using engineering bricks as facing bricks

[garyo]

The engineering bricks at my local shed are a fantastic colour match for my house. I've already bought a stack of reclaimed bricks that match, but still need to top up the numbers by around 200. Is there a problem with using engineering bricks in this way, assuming I'm happy with the finish, not being able to drill into them very easily?

I guess one problem could be that in ten years time they'll stick out like a sore thumb as they'll weather differently?

Cheers

Gary

 

[noseall]

There is no problem with using class b's as facing bricks.

I suggest you keep the bricks dry and the muck rich in cement.

 

[alittlerespect]

Hi

Two considerations - Not sure what the difference is in thermal resistance values between, traditional bricks and engineering bricks, but you will need to bare this in mind when the U value's are calculated.

Second point - Engineering bricks are a lot denser/heavier than standard bricks and you can only build so many courses in a day, otherwise the weight of the bricks will squeeze the mortar out of underlying courses like jam out of a sandwich, not absolutely sure but I believe its no more than 8 courses of brickwork a day.

One other point - the foundations will need to be designed to accommodate the weight/load from the engineering bricks.

Regards

 

[stuart45]

I would use the engineering bricks for the bottom courses. That way if they look a bit different it won't really matter too much.
The amount of courses that you can do in a day depends on the type of engineering brick that you are using, and to a lesser extent the weather conditions and how your hoddy knocks up the mortar.

 

[noseall]

Hi

Two considerations - Not sure what the difference is in thermal resistance values between, traditional bricks and engineering bricks, but you will need to bare this in mind when the U value's are calculated.

Second point - Engineering bricks are a lot denser/heavier than standard bricks and you can only build so many courses in a day, otherwise the weight of the bricks will squeeze the mortar out of underlying courses like jam out of a sandwich, not absolutely sure but I believe its no more than 8 courses of brickwork a day.

One other point - the foundations will need to be designed to accommodate the weight/load from the engineering bricks.

Regards

That's three points and all are either misleading or incorrect.

A brick is a brick pretty much as far as thermal reg's are concerned.

You can build in different areas and go back to the earliest and continue laying throughout the day.

A brick is a brick as far as foundations are concerned.

 

[stuart45]

garyo,
I would agree with noseall on this. Modern foundations are designed to be able to cope with tons of extra imposed loads such as wind and snow, so a few hundred pounds extra in the dead loads can easily be taken.
If you are building a single storey extension the foundations would now have to be good enough to take an extra storey anyway.
As regards the bricks looking different in the wall you have to remember that bricks often look to be a close match until they are in the wall. Even different batches of the same brick can show up.
Another option is to use them at the reveals as this is sometimes done, and if they look a bit different people think it was designed that way.