Building Materials

Bricks

Bricks are hard rectangular blocks typically made of clay and water, they are arranged or laid in rows and columns to construct building structures. There are various types of bricks depending on their properties or special features in the construction process.

How Bricks are made

3 Common Shape of Bricks

Frogged Brick

Brick with this shape possess an small and indented rectangular pit on top of the brick. This kind of bricks usually be laid with the pit at the top so that the load is spread equally across the width of the brick, not just across the edges.

Perforated Brick

Perforated brick possess a holes through top to bottom. The objective of the holes is to decrease the weight of the brick and provide air gap for insulation purpose. 

Solid Brick

As shown in the figure above, solid brick is flat in all six sides,hence it is a perfect rectangular block.

Bricks With Different Functions

Building Bricks

Building bricks are mainly used to provide support or act as filler for construction structure instead of provide aesthetic look.

Engineering Bricks

Engineering bricks are tough, strong and long-lasting. They possess damp or water resistance, this property makes them suitable for tough construction such as sewers and retaining walls. Unfortunately, this type of brick is not a good looker.

Common Bricks

This type of bricks is cheap, filler bricks that are used where are unseen, thus their profile is not important. However, they can be used as facing bricks if you do not worried about looks as they have lower cost than facing bricks.

Facing Bricks

Facing bricks have aesthetic view and they are usually used externally. The most visible part of the building is cover by them.

Stock Bricks

Stock Bricks have a slightly irregular shape made by using a mechanised moulding process which is called soft mud moulding. A variety of colours are available. In terms of price, as well as style, stock bricks fall between the wirecut bricks and the handmade bricks. 

Wirecut Bricks

Wirecut Facing Bricks are made by extrusion of a continuous column of clay which is cut by the wire but not before the column has been textured. They are to adapt in almost every type of application and are available in a variety of colours and textures. Besides, the highly automated production process makes wirecuts bricks is relatively inexpensive compared to some other types of brick.

Handmade Bricks

Handmade Bricks are made manually by skilled craftsmen pouring clay into moulds. Every single brick is unique and they have a nice and attractive appearance with a creased face as well as longstanding durability.

Standard Special Bricks

Standard special bricks are made for specific uses in unique form of brickwork. They are made of fine clays to control and decrease the shrinkage deformation during firing. 

Bullnose Bricks

This type of brick has one, some or all of its corners rounded off. Those curves is used to create a soft and attractive curve for a structure such as round steps of staircase.

Radial Bricks

Radial bricks are special bricks used to create curved walls. Radial bricks were created in Europe in the 19th century and were used to build chimneys. Nowadays, radial bricks can be used to create a feature such as giant round pillars or round entrance.