Wall thickness is a personal preference, and there is no standard thickness for exterior walls. Some people find extra thick walls oppressive, while others feel they give the property character and create a feeling of warmth. Exterior walls typically measure between 4 to 6 inches thick, with standard residential walls having a 4-inch width, while commercial buildings may go up to 6 inches.
Exterior walls are made of brick, wood, insulated vinyl, steel, andcinder blocks. The International Residential Code requires a minimum thickness of 9 inches, and standard bricks often have a height of 65 millimeters or 2.56 inches. Bricks laid out on an exterior wall or inside are bonded by mortar, and the thickness of exterior residential walls when using ICFs depends on several factors.
Indoor walls are anywhere from 4 to 6 inches thick, and exterior walls are typically 6 to 8 inches. In such brickwork walls, the external wall is usually 13.5 inches thick or ‘1.5 brick thick’, while the internal walls are 9 inches thick or ‘1’.
Solid brick masonry walls are commonly between 8′-16′ (2.44-4.88 m) with wall lengths of 12′-32′ (3.66-9.75 m). The external wall width for a new extension is 102.5mm – exterior bricks, 150mm – cavity for the cavity. Cavity walls have two skins of masonry, each about 4 inches thick, spaced apart with a gap between them.
Cement blocks provide flexibility as solid brick walls are usually about 22 cm thick, cavity walls between 27 cm and 30 cm thick, and solid stone walls could be as much as 50 cm thick.
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How wide is a single brick wall?
The author is facing a dilemma after being denied further borrowing on their house due to a single-skinned portion. The single brick wall is around 4 inches wide, while a still lid brick wall is around 9 inches wide. The front and back walls fit the required width for a solid brick wall, and after removing plaster, this seems to be the case. However, the ground floor appears to be a single skin of brick with a later addition of concrete block work.
The first floor has a thinner wall around 6 inches wide, which appears to be single brick. The author is unsure of the safety and mortgageability of this building method and is seeking any insights from others who have experienced this issue. Photos of the building, its age, size of the gable end, original purpose, and whether it is a conversion or extension are also needed. Mortgage lenders may be more concerned about half brick walls.
What is exterior width?
The vehicle’s ASD static position with proper tire pressures is utilized, excluding components such as flexible antennae, in the absence of individuals or cargo on board.
What is the width of an exterior brick wall?
The minimum thickness of exterior walls in one-story buildings is 10 inches (254 mm), with laterally supported walls not exceeding 24 feet (7315 mm). Furthermore, interior load-bearing walls must be 8 inches (203 mm) in thickness.
How wide are the walls in a house?
Most houses are stick-framed, with interior walls being framed with 2x4s, making them about 4½ inches thick. The studs, or vertical pieces, make up most of a wall’s frame, with cavities called bays between them. The bottom plate is a horizontal piece at the bottom of the wall, which is nailed to the floor. The top plate, often a doubled 2×4, anchors the top ends of the studs and ties the wall into the ceiling. In new construction, walls are usually built while on the floor with a single top plate.
The second layer, which ties them together, is added after the walls are raised into position. Blocking is sometimes added between the studs to provide a solid spot for attaching items like cabinets or handrails. In some cases, blocking is required as a fire-stop, where a stud bay extends between floors to prevent it from acting as a chimney for a fire.
What size is a standard exterior brick?
The most prevalent brick size is the modular brick, which measures 3-5/8″ in thickness, 2-1/4″ in height, and 7-5/8″ in length. It should be noted that brick dimensions and mortar quantities may vary by plant. Therefore, it is advisable to contact the sales department for further information. The number of units per linear foot in various positions is calculated on the assumption that mortar joints are 3/8″ thick. It should be noted that additional quantities may be required to allow for waste and construction requirements.
What is the width of a double brick wall?
Double brick walls are typically 240mm to 250mm thick, with a cavity of 30mm to 50mm. They can have an outer-facing wall of 105mm and an inner wall of 85mm or up to 110mm. Double brick is more durable and resistant than brick veneer, especially against fire, strong winds, and pests. Perth has a strong love affair with double brick homes due to their durability and resistance to various weather conditions. The bricks are not holding up the brick veneer property, making double brick a popular choice in Perth.
