method of Building and Expanding with Brick Ecological Brick

 The ecological brick is also known as soil-cement brick, as it is made from the mixture of earth, cement, sand and additives, which are pressed into a specific machine for this purpose.

It is called ecological by this manufacturing process, which does not involve the burning – and consequent release of CO2 – as in ceramic bricks, and also because its use dispenses with the use of beams and pillars, constituting a self-supporting system. This avoids wasting material such as the wood wood workmas that are used to create the pillars.

Another advantage is the possibility of passing the electrical and hydraulic pipe as the wall is mounted, without breaker, which optimizes the time, cost and again the expenditure of material.

Once ready, the walls can receive only varnish for protection, leaving the bricks apparent, or else receive finishing with dough and any type of coating, such as paint or ceramic. The brick can also receive paint without applying dough, leaving the texture apparent. This possibility of making the brick appear reduces the costs of coatings, helping to make it a more economical system.

The fact that it is cheaper in this case does not mean that the system has lower quality. In fact it is the opposite, since thermal and acoustic comfort is better than that of ordinary bricks, ceramic or concrete.

Structural Requirements

Generally, in single-storey works, two mooring straps are made that go through the entire house, at 1.10 and 2.20 m. These straps (commonly called lintel and counter-lint or strap and lintel) are nothing more than a channel-type brick (see example in The Famous Soil-Cement / Ecological Brick) through which two iron bars run and are filled with concrete . It has the function similar to that of a horizontal beam present in conventional masonry, with the difference that they will traverse the entire house at these times, not only in large free spans, doors and windows. They are essential for the support of the walls, so that this huge Lego has the proper mooring between all the walls, internal or external, distributing the load of the subsequent rows and roof.

Rebar 5/16 "runs" through the channel and is tied to the vertical grouts. The channel is then filled with cement, gravel and medium sand.

Note that the holes in the bricks must be preserved for 2 reasons: hydraulic / electrical passages and also to maintain the air column that will exist in the drilling of the bricks, which provides thermoacoustic insulation to the soil-cement (ecological) brick.

To accomplish this work, there are many possibilities, but there is a practical and inexpensive way to do it:

The disposable cups will protect the hole of the brick that should not be filled. Where there are grouts and along the channel, everything is filled with concrete.

And so it will be all over the house, on all walls, being closed only in door spans or windows that have lower sill than the height of the channel. The mason should have the whim of using a whole brick in the corners rather than the channel, not to let the concrete appear on the inner face of the span.