7 Methods of Field Test on Bricks

Are you finding it hard to find perfect brick with good price for your house in Nepal? Building a home in Nepal is a dream for many people. Most of the people end up constructing at least one home. However, your first home is never constructed perfectly. Our goal is to make you construct your home with utmost perfection. While beginning the construction of your house, the first phase involves building your structural part and the second phase involves building the finishing part of the house. You just have to start the building by buying 5 things- brick, cement, sand, aggregate and rebar.

For choosing the fired brick, you can perform these 7 field tests, none of which require sophisticated machine and laboratory settings. You can just perform them anytime at any place.

Shape and size test of Bricks

Almost every building material standard in the world, including the Nepal Standard of Bricks, says that the brick must perfectly be 90 degrees on its edges. You can find 90 degree edges only in class 1 bricks. Class 2 bricks are overburnt or contains high portion of lime, because of which brick edges don’t remain 90 degrees while undergoing the burning procedure on brick furnace. Bricks with 90 degree edges makes it easy to have staggered vertical joints. Such joints make the brick wall able to act as as a unit.

Color test of Bricks

The perfect color of brick is reddish. In other words, bricks should be as red as copper. Bricks not properly burnt will be yellow in color. Bricks burnt more than necessary are blunt red or purple in color. Bricks will be yellow in color when it contains lime content in high amount than necessary.

Surface of Bricks

You must take into account the surface of bricks while choosing the brick. You can see the surface with your eyes- lens are not necessary. No surface among the six surfaces of brick should contain pores and cracks. Brick containing pores and cracks are also called Class 1 brick according to Nepal Standard of Brick: 1/235.  Class 2 bricks contain cracks and they should be rejected in all cases except infill walls having no structural significance and soling. Similarly, bricks having nodules of lime should be rejected in all cases.

Soundness test of Brick

 In civil engineering, this property of brick is also called soundness of bricks. While having impact of two bricks with each other, the brick should produce metallic sound similar to ringing of bell and the bricks upon impact with each other should not break. This test should be conducted with both the bricks in your own hand.

Hardness Test of Bricks  

You can scratch the surface of the brick with your own nails. If any impression or mark is left on surface after you scratch, then the brick is not suitable because it doesn’t have the required hardness property. Otherwise, the brick passes the hardness property test.

Drop test of Bricks

In the field, you must pass the drop test too. The brick should be dropped on the earth mud from a height of 4 to 5 feet. If the bricks break into two pieces or undergoes any cracks, then the brick is not suitable for construction.

Efflorescence test of  bricks

The Effloresce cannot be considered too great an issue from the structural point of view. The matter of fact is efflorescence is caused by the soluble salts contained in the mud used as a raw material of brick. For testing efflorescence, the brick should be placed in a water bath for 24 hours and should be dried in shade. If efflorescence is seen, then the brick is rejected. The efflorescence must not be more than moderate for the bricks of compressive strength below 12.5N/mm2. The bricks below compressive strength of 12.5N/mm2 are commonly used for low-rise buildings. The standard procedure for efflorescence test in case of tendered construction is carried out using IS 3495 (Part 3 ) : 1992.

The above tests are referred to as field test of bricks. Indian Standard IS 5454: 1978 gives you the sampling procedure of bricks. Generally, brick manufacturers in Nepal send bricks in a batch of below 2000 bricks to the buyer who is constructing a low-rise building. In such cases, you must have mutual agreement with the seller for testing of bricks if you really want it. If you are a company like SkillSewa itself, then you should follow standard procedure for sampling and standard procedure for testing.

If the sample selected was taken out from a batch of above 2000 bricks, the field testing is carried out by taking a sample of 20 bricks and among 20 bricks, not more than one sample should be found defective.