How thick is a brick wall in MM?
Brick walls typically have a thickness of 230mm (9″), while concrete block walls have thicknesses of 200mm (8″), 150mm (6″), and 100mm (4″) respectively. In the building trade, wall thickness excludes plaster, so a plastered wall may have a 1″ or 1. 5″ higher thickness than stated in an architectural drawing or contract. To run electrical wires or pipes in brick walls, you must first chase the wall, which involves cutting a groove for services and installing a conduit (plastic pipe) in the wall. Masonry walls are generally stable only to a height of 10-15 ft (3-4m), and to construct a higher wall, you need to design a special wall with intermediate structural members.
What is the width of an exterior wall?
The standard thickness of ICF exterior walls is 12 inches, reducing room sizes and reducing a home’s square footage. To maintain this, the overall house dimensions must be increased, impacting the roof and foundation design. Wider jamb extensions are needed for doors and windows. Modifying traditional building plans to ICF construction costs about $1, 000. Fox Blocks ICF walls offer an average exterior wall thickness, helping homeowners build energy-efficient, disaster-resistant, and durable homes with excellent IEQ.
How thick are exterior walls in mm?
To determine the type of wall construction in a house, measure the wall thickness through an open window. A single brick is around 4. 5″ thick, while a wall with a thickness of 9-10″ or 230mm-260mm is likely solid, constructed from two rows of interlinked bricks. Plaster and render may also contribute to the thickness. Historically, the Local Authority Building Control function was not active, leading to the use of thinner brickwork in extensions and alterations.
Wall thickness less than 150mm can cause thermal inefficiency and be considered “non habitable space”. Cavity walls were common in Bristol since the 1930s, but there are still examples of solid walled properties from the 1930s. If the wall is 12″ or 300mm thick, it is likely of cavity construction.
How wide is a normal house brick?
The size of bricks depends on the type used, with the most common size being 76mm high x 230mm long x 110mm wide for normal face bricks. However, other brick types, like double course bricks, may have different sizing. Brick dimensions may vary due to natural material quality and production variances. Therefore, it’s crucial to consider these dimensions when purchasing bricks to ensure they are the right fit for your project.
How wide is a normal wall?
The standard wall thickness in home construction has increased from 4 inches to 6 inches for new construction. This change is due to the increased convection and air movement in homes with only a 4-inch wall and insulation layer. This can lead to cold air entering in winter and heat leaving in summer. A 6-inch wall and insulation layer slows air movement in and out but still allows it to go to the further wall.
Therefore, when building a new home, adding or renovating living spaces, it is crucial to consider the thickness of your walls to ensure comfort and energy efficiency. Thicker walls packed with insulation can help maintain a balance between heating and cooling in the winter and summer seasons.
📹 Thickness of Walls | Masonry
Learn about the thickness of wall in masonry with this video This curriculum on masonry is intended to generate a practical …
As a mason I can appreciate the extra detail you put in there. I’m especially impressed by that massive air gap The only things I would add are deepening those ties and putting a 1/4″ deep and wide cut under those sill brick as a drip edge to prevent premature mortar wear. Especially since your lime washing. You don’t want water running down the brick making the finish wear inconsistent under those windows.
Great article Matt, very informative, and it couldn’t have come out at a more perfect time. I’m currently splitting my screen between this article, and brick details I’m drawing! Glad to see that I’m using similar techniques. I used similar details when designing a brick and stone clad high-rise in downtown Dallas, TX last year. Now, I’m using them to clad a 600sf ice cream shop in Export, PA. The size and location of the building may change, but the science behind how the assembly works is all the same. Keep up the great content!
Matt, I have been perusal your website through the pandemic, taking your building class, now putting it to practice. I have completed my plans (architect and engineer completed), site prep, have all my permits, and sub contractor is putting in the septic. Currently getting proposals from all the trades now. I am looking forward to perusal the articles you will be putting up on your house build. One product I am using on exterior is EasyTrim Reveals with Hardie shiplap and panels, do you have any experience with EasyTrim?
