Alright, let’s talk about this brick stuff, ya know, like buildin’ a wall or somethin’. They call it a “brick coursing chart,” sounds fancy, but it ain’t nothin’ but figurin’ out how many bricks you need and how high they gotta go. Don’t get all confused now, I’ll make it simple.
First off, you gotta know what kind of brick you’re usin’. They got all sorts, big ones, small ones, skinny ones, fat ones. Some are long like a loaf of bread, and some are square like a box. This chart thingy, it helps you sort it all out, tells ya how tall each brick is with that mortar stuff in between.
See, you can’t just stack bricks on top of each other, no sir. You gotta put that cement stuff, the mortar, in between. That mortar, it takes up space, so you gotta figure that in too. The chart, it shows you how much space the brick and the mortar take up together, see? It’s like addin’ apples and oranges, but in this case, it’s bricks and that sticky stuff.
- Brick Size Matters: Like I said, different bricks, different sizes. Some are like those big ol’ “Imperial Modular” ones, others are the regular kind. The chart, it’s got different sections for different bricks. You gotta find the right one for your brick. Don’t go lookin’ at the wrong part, or your wall will be all crooked, and folks will be laughin’ at ya.
- Mortar Joints: That mortar, it makes a “joint” between the bricks. And these joints, they ain’t all the same size. Some are skinny, some are fat. The chart, it tells ya how much space each joint takes up, so you can add it all together right. It’s like measurin’ flour for a cake, gotta be precise, or it won’t turn out good.
- Vertical and Horizontal: Now, bricks go up and they go sideways, right? Well, the chart, it helps you figure out both. How many bricks you need to go up to make the wall tall enough, and how many you need to go across to make it long enough. It’s like countin’ rows in a cornfield, gotta know how many rows you got to get the job done.
So, let’s say you wanna build a wall that’s, oh I don’t know, ten bricks high. You look at the chart, find your brick size, find how thick the mortar is gonna be, and then it tells you how high that wall will be. It ain’t rocket science, just addin’ and measurin’. If the chart says ten bricks and some mortar get you this high, and that ain’t high enough, well, then you gotta add more bricks, simple as that.
And don’t you go forgettin’, they got these fancy numbers and letters for the bricks too. Like “ASTM C 216” or “ASTM C 652,” sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me. But it just means the bricks are strong enough to do the job. Some bricks are tougher than others, ya know? Like some folks are tougher than others. You gotta make sure you get the right bricks for what you’re buildin’. Don’t use flimsy bricks for a big ol’ wall, it’ll come tumblin’ down, and then where will ya be?
The chart, it helps you with all this. It tells you about how many bricks you need for a certain area too. Like, if you want to build a wall that’s this long and this high, it’ll give you an idea of how many bricks to get. So you don’t go buyin’ too many or too few. Waste not, want not, that’s what I always say.
They got these charts for all sorts of bricks, big “Norman” bricks, square “Queen” bricks, all of ’em. And they measure ’em in different ways too, some in inches, some in those “millimeters” they talk about on the TV. Don’t matter much, as long as you know what you’re lookin’ at and you use the same kind of measurin’ all the way through. Don’t go mixin’ up inches and centimeters, or your wall will look like a dog’s breakfast.
So, that’s the long and short of it. This brick coursing chart, it’s just a tool to help you figure out how many bricks you need and how to put ’em together. It saves you time, saves you money, and saves you from havin’ a crooked, wobbly wall that’ll fall down the first time a good wind comes along. It ain’t complicated, just gotta pay attention and do it right.
Tags: [Brick, Mortar, Construction, Building, Brick Size, Wall, Imperial Modular Brick, Queen Brick, Norman Brick, Coursing Chart]
