation;
- aesthetic solid appearance.
Brick buildings and ecology
Brick buildings, like any other, have their pros and cons, of course. But in any case, no materials hazardous to human he alth are used in the production of such building stone, as already mentioned. In terms of environmental friendliness, brick is second only to wood. And even then, in our time, beams, logs and boards before the construction of houses are usually treated with various kinds of chemicals toincrease fire resistance and resistance to fungus. The only type of processing that bricks undergo before being used for construction is firing in kilns.
In terms of the ability to "breathe" this type of stone is slightly inferior only to the same tree and foamed concrete. Also, according to studies, brick walls, unlike many modern materials, do not emit radon during operation.
Pros and cons of brick houses in terms of living comfort
In terms of comfort, brick houses also deserve excellent reviews from their owners. This is especially true for urban high-rise buildings. Such buildings, as you know, are built mainly only with the use of actual bricks or ordinary concrete. Wood and foamed stones are never used to build such houses.
The advantages of brick high-rise buildings in the first place, their residents include a good degree of sound insulation. In panel houses, as you know, audibility is very high. And noisy neighbors in buildings of this variety can be a real disaster. Brick houses are completely devoid of this drawback.
The good degree of thermal conductivity of walls made of such material, of course, also increases the degree of comfort of living in buildings of this type. In this regard, brick houses also deserve much better reviews than panel houses. In summer, such buildings are relatively cool, and in winter they are always warm. There are no downsides to brick houses in terms of living comfort.
Appearance
According to the degree of comfort and environmental safety, therefore, brick buildings are second only to wooden ones - cobbled or log. At the same time, in terms of exterior attractiveness, such houses are quite comparable with log houses. Such buildings look very solid and solid.
Are there any disadvantages
According to property owners, in fact, there are a lot of pluses in brick apartment buildings. And there are practically no minuses in such buildings. The same applies to low-rise residential buildings of this type. The only disadvantages of such structures are:
- difficulty in erection;
- high cost.
Construction of panel high-rise buildings, for example, is much cheaper than brick. In private housing construction, a more expensive material than ceramic stone is perhaps only round logs, and even then in sparsely forested regions. The construction of frame-panel structures, as well as buildings made of foam concrete, is much cheaper than brick.
In fact, the construction of buildings of this type is physically very laborious. After all, in this case it is necessary to assemble the walls of the building literally “stone by stone”. In terms of the laboriousness of the construction, brick houses are inferior to both block and chopped, or even more so frame.
Differing in complexity, of course, is the very technology of erecting such walls. It is unlikely that a beginner will be able to build a brick house on his own, for example. The master mason needs to know not only howhow to lay a brick correctly, but also about how to chop it, align the rows, knead the mortar, do the jointing, etc.
Brick bath: pros and cons
Most often, residential buildings are built of ceramic stone, of course. However, sometimes baths are also built of brick. They do this in most cases when they do not want to violate the general design style of a suburban area. That is, baths made of the same material are often built next to brick houses.
The advantages of such facilities, judging by the reviews of their owners, can be considered:
- durability;
- solid appearance.
The disadvantages of brick baths, in addition to the high cost and complexity of construction, are the need for arrangement:
- ventilation;
- vapor barrier.
Also, from the inside, such baths have to be additionally sheathed with clapboard or block house.
How houses are built
Thus, we found out what are the pros and cons of brick houses. But how are such structures built? The construction of residential buildings of this variety is actually quite expensive. The price of ceramic bricks on the market is quite high (about 10 rubles apiece). In addition, such buildings have to be built on solid, expensive foundations.
In the vast majority of cases, brick buildings are built on strip foundations. Sometimes expensive slab foundations are erected under such structures. Cheap columnar foundations can only be poured under very smallbrick buildings, for example, under glazed or open gazebos or verandas with parapets. But even in this case, columnar foundations are necessarily supplemented with grillages, which significantly increases the cost of pouring them.
Walls and partitions of houses are built of brick with bandaging of seams. During the construction of multi-storey buildings, the outer walls of brick are usually erected very thick - in several rows. At the same time, to reduce the final cost of the building during its construction, for example, the so-called well masonry can be used with filling part of the space between the rows with slag or lightweight concrete.
In private housing construction, in most cases, the outer walls are built according to the “brick” method. That is, their thickness in most cases does not exceed 25 cm. If necessary, such buildings are further insulated using expanded polystyrene or mineral wool.
Sometimes in cities such a procedure as insulation of brick five-story houses is also carried out. The pros and cons of this operation are very well known to the residents of such buildings. Living in such a building is comfortable both in summer and in winter. But the service life of its facades is still limited. In any case, it is incomparable with the brick itself. Repair of insulated five-story buildings is an expensive business.
Partitions, both in multi-storey buildings and in private houses, are erected in most cases using the “half-brick” method. That is, their thickness is 12 cm. This is usually quite enough to provide good sound insulation withinliving quarters.
In cities, among other things, monolith-brick houses can be built. The pros and cons of buildings of this type are almost the same as those built from only one brick. In this case, the frame of the house is poured into the formwork using standard technology with reinforcement. At the same time, the walls in the house, as well as partitions, are built of brick. In terms of technical and operational characteristics, such buildings are somewhat inferior to brick ones, but surpass panel ones.
Of course, brick-monolithic houses have their pros and cons. Reviews of such buildings, however, are almost as good as those of brick ones. In any case, living in buildings of this type is convenient.
Brick houses: professional advice
Judging by the reviews, brick houses, the pros and cons of which we have discussed above, can be considered quite convenient in operation. But it will be possible to live comfortably in such a building, of course, only if all the required technologies were observed during its construction.
When building such houses, among other things, you should be guided by the following recommendations of experienced craftsmen:
- Before building a house, be sure to examine the soil on the site for the correct calculation of the foundation. At the same time, this work should be taught to a professional.
- In damp areas, a drainage system should be installed before building a brick house.
Insulate a brick building, if necessary, preferably only from the outside. Otherwise the dew point will moveinside the walls, which will shorten their lifespan.
Instead of a conclusion
Like any other, brick walls have both pluses and minuses. In any case, such buildings, if they were erected without violating technology, can serve for a very long time. So, despite some shortcomings, and in particular, the high cost and complexity of masonry, it is certainly worth building such a house on a suburban area.