Best paint for stone and brick is a potassium silicate coating as its a permeable coating. I get it through a company in NYC specializing in stone restoration and maintenance, Cathedral Stone. Landlords who opted for the cheaper elastomera coating are now stuck with horrible water penetration and brick spauling issues.
Wondering about the brick sill. I was told to use a stone sill because it is not porous. The mortar in Matt’s sill will allow water to penetrate. Mortar is not meant to be vertical. Perhaps in Texas it would work. However, in colder climates it would lead to early failure due to frost heaving. Any thoughts?
it’s so odd that in the USA brick is a ‘facade’ while here in the Netherlands, that is the loadbarring structure. But you don’t scratch out the mortar a bit when building up a wall? to put grout in after to make it water tight?? Also your masons don’t seem to water the brick before using it? won’t that dry out your mortar way to fast? or do you have a different mix of that in the states?
“so when you want to replace the windows in 50 years” Me: looks around at his less than 20 years old house, with half of the windows replaced recently because the “builder’s special” windows it was built with were falling to pieces. At least we went with proper Andersen this time, instead of literally no-name windows like the previous owner.
Okay here’s a few comments from a design engineer and building code. You need a galvanized angle that goes up behind your waterproof system and out at the mortar joint to The brick with weep holes. You put your insulation outside of the water barrier which is wrong and that’s where EFUS had so many problems. If you would put a drainage system house wrap over the outside of the insulation that might work .
I usually work with my brick guys on the coursing to eliminate those little slivers under the window rowlock sill. It looks like 9 or10 courses which even adding a 1/8″ to each course would have eliminated them. I understand the central/south American guys are the majority of brick layers now but I have worked with them to bring their work up to our quality standards. Admittedly, just having housing in their country is a different priority than here but it’s a matter of training.
Interesting as always, but I don’t really like that used recycled / irregular brick, You have a very sleek modern window detail in a “rustic” looking brick wall, Feel like they clash . Painted brick is always tacky in my mind! Think painting that window trim a brown or brick reddish color would help . Great article as always !
Matt, I hate to be “that guy,” but the masonry ties must be embedded at least 1-1/2″ into the depth of the veneer in order to meet code and this article clearly shows the mason installing ties that are barely touching the back edge of the veneer (check out the 4:50 mark in this article). That whole wall fails to meet code and those ties aren’t doing any work. Code issues on this project aside, I’d be careful about showing something so wrong in a article titled as if it should be a how-to reference for others.
Up to this point everything looked perfect in this house. And I’m sorry but that brickwork is terrible. I’m dutch, everything here has brickwork. But i’ve never seen this kind of a crappy job. Those corners are awful. Make it at one go, or don’t bother coming around. The brickwork on the lintel shouldn’t been so slimly cut to fit. It should have gotten a longer “souldier” (or what ya m’ call it). I see no control joints. The mortar looks to “flowy”(?). The amount of mortar they let oose out and drop behind it is just unnecessary. The ties are to short. They are on the edge of the brick instead of on the middle.
Hi Matt, nice to see your brickwork. Im a builder from South Africa and we build almost exclusively with brick and in coastal areas like Cape Town we build cavity walls with two skins of brick seperated with about 60mm of air cavity. We wash the mortar out of the cavity every day and we remove every 2nd brick on first exterior course to enable the mortar to be washed out before it sets. After completion we insert a brick again and leave a “weephole” simmilar to your brillo stuff but just a cleaned out “perp” the same size as vertical mortar bit. If mortar lands on brick ties it creates a moisture path to inside. We only now realizing the importance of insulation although its not taken too seriously yet. The weather not as cold as by you but with rising energy bills its becoming an issue. I love your attention to detail. Our building standards are no where near yours. Its mainly cause its not enforced and theres no barrier to entry of unskilled contractors which is sad as qualified builders have to compete with the cheaper rates of the fly by nights, giving our industry a bad name. Anyway keep up your good work and informative article’s. Regards Conrad, Johannesburg, Ebcon Construction
There is so much stuff on this house I don’t know what is going on with the brick flashing. Normally you would see flashing across the window lintel which gets folded into the head joint with a weep hole to damn and website the water out which I don’t see but there is so much wrap on this house and water proof flashing everywhere it’s like it doesn’t matter. lol. If that trim wasn’t PVC, however, it would be toast in no time without having the normal flashing in place for bricking around windows. But they do recommend a weep hole or two under window sills because you’re supposed to have a weep hole at the base and at the top of the wall and a window obstructs that and can create an air pressure issue that can draw water in.
