Brick





**What are they made of?**
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using mortar. Bricks may be made from clay, shale, soft slate, calcium silicate, concrete, or shaped from quarried stone. Clay is the most common material, with modern clay bricks formed in one of three processes - soft mud, dry press, or extruded.

**What are they used for?**
Bricks are used for building and pavement. In the USA, brick pavement was found incapable of withstanding heavy traffic, but it is coming back into use as a method of traffic calming or as a decorative surface in pedestrian precincts. Bricks are also used in the metallurgy and glass industries for lining furnaces. They have various uses, especially refractory bricks such as silica, magnesia, chamotte and neutral (chromomagnesite) refractory bricks. In antiquity, Bricks were often used, even in areas where stone was available, for reasons of speed and economy. The buildings of the Industrial Revolution in Britain were largely constructed of brick and timber due to the demand created.

** How many types of brick are there? **
Brick masonry units may be solid, hollow, or architectural terra cotta. All types can serve a structural function, a decorative function or a combination of both. The various types differ in their formation and composition. Within the brick types are: **Building brick**, also called common, hard, or kiln-run brick, is made from ordinary clay or shale and is fired in kilns. These bricks have no special shoring, markings, surface texture, or color. **Face brick** is better quality and has better durability and appearance than building brick. **Clinker brick** is overburned in the kiln. Clinker bricks are usually rough, hard, durable, and sometimes irregular in shape. **Pressed brick** is made by a dry-press process, rather than by kiln firing. Pressed bricks have regular, smooth faces, sharp edges, and perfectly square corners. **Glazed brick** has one surface coated with a white or colored ceramic glazing. The glazing forms when mineral ingredients fuse together in a glasslike coating during burning. **Fire brick** is made from a special type of clay. This clay is very pure and uniform and is able to withstand the high temperatures of fireplaces, boilers, and similar constructions. **Cored bricks** have ten holes- two rows of five holes each-extending through their beds to reduce weight. **Sand-lime brick** is made from a lean mixture of slaked lie and fine sand. Sand-lime bricks are molded under mechanical pressure and are hardned under steam pressure. These bricks are used extensively in Germany.

__Advantages:__ Overall, there are several ways brick outperforms other building materials. Because brick withstands heat it offers better fire protection. Brick has better sound performance characteristics to outside noise. Brick offers a wide of non-fade colors. Brick features a lower rate of moisture absorption. Finally, brick is virtually maintenance-free. __Disadvantages:__ High initial cost. Brick adds a lot of weight to the foundation, the brick is easier to collapse in earthquakes. in brick walls it´s difficult to change appearance.
 * What are their advantages and disadvantages?**

 __Comparison and Contrast:__ //Regular bricks are bonded either as headers (short side out) or stretchers (long side out). Standard modern types provide a ratio of width to length of slightly less than 1:2 to permit a wide variety of bonding patterns within a consistent module, or standard of measurement.//
 * Worksheet 2 **

__Chronology:__ //Brick which has been used since the 4th millennium BC, was the chief building material in the ancient Near East. Employed throughout the Middle Ages, brick grained greater popularity from the 16th. Century on, particularly in northern Europe. It is widely used in the 20th Century, often for nonbearing walls in steel frame constructions.//

__Description:__ //The size of bricks is limited by the need for efficient drying, firing, and handling, but shapes, along with the techniques of bricklaying, have varied widely throughout history.//

__Exemplification:__ //For example, wedge-shaped bricks are sometimes employed in arch construction and bricks with rounded faces in columns.//

__Cause/Effect:__ //Bricks may be used in construction only in conjunction with mortar, since the unit is too small, too light, and too irregular to be stabilized by weight.//