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Copyright © 1998
Nova Scotia Museum

Brick

Bricks have been used for thousands of years and good quality bricks can be made with very little equipment. Occasionally bricks for a building were even made on site from clay excavated for the basement.

To make bricks, clay is mixed with sand, moulded in a wooden box without a top or bottom (so the brick can be easily rremoved), dried for several days and then baked in a kiln. The bricks near the fire in a kiln might be distorted and discoloured by the heat, those on the outside might still be soft, while those in the middle were just right. The bricks were sorted for quality (consistent in size and colour) and the best were used for the front of a building and poorer ones for the sides and for the interiors of walls.

By the middle of the nineteenth century several brickyards in Nova Scotia had machines, worked by steam engines, which moulded bricks and produced a product much harder and more consistent than handmade bricks.

When looking at brick construction, here are some points to consider:

• Examine the quality of the brick. Are the bricks on the sides of the building more irregular in size and colour than those on the front? If the bricks have a very uneven surface or irregularities, like pebbles in the clay, they may have been had made.

• The way that bricks are laid in a wall is called the bond. There are many different bonds, some of which are easier and cheaper to lay than others. Also some bonds were more popular at various periods. When looking at a brick bond you will see either the side of a brick (stretcher) or the end (header).

• A similar mortar was used for brick and stone. If the bricks were good quality a very fine joint could be used, sometimes as little as one-sixteenth of an inch. If the bricks were not a consistent size a thicker joint would be necessary to keep the courses level.

Brick Bonds
Stretcher bond is the commonest bond used today and the least interesting to look at. In modern buildings it is often used as a veneer to cover concrete blocks or other less attractive building materials.
American common bond consists of a row of headers between approximately five rows of stretchers. This bond was very common in the last half of the nineteenth century. Sometimes you will find stretcher bond on the front of a building and American common bond on the sides and back.
Flemish bond consists of alternating headers and stretchers. It is one of the most attractive bonds and was particularly popular in Georgian buildings. Some recent, “colonial” style banks were built with this bond. Notice the headers above and below a stretcher make a cross.
English bond consists of alternating rows of headers and stretchers. This bond is not too common in Nova Scotia.