I' going to construct a couple of brick paths in my garden. I was going
to buy propper paviors, but a friend has offered me a full palate of
normal house bricks, do you think they will be ok as a path or will
they just crumble


Cheers

In message , Janet Baraclough
writes
The message .com
from "garryac" contains these words:

I' going to construct a couple of brick paths in my garden. I was going
to buy propper paviors, but a friend has offered me a full palate of
normal house bricks, do you think they will be ok as a path or will
they just crumble

It depends to some extent what kind of bricks they are and what part
of the country you live in.
Engineering bricks are very hard and much more resitant to weathering
from water, freezing and treading on. If you live in a wet cold area,
softer stock bricks will weather much more.
If they have a frog (indent) on one or two sides, lay them with a flat
side uppermost, to minimise weathering caused by water freezing in the
frog. But having said that, they will still last years and since you''re
getting them free I wouldn't hesitate to use them.

Good advice on laying paths of all kinds from an ex-urglers
professional website at

www.pavingexpert.com.

Cormaic. That brings back memories. Always gave the best advice.
IMNSHO
--
June Hughes

In article ,
June Hughes writes:
| In message , Janet Baraclough
| writes
| The message .com
| from "garryac" contains these words:
|
| I' going to construct a couple of brick paths in my garden. I was going
| to buy propper paviors, but a friend has offered me a full palate of
| normal house bricks, do you think they will be ok as a path or will
| they just crumble
|
| It depends to some extent what kind of bricks they are and what part
| of the country you live in.
| Engineering bricks are very hard and much more resitant to weathering
| from water, freezing and treading on. If you live in a wet cold area,
| softer stock bricks will weather much more.

Commons will break up in such areas in a few years, but some house
bricks will last tolerably well. There is a gradation from the
cheapest and nastiest commons up to engineering bricks and beyond.
For example, I know of places where 18th century bricks are still
sound, and they were the same as were often used for houses - but
those that were less durable have long since turned back into soil!

| Cormaic. That brings back memories. Always gave the best advice.
| IMNSHO

Yes. His advice was sometimes overkill, but you would never go
wrong following it.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

garryac wrote:
I' going to construct a couple of brick paths in my garden. I was
going to buy propper paviors, but a friend has offered me a full
palate of normal house bricks, do you think they will be ok as a path
or will they just crumble

Unless they are engineers (which is unlikely as they are being given away
and they are expensive) then yes, they will crumble away inside a few years.
Frost is the main culprit - once the water which has soaked into them
freezes, it pushes small sheets of brick off, leaving the rougher insides
even more susceptible to water and frost damage, but the main thing, as has
been mentioned before in this thread, is that they are free and therefore
should be used.
Now that you know a little about the main causes of disintegration, it's
wise to minimise water absorption into the bricks themselves and there are a
few ways you can do this:

1) lay them on sand, it prevents water holding on the underside and
increases drainage, therby removing water from the underside.

2) make sure there's a slope, either to the right or left but not the length
of the path (unless the ground is naturally sloping that way) - again this
will prevent 'holding water' and it only needs to be an inch from one side
of the path to the other.

3) once the paths are laid, wait for a warm, dry day and give it a few coats
of patio sealant, you will need to do this anually or even twice annually,
early and late summer would be best to prevent (as much as possible) water
absorption into the face of the brick.

4) dont allow leaf litter and weeds to build up, these too will hold water.

HTH

Thanks for the advice fellas, very helpful

The message .com
from "garryac" contains these words:

I' going to construct a couple of brick paths in my garden. I was going
to buy propper paviors, but a friend has offered me a full palate of
normal house bricks, do you think they will be ok as a path or will
they just crumble


Cheers

I built a short wall out of ordinary house bricks and it began to
crumble in about three years. Engineering bricks seem to last for ever.

Janet G

Can always ask our brikky if you want.. He's coming to do our wall and I
could ask his advise on path's

JW

garryac wrote:

I' going to construct a couple of brick paths in my garden. I was going
to buy propper paviors, but a friend has offered me a full palate of
normal house bricks, do you think they will be ok as a path or will
they just crumble


Cheers


--
My Blog at: http://www.livejournal.com/users/sw33tf00l/

Janet Galpin wrote:
The message .com
from "garryac" contains these
words:

I' going to construct a couple of brick paths in my garden. I was
going to buy propper paviors, but a friend has offered me a full
palate of normal house bricks, do you think they will be ok as a
path or will they just crumble


Cheers

I built a short wall out of ordinary house bricks and it began to
crumble in about three years. Engineering bricks seem to last for
ever.

Janet G

It all depends on the frost rating of the bricks & the capping/damp course
you use on the wall.

Many "normal house bricks" eg FLB's are suitable for even for paving wheras
as basic fletton would not be suitable for a wall without proper damp
coursing and capping.

Basic flettons will crumble in one winter if used as paving.

It is ESSENTIAL you identify what type of brick you have - look on the frog
face, is there any name embossed on the brick?

pk

"p.k." wrote in message
...
Janet Galpin wrote:
The message .com
from "garryac" contains these
words:

I' going to construct a couple of brick paths in my garden. I was
going to buy propper paviors, but a friend has offered me a full
palate of normal house bricks, do you think they will be ok as a
path or will they just crumble


Cheers

I built a short wall out of ordinary house bricks and it began to
crumble in about three years. Engineering bricks seem to last for
ever.

Janet G

It all depends on the frost rating of the bricks & the capping/damp course
you use on the wall.

Many "normal house bricks" eg FLB's are suitable for even for paving
wheras
as basic fletton would not be suitable for a wall without proper damp
coursing and capping.

Basic flettons will crumble in one winter if used as paving.

It is ESSENTIAL you identify what type of brick you have - look on the
frog
face, is there any name embossed on the brick?


If the OP cannot be 100% sure the 'free' housebricks are suitable for the
job, I'd recommend saying 'no, thanks' and buying in proper paviors as
originally intended. That way, once the job has been done, he can relax
without worrying that the housebricks might soon perish and cause the whole
job to need doing again (including lifting, removal and disposal of the
perished bricks).

Thanks I'm sort of leaning that way although I will check the name out
on one of the bricks and investigate


Thanks again to everyone for the help

"garryac" wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks I'm sort of leaning that way although I will check the name out
on one of the bricks and investigate


Thanks again to everyone for the help


As a previous poster said, some FLB bricks (
http://www.flb.uk.com/living_landscape.htm) can be used as pavers (e.g. they
recommend use of their overburnt bricks for colour patten amongst their
'proper' pavers) and the free bricks *might* be robust enough, although that
doesn't necessarily mean they's be as 'non-slip' as pavers.

It occurs to me that some builders merchants have 'brick museums' at their
premises, since, as you might imagine, people are often trying to identify
bricks from existing buildings so they can match them, if possible, for
extensions or repairs. If you were to take one of your bricks round a few
decent merchants, they might well be able to ID it and possibly comment on
its usefulness for paving. Whilst you were there, you could always look at
some examples of proper pavers, kerbs, etc. Time spent in reconnaisance is
seldom wasted :-)