Does insulation cause faster brick deterioration? As I understand

it depends on the insulation water vapor transmission.

Totally air tight insulation can cause condensation to occur on the brick layer and eventually cause deterioration.

Further more it depends on the bricks themselves and the mortar used.

>>1160130
FWIW, what happened in the pic is due to using the wrong mortar.

>>1160838
Could you explain how that happened? I'm curious. I also don't quite understand what's happening in that photo.

>>1161234
>I also don't quite understand what's happening in that photo.
Water gets into little cracks in the joints and bricks, and the water contracts and expands when it freezes/thaws.
This makes the cracks bigger, and eventually pieces crack off of the bricks.
It's called spalling.

Since non-insulated walls allow heat to reach the outer walls, I was wondering if this somehow prevented water on the walls from freezing, thus preventing this spalling.

>>1161239
Mm. This makes sense. I understand clay brick and spalling because I'm a potter. I'm not a brick mason, so I don't understand mortars. I see the wisdom in using a mortar that has less porosity as an exposed horizontal surface will make brick absorb far more water to crack during freezes, whereas with a vertical surface water will mostly just run right off.

As far as the insulation issue goes, the prohibitive factor to most would seem to be the cost of not having it. After that big one, I'm gonna guess that if the climate is cold enough, no insulation might make the brick spall sooner. Think about it. Just enough radiant heat to melt ice in the daytime so water seeps into the brick, then refreezes overnight. The more freeze/thaw cycles, the faster the brick fails, yes?

Open question to any masons who pop up: do you find that in wintry areas the brick on windward or sun-facing walls tend to spall sooner because it ramps up freeze/thaw cycles?

>>1161347
>Think about it. Just enough radiant heat to melt ice in the daytime so water seeps into the brick, then refreezes overnight. The more freeze/thaw cycles, the faster the brick fails, yes?

Mind blown.
This home maintenance thing is quickly turning into quantum science.

>>1161372
Just a hypothesis. Let's see if a bricklayer shows up with some wisdom.

>>1160138
thats why you build cavity walls for brick. stops water building up between the insulation and brick. any water that drips down the inside face goes down and comes out weep holes.

File: 1490246544142.jpg (38KB, 699x485px) Image search: [Google]

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>work in an insulation factory
>the stuff we make is absolute ass
>cheapest chemicals
>shoddy everything
>in 3-6 months stuff looks like stale cheese and completely loses its U-value but nobody can see this since its now inside a wall

Feels bad knowing this stuff is supposed slow down global warming by reducing energy consumption yet its not worth shit even though it sells for a lot of money

>>1161403
>buying newfangled untested garbage

pink stuff for life

File: 045078001EcothermPIRInsulationBoard2400x1200x25mm.jpg (141KB, 600x600px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1161407

These 8' boards are really easy and cheap to install, too bad they dont do antyhing but hey thats capitalism.

I've seen the stuff after a couple of years and its not pretty

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>>1161403
>>1161407
>>1161411
What about pic related for roofs?

What's the best kind of insulation for blowing into cavity walls after they're already built?

>>1161425

I wouldn't be an expert in insulation, but stay away from pir type insulation at least. I would NOT put that shit in my own house lets say that much.

>>1161427
Do you know how long pir insulation has been in use in construction?

Are you this guy >>1161403
?

>>1161429

Yeah thats me. Its been used for the last 20 years or so, before that you had the wooly fiberglass stuff which is probably better overall since it wont degrade over time. Literally the only reason pir exists is because its cheap and the main ingredients are incidental byproducts from other major industrial processes.

>>1161433
Thx 4 learning me.

Water vapor on the bricks means inevitable bacterial and fungal colonization. Brick and mortar, concrete are porous structures. Many species of phototrophs and lithotrophs already know how to colonize rock so brick is nothing to them. They colonize the structure and you cannot scrub them out because that only sterilizes the surface, anything living deeper inside will just recolonize after you're gone. Abrasives also contribute to the deterioration of the stone. If you leave it for long enough, it'll attract lichens (symbiotic union between an algae or a cyanobacteria and a fungus) or moss. The moss will erode the surface faster, degrading the stone to mud. This invites higher plants like weeds who live among the moss. This is how your driveway decays, and it is the fate of most man made buildings (even in the desert, where moisture is scarce cyano still colonizes).

The key is preventing moisture build up. This leads to a trade off of sorts. You don't want moisture in the home, and you don't want it outside on the masonry. Some ecoroofs are designed to get around this by absorbing run off into sediment or moss. Also, we're starting to develop new types of brick and concrete that are designed to be colonized by simple organisms - and are strengthened by it.

>>1160130
laughin my balls off lol europe
you know what doesn't break when it gets cold? wood

>>1161239
>Water gets into little cracks in the joints and bricks, and the water contracts and expands when it freezes/thaws.
>This makes the cracks bigger, and eventually pieces crack off of the bricks.
>It's called spalling.
No.

Bricks spall like that when the mortar used is stronger than the brick. You always use weaker mortar so that if anything is going to crack, it's the mortar, not the brick.

>>1161532
Curious potter again. So you're saying expansion and contraction of brick in freeze/thaw cycles is inevitable so a softer mortar is necessary to absorb some of the compressive forces like and expansion joint? Occasional repointing of a wall is a feature, not a flaw?

How do you mix a weaker or stronger mortar? what defines weak vs. strong? Water absorption? Hardness? Friability?