Clay Brick 

A popular choice among property owners and developers, clay bricks are not only a budget-efficient and durable option when it comes to building material, but it also offers numerous eco benefits.

One of the most sustainable building materials on the market, historically, factors such as its longevity, colour fastness and maintenance-free qualities have been used to reference the superior sustainability attributes of clay brick. These, of course, are fundamental building blocks for pursuing a sustainable future and for which clay brick have no peers in terms of their offering.

Sustainability, however, particularly in the environmental context, has progressed to also include how building materials and building systems compare in respect of supporting healthier indoor living environments and in lowering operational energy consumption of houses.

Here, too, clay brick offer surprising benefits.

The clay brick industry chose a long time back not to take the recognised thermal property of thermal mass in clay bricks, widely recognised for moderating indoor temperatures and the benign qualities of fired clay that assure no negative impact on indoor air quality, for granted.

Today, these properties contribute to making clay brick the most eco-friendly and health-conscious choice when building.

Research in Germany, for instance, has concluded that clay brick is one of the few man-made building materials whose mineral properties meet ‘all necessary requirements for healthy living’ as the inorganic or inert qualities of fired clay release insignificant or minuscule volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) or toxic fumes under normal or fire conditions to have any negative impact on air quality. In addition, fired clay is a dry material that has a natural propensity to absorb and release humidity from the atmosphere to help keep humidity at a required 40 to 60 percent level for healthy living, and it is not a food source for mould widely associated with ‘sick building syndrome’.

As for providing indoor thermal comfort and the lowering of operational energy usage for heating and cooling, clay brick construction achieves superior thermal comfort in various climates as it can self-regulate, an important function that eludes lightweight walling associated with alternate lightweight building systems. The bricks essentially perform like thermal batteries, slowly absorbing, storing heat during the day over a 6 to 8 hour period, and then releasing that heat when it is needed most. 

These thermal benefits combined with clay brick’s other sustainability attributes, such as the low maintenance qualities of face brick that mitigate future carbon debt associated with a lifetime of maintenance, the longevity that mitigates future carbon debt associated with refurbishment and replacement of less durable materials, and the fact that clay bricks are reusable as masonry or pavers and/or recyclable as aggregate for concrete manufacture, road building and ground cover, means clay brick finds itself in a unique space for defining a more sustainable future with low environmental impacts.