Standards & Testing

Our new bricks are selected from a production batch and each brick is subjected to a uniform pressure in a testing frame. The pressure continues to increase until the brick fails. The average pressure is calculated for all bricks and then recorded as the compressive strength for that product. All our bricks exceed Australian standard for unconfined compressive strength as per AS/NZS 4455  along with European Standard BS EN771-1:2011. All our bricks are classified as General Purpose building bricks. To meet Australian standards, all solid or cored bricks must have compressive strengths >3MPa (NCC 5.6.2). To put this is a way a bit more easy to envisage, the weight required to produce a pressure of 3 megapascals over an area of 0.0253 square meters (this is the surface area of a normal brick) is 75,900 newtons, which equals a mass of about 7,740 kilograms under normal gravity. There is a good reason why bricks manufactured by various techniques have such longevity, its also of no great surprise that  the oldest surviving brick building is around 8000 BCE while the oldest surviving kiln fired brick structure is around 2100 BCE. We are not too sure render panel, blue board or hebel will have a longevity like this in a built structure!

Australian standards don’t require a test for freeze thaw durability, however we test our new bricks to European Standard BS EN771-1:2011 to ensure our bricks are optimal quality. The testing procedure consists of a brick panel being saturated for seven days before being frozen to -15°C, then thawed to +20°C. This process is repeated 100 times and the level of frost resistance is recorded. All of our bricks meet European standards for freeze-thaw durability.

Water absorption is measured by how much a brick increases in weight after it has been soaked in water for 24 hours. Results are given as a percentage, so for example a brick with a water absorption of 15% will take on 15% of its dry weight in water.

No Australian Standard exists for reaction to fire for individual clay masonry units. However, we test our new bricks to the European Standard EN 13501-1 and are rated A1 – No contribution to a fire. This is hardly a great surprise considering that bricks are fired in either gas or coal fired kilns at temperatures greater than 1000 degrees centigrade.

No Australian Standard exists for the soluble salt content for masonry units, however, we test our new bricks for their active soluble salt  according to the European Standard BS EN771-1:2011 and are classified as S2 – Limited Soluble Salt Content.