Is double brick housing good or bad? | Particle

particle.scitech.org.au Is double brick housing good or bad? | Particle

There's a solid reason why West Aussies are set on this classic, durable building material, but double-brick might not be the home of choice as the climate changes.

Short, but nice article on double brick housing in WA. It'll be interesting to see how the home construction industry here changes in the coming decades.

19 comments

Kinda reminds me of rammed earth, but I think rammed earth is better about cooling down. (?)
- The rammed earth i've seen has been thicker than two bricks, and had no cavity. Maybe the properties are similar, but magnified?
  
  Maybe. I haven't heard of rammed earth keeping a house hot. I'm guessing that's the cavity in the middle holding hot air.

I think in the future there will be a market for putting insulation plus cladding on the outside of double brick homes. Mine turns in to a pizza oven after a few consecutive 35+ days.
- This is what we're starting to think about doing at mine. At the moment thinking some kind of faux limestone cladding/half brick outer shell. Not only to hide some extra insulation, but to hide the boring cream bricks. But in the early planning days still.

Same in QLD. My friends were complaining about their double brick, and how it holds heat for days and days, making it unbearable.
- Are the old Queenslanders style house still built much?
  
  They are yes. There's a current trend where new builds are emulating the older look with weatherboard appearance. But, it's all modern materials now, and inside they're nothing like the beautiful old girls of the past. Much more liveable though, with all the mod cons.

why do they use these decorative bricks for building walls? why not normal modern bricks? you know, these: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Porotherm_style_clay_block_brick_angle_1.jpg
- What a lovely utilitarian idea! Seriously though, i reckon theres someone out there who has used these bricks in a ridiculously cool way. I'll have to wait for the Grand designs episode i suppose. /j
  
  pretty much all of hungary (not sure about other countries, but i'd expect at least the rest of central europe too) uses these types of bricks for almost everything. it's not a new thing either, we've had these all my life. not sure when they were introduced.
  but i've never seen these types used by anglo nations, and it's always bugged me.

19 comments