I’m not or ever have been a brick layer, but it seems to me that using a bricklayers rule would have given the correct mortar thicknesses to meet the bottoms of the windows to not have to cut bricks into those thin sliced pieces to match the bottoms. An extra 16th of an inch or so per course would have easily obviated the need to thin slice all those bricks. Measurements and calculating from the bricklayers rule would have given the correct mortar thicknesses and saved time, too.
I don’t like that thin sliver under the window sill rowlock. It should have been laid out so there is a full size bricks running underneath the rowlock. That’s Bricklaying 101. .. also there should be flashing and weep holes at the window sill, but it’s not really that big of a deal, most of your moisture will be from condensation.
I’m not sure what you’re objecting to in regards aesthtics. Generally the brick looks ok. Millions of houses in Ameica have had corners “toothed” which is fine so long as they take their tuck pointer to get the bed joints completely tucked full of mortar. As to someone’s comment that the mortar looked to “flowy”; if you’ve ever laid brick in Texas you know that your mortar is going is going to go “off” very quickly! As long as your able to maintain coursing it is fine. Yes they should alter their technique in throwing head joints so they make sure to get at least 80% of the head joint full if not 100%. Also they should have used a brick rule and started from where the bottom of the lintel was scheduled to cross over and bond the courses our all the way to the first course. Sometimes architects design so many things at different heights it becomes impossible to course all of that out because this is supposed to be a level continuous product! Last two things…the rowlock under one of the windows was at best level but in reality looked to be sloping back towards the window! Lastly I agree with another commenter that in one place the high dollar wall ties were barely a 1/2″ into the brick. It’s clear Matt is building this project as a commercial project but most of the time they still revert to using “house brickers” which are not usually the highest skilled. I’ve been in the commercial masonry business 32 years and every time I think I’ve seen it all…something else tops the last thing I saw!
I get that your bricklayers worked pretty fast but the brick looks like a big mess. It has a lot of mortar all over it…. looks like my 1st brick job… I also made a mess, and it didn’t clean off very well, and from there on I was super careful.. Edit.. I Commented before perusal the whole article, it seems that it’s likely salvaged brick or something like that
I wish you would have gotten more into the weeps and venting, as well as what type of wrb’s work behind brick. I’ve been trying to explain to my friend that’s a builder but he and apparently every other builder in the Chattanooga area just don’t get it. Around here they use commodity grade osb sheathing with lumber yard brand housewrap that isn’t taped behind brick with no weeps and no vents. When I refer to brick as a “reservoir cladding” they look at me like I made up that term. I’m a retired electrician but I’m pretty sure I know more about building houses than anybody I’ve met since moving to Tennessee 5 years ago.
Love the information, but not very helpful unless you have the money to completely demolish your house and rebuild it from scratch. I’m happy for you, but it’s hard to watch. It’s like having a long conversation with my wife, you say the words “I, Me, and My” way too much. Not trying to be a troll, so this will be only comment I will ever make on any of your articles.
