I was wondering what is the life time of bricks ? I saw units built in the 70s (40 over years old), whose bricks look quite used, compared with brand new ones. The material of the bricks slowly erodes with time and weather conditions. How many more years can such units live ? When I see the bricks conditions, I assume it won't last forever. When the bricks become so used that they are threatening the strength of the whole structure, do they need to be replaced, or can they be maintained "easily" adding a bit of cement or something like that ?
Bricks can last forever, I know that's a long time but they can.
Didn't the Romans use flat clay bricks that they rendered? I seem to remember them being used in Rome but maybe I'm mistaken. That would be 15 centuries at least
Any expressed market opinion is my own and is not to be taken as financial advice
Didn't the Romans use flat clay bricks that they rendered? I seem to remember them being used in Rome but maybe I'm mistaken. That would be 15 centuries at least
Yes there are many examples of this, 15 centuries is forever in my books. Obviously there are qualifications like the brick was made properly, is properly incorporated into the structure and not overloaded, mortar is maintained, plumb and square, its not exposed to a corrosive substance or environment, dampness things like that and that damaged areas are properly repaired. It lasts a lot longer than shit concrete, fibro, weatherboard and is more aesthetically appealing.
I have seen the occasional brick that I'd not trust - Dodgy batches maybe?
But the more likely concern is the mortar that holds them together. Given a builder/bricky might have decided to save a few bucks by going a bit lean on the cement. A wise old dude said to me once Always give the mortar a scratch here and there with a three inch nail to be sure it's not a bit crumbly.
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Quite a long time, but it depends on a number of things.
Bricks, like cement, have enormous compression strength, so as long as the force on the brick is essentially straight down, they can carry that weight for 1000s of years. But if you have any slippage under a brick wall, both the mortar and the brick can crack in tension.
Ceramic is fairly corrosion resistant, but sulphuric acid will corrode most ceramics, including Roman bricks, over time. Most of Europe's ancient statues lost part or all of their nose in the 70s/80s as acid rain from coal power stations washed their features away. Still, it would take a long time before acid rain corroded enough of a brick to make it weak enough to collapse. Hundreds, maybe a thousand years.
But the one thing that bricks are completely helpless against is a ravenous Sydney property developer. Very few bricks have ever survived an encounter with one of these creatures. Some Sydney bricks have been known to survive a 100 years against the elements, but little more than a few months against a developer attack.
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Yes there are many examples of this, 15 centuries is forever in my books. Obviously there are qualifications like the brick was made properly, is properly incorporated into the structure and not overloaded, mortar is maintained, plumb and square, its not exposed to a corrosive substance or environment, dampness things like that and that damaged areas are properly repaired. It lasts a lot longer than shit concrete, fibro, weatherboard and is more aesthetically appealing.
The only bricks that I've seen deteriorate badly are those that absorb water. I freezing conditions the absorbed water turning to ice just destroys the fired clay, and then it becomes even more absorbent.
Any expressed market opinion is my own and is not to be taken as financial advice
Didn't the Romans use flat clay bricks that they rendered? I seem to remember them being used in Rome but maybe I'm mistaken. That would be 15 centuries at least
The Pantheon is made of bricks, and that was built BC (just.) But the Romans really knew how to build with bricks. North-German cities like Luebeck and Koenigsberg are full of Backstein-Gothik (brick gothic) structures that date back at least to the 1600s.
In general, I think bricks outlast mortar and the quality of the mortar varies a lot.
The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off. --Gloria Steinem AREPS™
I wonder then why a 40ish years old building is worth so much less compared with a new one (around sydney it can be resp. typically 500k VS 700K). 40 years on a scale of 1000 years is nothing. the difference of price between the 2 should be very little.
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