3 ms·
I read an article, I think on here, a few years ago talking about the reason brick buildings look so ugly so fast now is essentially that skilled bricklayers ar
by Fomite 8y ago
I read an article, I think on here, a few years ago talking about the reason brick buildings look so ugly so fast now is essentially that skilled bricklayers are no longer a thing.
- Spooky23 8y agoThat’s also a brick thing. After WW2, bricks were needed in vast quantities for various public works, and the quantities of cheap brick shifted production to the south. That basically put the whole rest of the business out of business.
- NeedMoreTea 8y agoDon't know about in the US, but here in the UK engineering brick mostly died out after WW2. Pre-war lots of commercial buildings and housing were built with engineering brick. Iron hard and usually with a shiny face that's more like china. They were mostly impervious to water - enough to also be used as damp proofing - and chemical ingress. Only really used to restore and for a few industrial applications now. Regular bricks can be damaged by frost, salt and pollutants surprisingly easily.
- peterclary 8y agoDid a building conservation course a few years back which covered damp proof courses and engineering bricks, showing pictures of how people had had to allow insurance company-approved damp-proof “experts” to drill a cavity into the face of each engineering brick, inject some treatment, and then seal it off. Ugly, expensive, and totally unnecessary.