Overheard a guy at the supply yard say brick isnt engineering. That stuck with me.

I was picking up some Type S mortar last Thursday and this older mason was arguing with a kid about brick selection. He told the kid that brick is just decoration and not to overthink it. But I've seen loadbearing brick walls from the 1800s that are still standing straight. I mean, maybe it's just me but there is a real difference between a structural brick wall and a veneer job. I've been laying brick for about 6 years and I still double check my bond patterns on corners. That guy's comment made me wonder how many new guys think brick is just for looks and skip the math. Has anyone else run into that attitude on a job site?

2 comments

2 Comments

michael_jenkins3916d ago

That dude probably never had to figure out a soldier course over an arched window where the math actually decides if it stands or falls. Brick is engineering, just the kind where the proof is in the wall still being there after a century instead of some computer model. The guys who say it's just lazy are usually the ones who can't lay a plumb corner to save their life.

tylerj2215d ago

Bruh hold up. You're saying that like soldier courses over arches are some kind of rocket science. It's literally just geometry that a high school kid could figure out with a tape measure and a framing square. Real engineering is calculating load paths, stress points, and material strengths - not eyeballing a brick arch and hoping it doesn't fall. And the "standing for a century" argument is weak too. A lot of old brickwork just got lucky with crappy mortar that was too weak to transfer the weight properly. If you actually ran the numbers on some of those old arches you'd probably find they're way overbuilt or barely holding on by luck.