Table of Contents
Brick Masonry Materials:
Mortar is composed up of minerals that are commonly found in nature. Lime and Portland cement are both energy-intensive materials.
The raw ingredients for bricks, clay and shale, are plentiful. They’re usually taken from open excavations, which means that drainage, vegetation, and wildlife habitat are all disrupted.Clay bricks can be made with recovered brick dust, post-industrial wastes like fly ash, and a range of other waste materials.
Brick Manufacturing:
Brick manufacturing plants are typically positioned near their raw material suppliers. Brick production generates very little waste. Clay that hasn’t been burned can be reused in the manufacturing process. Unusable fired bricks are crushed up and recycled into the manufacturing process, or used as landscaping material.
The production of bricks necessitates a significant amount of water. Non-evaporating water can be reused numerous times. There isn’t much, if any, water that needs to be disposed of as waste.
Brick is a relatively energy-intensive product due to the energy consumed in its ring. Its embodied energy could be somewhere between 1000 and 4000 BTU per pound (2.3 – 9.3 MJ/kg).
Natural gas is the most prevalent energy source for brick kilns, but oil and coal are also utilised. Fluorine and chlorine are emitted when clay masonry is fired. Improperly regulated kilns can also cause other sorts of pollution. The majority of bricks are sold at regional markets around their point of manufacture. This cuts down on transporting energy and qualifies a lot of brick for credit as a regional material.
Brick Masonry Construction
On a construction site, only a tiny amount of trash is generated during brick masonry operations, such as partial bricks, unsuitable bricks, and unneeded mortar. These wastes are usually buried on the site or disposed of in landfills. Emissions from sealers used on brick masonry to promote water repellency and stain resistance are a possibility. Emissions from solvent-based sealers are often higher than those from water-based sealers.
Brick Masonry Buildings
Although brick masonry is rarely related with indoor air quality issues, it can be a source of radon gas in rare conditions. The thermal mass effect of brick masonry can be an important part of energy-efficient heating and cooling strategies like sun heating and nocturnal cooling. Brick masonry is a long-lasting kind of construction that requires little upkeep. Brick masonry construction can lessen dependency on paint finishes, which are a source of volatile organic compounds. Brick masonry is resistant to mould growth and moisture damage.
Sound bricks can be cleaned of mortar and reused when a brick building is dismantled (once their physical properties have been verified as adequate for the new use). Crushed brick refuse can be used in landscaping. On-site fill can also be made from brick and mortar debris. However, much of this trash is disposed of in landfills off-site.
Abstract
Environmental and economic issues have had a negative impact on social development methods in recent years. Green building design and sustainability have become increasingly important to the construction and building community, including architects, designers, and builders. This article looks at how brick construction can help achieve the overarching national and global goals of high performance and long-term sustainability. Meanwhile, the authors did not want to compare brick to or promote it over any other construction material; instead, they achieved the following research goals:
(1) examine the long-term viability of brick; (2) highlight examples of laboratory testing that support brick’s long-term viability; and (3) describe how masonry ordinances can help promote long-term viability. By emphasising enhanced quality, appearance, durability, maintenance, environmental friendliness, and character to the built environment, brick masonry supports and strengthens the national and international push for high-performance development. Bricks are noted for their tremendous strength, long life, and durability. Masonry is more resistant to fire advancement and is not prone to bug infestations by nature. Bricks may be easily recycled and utilised into various materials and techniques after being demolished at the end of their design life.
Waste materials may be used in the production of bricks. The use of compacted earth blocks gives the interior of the structure a natural sense. Although bricks have a lower R value for thermal insulation than other materials, the installation of an appropriate insulation system and the thickness of the brick can compensate for this. The incorporation of masonry legislation into the building codes of several U.S. communities is seen to reflect a growing administrative grasp of the long-term benefits of brick. The authors anticipate that their research will provide a comprehensive, yet concise, resource that will help raise societal awareness of the value of brick masonry in green building construction for future generations. More research is needed to develop a system that makes brick masonry construction easier and more efficient.
The chapter gives an overview of masonry as a long-term building material. It focuses on clay bricks and concrete blockwork, describing how they are made and its main qualities in terms of sustainability. The broader challenges of sustainability are briefly discussed, and current methodologies for quantifying the whole-life environmental performance of brick walling used in residential and commercial structures in the United Kingdom are investigated. A brief summary of anticipated future advancements in the masonry domain is provided, along with examples of masonry buildings that are’more sustainable’ in terms of operational energy and/or material usage.
Brick is one of the more environmentally friendly building materials due to its longevity and production method. Fran Williams outlines six easy guidelines for enhancing its long-term viability.
In the United Kingdom, brick is one of the most extensively used building materials. It has been used since 7000 BC, making it one of the earliest man-made materials known. It is long-lasting, durable, weathers well, and is attractive when used correctly. It is found in some of our most valued historic structures and helps to the perception of a permanent and safe constructed environment. It is intrinsically more ecologically friendly than many other materials, but how can we continue to use and improve it in a sustainable way?
For thousands of years, bricks have been used to construct structures, beginning with sun-dried mud bricks and progressing to today’s kiln-fired form. Their use became famous in Northern Europe throughout the early Middle Ages after being imported from Italy, resulting in the brick-based Gothic period of architecture.
With the start of the Industrial Revolution, output skyrocketed, with bricks outnumbering stone. The vivid red brick became popular in the UK during this time, notably in London, and can still be found on many Victorian terraces, tenements, and schools today.
Bricks are formed from a number of materials, the most common of which being clay, though calcium silicate and concrete are also used occasionally, and their production is now more efficient than it has ever been.
However, because bricks are typically fired using fossil fuels, their sustainability credentials should be considered in this light. Bricks flow slowly through a continuously fired tunnel kiln in many modern brickworks. Machine-made (moulded or extruded and wire-cut) and hand-made face bricks are the two basic types, and both come in a wide range of colours and textures. The chemical and mineral content of the raw materials, the firing temperature, and the kiln atmosphere all influence the fired colour of clay bricks.
The clay brick is inherently long-lasting. Because of their high thermal mass, bricks can assist prevent internal temperature swings. They do, however, have a low embodied carbon. A life-cycle analysis reveals that, over time.
The brick manufacturing process has come a long way in the last 30 years or more, contributing to the material’s increasing sustainability. Manufacturing operations have been redesigned to employ extremely efficient tunnel kilns that are fired with natural gas and recycle all waste heat and clay within the same facility. And, because to constant innovation, the amount of energy required to build bricks is decreasing year after year.
As a result, brick is less harmful than many other manmade materials. Here are a few easy criteria to keep in mind when specifying (clay) bricks to limit carbon emissions to a minimum while simultaneously decreasing expenses and waste.
Choose your brick carefully
Look into the origins of your brick. Visit the factory to see how they’re manufactured, experiment with different blends and colours, and consider the intended use. Using subtly or strongly contrasting brick to contextualise and stand out might be effective, but the last thing you want is to specify a brick that appears utterly out of place or incorrect. Your structure will be less likely to last if this is the case.
Aubert Park Road, London, designed by Studio 54 Architecture, is an end-of-terrace house whose brickwork blends in while also standing out.
Bricks can be saved, cleaned, and reused to construct new structures. Old bricks can be recycled into new bricks or, less ideally, other building materials like aggregate or concrete, for landscaping or as a sub-base for pavements or roads, and can be reused or recycled virtually indefinitely in this fashion.
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