Technical Notes

Technical Notes on Brick Construction are FREE bulletins from the Brick Industry Association that contain design, detailing, and construction information based on the latest technical developments in brick masonry. Drawings, photographs, tables, and charts illustrate appropriate topics.

Technical Notes on Brick Construction are recommendations on the use of fired clay brick. They are explicitly written for fired clay brick which are manufactured:

    1)  from clay, shale, or similar naturally-occurring earthy substances, and
    2)  with a firing process that creates a fired bond between the particles of the brick.

The properties of fired clay brick and the clay brick masonry made from them were used to establish the recommendations in these Technical Notes.  Using these recommendations with other products that are not manufactured as outlined above may not result in the same performance associated with fired clay brick masonry. Further, use of these Technical Notes for the design, installation, and maintenance of construction built with other products may in fact be detrimental to those products and the building on which they are installed. Thus, BIA and VMA do not advise the use of these recommendations with other products, including but not limited to those claiming to be similar to fired clay brick products such as “fly ash” brick, concrete brick, and other unfired or non-clay brick.