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Brick Laying Orientation

Hello! Sorry if the question seems stupid and obvious, I am new to masonry but one of the worker at a construction site that it was better to lay brick on its short edge as shown on the top , rather than use the commonly used one shown on the bottom. He further demonstrate it to me by hitting the brick with hammer in both orientation and as expected the one on the bottom breaks while the one on the top does not. I did told him that if the brick on the bottom were laid in a stack as high as the first orientation it should be as strong or even stronger. The worker gave a counter argument saying that then the top one will be economical.

It seems counter intuitive, since larger surface area usually provides greater axial strength. I did mention about stability as well since less brick contact area are more prone to stability problem in a lateral load condition. However is there any more reason of why brick are normally laid on its larger sides.

Thankyou!

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  • $\begingroup$ Bricks are oriented based on the task they need to perform, do a search for bonds like Flemish etc $\endgroup$
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Jul 29 at 12:25
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    $\begingroup$ any brick used as a structural component would have its orientation specified. Bricks in the US are strictly a veneer, they have no structural value. $\endgroup$
    – Tiger Guy
    Commented Jul 29 at 14:38
  • $\begingroup$ As @TigerGuy observed, in the US these days, bricks are a veneer. As the bricks are laid, they are attached to the underlying frame wall with veneer anchors of some sort. Bricks laid narrow side down are less stable than wide side down. $\endgroup$
    – user1683793
    Commented Jul 31 at 1:42

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If the hammer came from the top then the demonstration was misleading, the impact force is a shock but a wall will not have shock loads applied tangentially to the wall. Instead those loads are static compressive loads where a wider wall will give higher strength.

Instead an impact to the wall will be into the face of the wall. There a brick laying in the top orientation will provide more strength and be less likely to shatter.

However if the bricks are meant purely as a facade then it doesn't matter because it will have the actual load bearing structure behind it to keep the building upright. Making the wall thinner in that case reduces weight and material cost.

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