Brick for plinth

The plinth, due to its close location to the ground and, accordingly, moisture, is prone to rapid wetting. It can be made of different materials, but of course a brick is more preferable. But there are several types of bricks, so first you need to figure out which brick is better for the socle, and only after that make the final decision.

How to choose a brick for the socle?

Unfortunately, there is no unambiguous answer to the question, which brick is better to use for the socle. Much depends on those or other parameters and features of the location of the house.

Usually, when building a house, the owners have to choose between two types of brick for the socle - ceramic (calcined, red) and silicate (white).

As the main arguments in favor of one or the other type can be given the main technical characteristics of building materials. Evaluating them, you yourself can determine which brick is needed for the socle.

These characteristics include strength, moisture absorption and frost resistance. If we go in order and evaluate the strength of the two main types of bricks, then, of course, they differ, but in short we can say that both one and the second cope with the load imposed on them. Naturally, we are talking about solid bricks, since hollow a priori for such purposes are not used.

The second indicator is moisture absorption. The optimum figure is 6-13%, and the silicate brick is completely within this range, while the ceramic sometimes goes beyond them, showing a level of up to 14%. Due to its internal structure, silicate bricks absorbed moisture quickly back, but the ceramic retains it for a long period, which leads to its gradual destruction.

Frost resistance of the material directly depends on the previous indicator - moisture absorption. Accordingly, it can be argued that the silicate brick will withstand more cycles of freezing and thawing.

However, red brick is more traditional and many prefer to apply it exactly this. In justification, it can be said that both species have the right to use during the laying of the basement of the house.