[Greenbuilding] Circa 1766 (terra cotta) roof shingles

Alan Abrams alan at abramsdesignbuild.com
Wed Mar 13 15:33:19 CDT 2013


> I think that I have a vague memory of Mr. Sloane talking about
> brick-infilled half-timber structures (perhaps the very same of which Jake
> speaks today) and I seem to recall something about the builders using the
> brick for infill simply because it was a convenient place to dispose of
> their garbage bricks. Wattle & daub would have been the traditional infill
> but that'd be more labour-intensive than just chucking junk bricks and
> mortar into the space.
>

Vitruvius describes at length various means of filling the core of masonry
walls.  He notes the failure of monuments with rubble filled cores because
"the mortar lost its strength, which has been sucked out of it by the
porousness of the rubble; and so the monuments are tumbling down and going
to pieces, with their joints loosened by the settling of the material that
bound them together..."

"To avoid such a disaster," Vitruvius prescribes inner wythes of coursed
masonry of "red dimension stone or burnt brick or lava" bound to the
facings with iron clamps and lead.

"For thus his work, being no mere heap of materials but regularly laid in
courses, will be strong enough to last forever..."

Somewhere in his books he describes how buildings are assessed and insured,
based on the method of wall construction--can't find it now, but you can
look it up if you have time...

AA
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