When looking for a quality brick mason look for a union contractor. If you notice Matt used a high dollar brick tie but when installed the tie into the brick lays less than an inch into the joint. Masonry standards call for the tie to come out 1 inch from the face of the brick. The way these are installed they will hold nothing. Also he uses all the proper flashing except at one crucial area, the window sill. There should be a flashing under the rowlock sill that is tied into the flashing that was installed before the window. Any moisture leaking at the window sill will then be diverted out to the front of the wall. Weep ropes should also be installed on the flashing to aid in the movement of water. I have seen the vents he used on the bottom of the wall cut in half and put into the joints of the rowlock. As far as the rowlock goes the masonry institute of America does not recommend its use as a wall topping or for sills. Limestone sills seal out moisture better and look better and in the end makes for a better product. Believe me rowlock will leak. The lintel at the top of the window should also have a metal drip edge and flashing covering the lintel and continuing to the building wall or in this case the insulation board. Any moisture getting into the wall cavity will then be diverted to the face of the wall. Vents and weeps should be used hear also. On the electrical boxes use a piece of plastic conduit from the back of the box and thru the wall. The conduit can be sealed to the wall and would allow for installation of the wire later.
As a cabinetmaker and carpenter I cannot express my appreciation for doing things correctly and taking it a step further. So few owners are willing to do anything that increases time or manpower. Taking a few minutes to do it ‘right’ makes all the difference later. Fewer callbacks and happy customers mean more to me than saving 20 minutes per man per day.
I’m a bricklayer from the US and I can vouch that we have some of the worst bricklayers in the world. Can’t level, can’t plumb, can’t bond, can’t use a brick ruler, can’t fill head joints, can’t cut, can’t build a proper lead, or install ties properly. This job is a perfect example! All that said, every one of these guys have more work than they can handle and make a lot more than skilled guys from other countries. It’s actually sad. Matt, it definitely speaks to your integrity trying to sell these guys and their work. Shameful. I won’t be perusal anymore Best to just stucco that mess
how bad is that brickwork, bond is all over the place, mortar stains, squeeze out into the cavity which will end up with mortar falling into the base of the cavity and moisture transfer. also find it funny that this is basically a cavity tray being built into the wall that has been building code for 40+ years in the uk
Matt, you have an almost maintenance free brick facade, DO NOT PAINT. It looks beautiful! re painting your house every 8-10 years is expensive, time consuming, annoying and with every new coat of paint it just looks worse and worse. Please leave it bare brick! your wife is right, women always are, leave it! 😀 Love your house and all your amzing details btw!
Wasn’t impressed with the mason’s brick laying habits. Super sloppy. He didn’t put any mortar on the brick for the head joint, he just used whatever was slopped up against the prior brick. I didn’t see a single level on the site as they only used their eyeballs and a string to keep the rows level and never tapped the trowel or wiggle any brick to keep them level. Glad it isn’t my house…
If you paint it, your definitely want to opt for either a limewash or a mineral silicate paint (like BEECK or KEIM). Considering you siding, if you’re going for an Old World look synthesized with modern design, limewash may be the way to go. But, ultimately, it’s up to your wife; she’s the boss when it comes to the house. 😆
Black paint on the exterior of the windows? In Texas? I love your show but regardless of UV reflectivity, it’s still black and will absorb heat. Since this is on the southern exposure it will magnify your soon to be problem. Triple pane is smart but you are way too professional to make this mistake. Now if you said that it was a “happy wife, happy life” compromise, I could understand.
My wife and I had to have a heated discussion when she wanted our brick painted last year. Her argument was that everyone just paints with latex and it’s fine. I told her it would bite us in the butt, plus repainting and peeling every few years. What won the aguement was that romabio lasted much longer (she wasn’t sold on the building science argument because there is not much out there in white paper or professional form except from paint companies). Thanks for the great article.
You did everything proper until I seen your tooth out Corner masonry does not bond together properly when tooting out corners that’s why they took it away from being able to be done in commercial work there is no strength involved in a tooth out corner bond is never good not trying to criticize anything in your work is very beautiful it is looking good
i do not see weep holes on the top of the wall there like you said @matt; could you please show that in some way in one of your upcoming articles please? I see a lot of images googling around for the weep holes but not so much on the holes on the top of the brick wall for air venting like you mentioned.
that brick seal under the window will be the first location that needs mortar repointed. My old VA house, we had massive issues with the same style brick, ended up replacing the brick seals with concrete seals. Hopefully the new orders don’t have to mess with them for many years to come. love all your details!