Anyone who saw how easily and quickly gathers a plastic house from the children’s designer Lego will understand why this idea found its embodiment in real construction.
Today everyone is saying about the brick Lego, which manufacturers present as innovative material. Let’s figure out how good it is and whether its advertising is objective.
The main idea of Lego brick – is placed exactly even without the skills of the mason
Indeed, laying a wall made of clay brick, which has on the upper plane, protrusions for mutual fixation seems simple. Having set the first row exactly and accurately, all other belts from this material are laid without problems. The protrusions direct the brick, preventing the “verst” to deviate either to the right or to the left. At the corners to enhance the masonry and protect it from displacement in the holes of the brick, steel reinforcement is laid. Everything seems to be correct and beautiful if you do not pay attention to the main disadvantages of Lego brick:
The absence of a solution connecting the wall into a single monolith (vertical and horizontal seams empty).
The impossibility of laying the wall with more than ½ brick (no lateral connections)
Lego brick whose price is quite high, depends on the quality of the equipment on which it is stamped. This is a cloudless material, which means that the quality of raw materials and the technology of its pressing should be impeccable.
The latter circumstance can play a cruel joke with those who have become a desire to build something more serious from this material than a regular barn. The ideal geometry of fixing protrusions on artisanal equipment is unattainable. Therefore, home production of Lego brick – utopia. It is more profitable to buy porcelain blocks and fold the walls from them.
Where you can use Lego brick?
In responsible supporting structures, I would not put it. This is the same as laying a brick without solution, hoping only for its weight. Contact protrusions – weak comfort, if it is about drawing a foundation or seismic load. In this case, the house of Lego bricks will be scattered to parts faster than its analogue from the normal material laid on a cement mortar.
For wall cladding? May be. Here the strength of dry masonry on “self -fixing” bricks may be enough. However, the front layer itself will not stand, it needs a good connection with the main wall. How to make it in case of such brick, I don’t know. There is no solution in the seams, there will be no connection. And the cladding two floors high and only 12 cm thick without side contact with the bearing wall will not be simple for a long time.
Therefore, watching Lego Brick videos are laid out on dozens of sites, do not flatter yourself and do not relax. No one has canceled the solution of the seam yet. It is done not at all for the sake of beauty and unnecessary supplement for the labor of the mason.
Some builders try to strengthen the masonry, drawing thin strips on the surface of the brick on the surface of the brick. This only suggests that they are not sure of its miraculous grip and want to at least increase the strength of the masonry (although no one adds glue to vertical seams).