Brickwork - Thickness

Thickness

The thickness of brickwork is usually measured in bricks. Brickwork is said to be one brick thick if it has a total width equal to the length of one of its regular component bricks. Accordingly, a wall of a single leaf is a wall of one half brick thickness; a double leaf wall is said to be one brick thick, and so on. The thickness specified for a wall is determined by such factors as damp proofing considerations, whether or not the wall has a cavity, load-bearing requirements, and expense. Wall thickness specification has proven considerably various, and while some non-load-bearing brick walls may be as little as half a brick thick, others brick walls will be much thicker. The Monadnock Building in Chicago — for example — is a very tall masonry building, and has load-bearing brick walls nearly two metres thick at the base. The majority of brick walls are however usually between one and three bricks thick. At these more modest wall thicknesses, distinct patterns have emerged allowing for the judicious layout of bricks internal to the brickwork of each particular specified thickness of wall.