Solid Concrete Brick or Solid Engineering Brick

Hi Gang, I am huge fan of this forum & Rod's excellent book. I am in the middle of another studio build and most of the design concepts for it (the good parts anyway, the bad bits are all my own fault) came from being along time reader here. I am however having a little dilemma, generally I persevere with the search tool until I find the info I need, but I can't seem to find this one. The studio building has 600mm stone walls, inside I am doing the 2 x 15mm plasterboard, green glue etc on stud, built on two separate concrete pads I have had poured (on top of the usual 100mm celotex, dpm stuff) The existing windows in the stone structure are to be blocked up with fake windows left on the outside see the attached image. I want to block the windows with either Solid Concrete Brick or Solid Engineering Brick (clay) I believe the engineering bricks are more dense than the common clays. I don't want to use the large hollows because there would be a huge amount of cuts with the windows being small areas to fill. http://johnlsayers.com/Recmanual/Pages/STC%20Chart.htm This is an excellent page but what are your thoughts on the bricks being laid in the other direction like this:- Gut feeling, will this perform close to sand filed hollows? Would Solid Concrete Brick or Solid Engineering Brick be better in terms of TL in this application? Many thanks Nick

I have to order them in a couple of hours, anyone fancy taking a guess? :oops: Cheers N

Both brick and concrete are about the same density (around 2000 - 2400 kg/m3), so there won't be a lot if difference, no matter which way you go on choice of materials, for the same thickness wall.

what are your thoughts on the bricks being laid in the other direction like this:-

That would make the wall much thicker, and therefore increase the isolation, as compared to a simple stretcher bond wall. You might also want to consider doing English bond or Flemish bond, if you want to make it that thick, for better structural integrity. - Stuart -

Thank you Stuart! That was exactly what I needed to know, perfect! Many thanks Nick