Big brick walls

[Tigercubrider]

having read another thread, on garden walls, something has always been at the back of my mind.

I grew up in a house that was in the original kitchen garden of a much larger house, built around 1865. As a result of this, we had a 10 foot high wall front and back that had protected the garden.

It was 75 feet long at the front and the rear was at least 3 times longer as it ran across the neighbour's gardens as well. It had a few pillars as support, but no gaps that you'd see for expansion these days.

It's still there and looks great 150 years later- so why expansion gaps now?
Another house nearby has a high wall that must be 300 feet long with no gaps

 

[Blagard]

Probably built with a mortar containing a fair bit of lime so it expands and contracts evenly and the perps allow that. Most walls today will be a cement mortar which is stronger and does not allow movement and as a consequence when it contracts the stress will actually crack the wall unless you build in places to allow for the movement. It will crack the bricks as well if the mortar is strong enough. I would suggest walking the length of the old walls to see if you can find evidence of cracks in the mortar as although the bricks will be OK the mortar often gives more at certain points but with the lime in the mix it heals the cracks so they are not quite so obvious

 

[John D v2.0]

Also the modern way for everything is very belt and braces, but should be guaranteed in all situations.
Often a far lower standard would work in certain situations just because things happen to be in balance.
Remember there's an element of natural selection at work, as any wall that did need to be built to a higher standard and wasn't, probably collapsed already and was rebuilt. Higher building standards were introduced to reduce the rate of failrue, but it wasn't as high as you'd think before.
This is why modern alterations to old houses can cause big problems as they affect the balance and cause damp etc.

 

[tony1851]

Many problems caused by modern alterations to old houses are often due to cement mortar, which is hard and un-yielding.

 

[Nige F]

A place I worked had a walled garden. 18 inch brickwork at least 10 feet tall, probably 75 yards square. One night the wind blew one side over.

 

[^woody^]

No expansion joints in Hadrian's wall either.

 

[Tigercubrider]

Thanks all