BUILDING WITH BRICKS
An abundant natural resource, bricks are made from clay sediment called Varve Clay [vahrv kley], consisting of hydrated silicates of aluminum found in lake sediment and river beds. One of the oldest materials for building, architecture made with bricks have been dated back to 7,000 BC at archeological dig sites. Buildings made from bricks are environmentally friendly and energy efficient because they are heat resistant and non permeable to high pressure and frost.
Ice Age glaciers deposited huge amounts of clay along the banks of the Hudson River, making the Hudson Valley an important resource for early Dutch settlers to the Americas and the North Rockland region the center of the Brick making industry from the 1700’s to the 1940’s.
In 1835, the Wall Street Fire devastated 674 buildings and 13 acres of New York’s financial district, leading to a change in building codes increasing demand for buildings made with bricks. Thanks to the Hudson River, Haverstraw’s brick makers were well positioned to supply New York’s exploding demand for bricks.
Go therefore now and work; for there shall no straw be given to you; yet ye shall deliver the tale of bricks.
Exodus 51-8
The patterned arrangement of brick or stone in a wall
A pasty building material composed of sand, lime and cement mixed with water. This mixture gradually hardens when exposed to the air. Mortar is used as a joining medium in brick and stone construction.
The mortar bond placed between individual masonry units such as brick, block or stone.
A horizontal row of bricks, when laid in a wall. It is a continuous level or layer of any masonry unit throughout the face or faces of a building. A header course, for example, would consist entirely of header facing bricks.
Brick walls can be structural, like load bearing walls, or they can also be primarily decorative, like a brick-veneer wall. Structural walls demand solid structural bonds, while decorative walls can use any bond pattern.
