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I am building a country french style home in So. Calif. and plan on putting real brick on the front of the home and separate garage. The home is large and the brick may go as high as 15′ up the front of the structure. Typical brick facades are usually only 4 or 5 feet high and are attached with standard “brick ties” nailed to the studs and allow a 1 to 2 inch space between the paper and the brick for water drainage. If I propose a 15′ high brick wall single thickness, it seems to me to be very suseptible to earthquake damage. Should it not be attached securly and adjacent to the wood frame via expanded metal lath for example? Any help or suggestions.
Allen Corbett [email protected]
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Alan,
I don't know what your codes allow ( I'm in Australia ) but we go that high and higher without any problems. Of course we don't have the woory of earthquakes but I worked a couple of years in N.Z. where they do and all they use is a special articulated tie on their brickwork.
Also here we are limited to a maximum of 4 meters ( 12') before we have to have a vertical expansion joint to help eliminate cracking. If you are putting brick over windows make sure you use a strong enough steel lintel ( ours are galvanized ) and again use vertical control joints on at least one side of the window.
Mark
*Sir,I suggest you take a look at books from the Brick Institute of America. The book I have, (can't remember the title) does a real good job of presenting general construction techniques for brick. In general, brick veneer (that seems to be what you're doing) is attached such that it is held to the structure allowing for vertical and horizontal expansion - not rigidly attached.Make sure that you hire a mason that knows howto install reinforcing, ties, and flashings properly.Take a look at previous installions.Bear
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I am building a country french style home in So. Calif. and plan on putting real brick on the front of the home and separate garage. The home is large and the brick may go as high as 15' up the front of the structure. Typical brick facades are usually only 4 or 5 feet high and are attached with standard "brick ties" nailed to the studs and allow a 1 to 2 inch space between the paper and the brick for water drainage. If I propose a 15' high brick wall single thickness, it seems to me to be very suseptible to earthquake damage. Should it not be attached securly and adjacent to the wood frame via expanded metal lath for example? Any help or suggestions.
Allen Corbett [email protected]