A solid Chicago brick home is as much a city icon as is deep-dish pizza or an “L” stop. However, new true brick homes have been getting a lot harder to find in the city and are almost non-existent in the suburbs.
Nationally, solid brick homes comprise about 5 percent of all new homes being built, estimated Greg Borchelt, vice president of engineering and research for the Brick Industry Association, a trade group based in Reston, Va. “Most of those brick homes are built simply because of a desire by the homeowner for brick,” he said.
In Chicago, however, brick homes are also constructed because of fire and density codes. “In 1871, when the Great Chicago Fire struck, Chicago was a stick town,” said Charles Ostrander, executive director of the Illinois Masonry Institute in Park Ridge. “The city fathers then pushed for non-combustible materials. Today, because of tight lot lines in the city, you still see a lot of all-brick construction.”
While there are now other options as far as non-combustible materials, including a flame-resistant drywall, brick is still popular, although mostly with high-end residential construction found in the city proper.
“Over the years, brick has built up a reputation that it’s a better building material,” said Al Bloom, former chairman of the tech and codes committee for the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago.
This was fostered by the thousands of solid brick bungalows, Georgians and Dutch Colonial homes, as well as two- and three- and six-flats, that were constructed throughout Chicago’s older neighborhoods from the turn of the 20th Century through World War II.
Most “brick” homes in the suburbs, meanwhile, especially those built after World War II, are actually veneer, or a coating of brick on a wood frame house. “Some towns in the suburbs, however, require solid masonry construction for condominiums,” said Ostrander. Among the suburbs requiring masonry construction for town homes are Tinley Park, Orland Park and Elgin.
Brick home construction has changed little over the years.
As with a wood frame house, first a concrete foundation is poured. The brick walls are then built on top of that foundation.
The bricks or masonry units are “interlocked,” or stacked by hand with a bond or pattern, to force the bricks to perform as a “standard structural unit.” The most common patterns are known as the running bond and the American or common bond.
Structural bonding of masonry walls is also accomplished by using metal ties in the connecting joints or by applying grout to adjoining layers of masonry.
The mortar or grout between the bricks, meanwhile, serves as an adhesive bond and sealer and compensates for the slightly different-sized bricks.
Mortar also adds an aesthetic quality to the finished wall, adding color lines and shadows. Mortar joints between the brick work are created by using different jointing or trowel tools.
The bricks used today are similar both material-wise and construction wise to the bricks of half-century ago, said Borchelt. “Although now there are more sizes,” he said.
To reduce costs, most masonry builders today often use what’s known as a block and brick construction method. A block wall is constructed and then a layer of smaller face brick is wrapped around the block wall.
“This is what’s known as a double wythe masonry wall,” said Bloom, also president of Oak Brook-based Bloom & Fiorino Architects Inc. “That means there are two courses of masonry. This is done to reduce costs.
“If you give a bricklayer a small brick, it’s going to take more effort to build a wall because he’s got to put more of those small bricks together,” he added.
Another typical masonry construction technique found in Chicago today — and yet another way to shave costs on solid brick homes — is to separate the front of the building from the backs and sides materials-wise, said Ostrander. “That’s because what the public sees most is the `good face’ or street face of the building,” he said.
On the back and sides of the home, a split face architectural concrete block will be used. These blocks, roughly 8 inches high, 16 inches long and 8 inches thick, are simple in design but not as simple as the concrete block used to build commercial buildings.
“It’s hard to sell something for $300,000 and have it look like a warehouse,” said Ostrander.
On the front of the building, a slightly thinner block will be used. Placed on the front of that will be a finish brick that’s about 8 inches long, 2 inches high and 4 inches deep.
“This system is similar to how they built many of the solid brick bungalows in Chicago where they would use a face brick on the front but a Chicago common brick on the three sides,” said Ostrander.
On the inside, drywall is applied to the inside face of the brick walls with either an adhesive or with wood or metal furring strips. Because of the thermal mass properties of masonry, insulation is not added to the walls.
Solid brick homes, according to their builders, offer a number of benefits:
– Brick needs less maintenance than wood or synthetic sidings. It also has an indefinite lifespan as evidenced by the brick buildings that have been standing around the world for centuries. It also offers protection from termites.
“And brick never needs painting,” said Borchelt, although owners sometimes do.
Builders say brick homes have a higher resale value than other types of homes, although construction costs are significantly higher. According to building industry observers, a brick veneer home is at least 7 percent more expensive than a vinyl-sided one, and a true brick house costs at least 10 to 20 percent more than a wood-framed, vinyl-sided home.
– Brick can also reduce fire insurance premiums. A full masonry brick home qualifies for a discount of up to 15 percent over a wood-framed, vinyl-sided home or a brick veneer home, said Sharon Cooper, spokesman for Allstate Insurance Co. in Northbrook.
– There are also structural benefits to brick. “A single thickness of brick and reinforced masonry construction offer tremendous (impact and wind) resistance,” said Borchelt.
– Although more expensive, builders say brick can pay for itself not only by lessening exterior maintenance costs but with energy savings because of its insulation value.
The true reason that most home buyers choose brick, however, is that they favor the look, builders say. “Historically, it’s something people have always liked,” said Bloom. “There’s sort of a warm fuzzy to bricks. It comes in different colors, sizes, materials and you can assemble it in different patterns. You can also use stone as accent.”
The downside to a solid brick home is cost.
“A brick mason is going to cost you more money than a carpenter because of the skills involved,” said Dan Priest, a research analyst with the National Association of Home Builders Research Center. “It can cost thousands of dollars extra per home just to put on one layer of brick veneer.”
While pure brick homes are rare, brick veneer — or one layer of face brick — is a popular choice for buyers of stick-built homes. Here, however, the brick is used for aesthetic purposes.
“The brick on a brick veneer wall is not a load-bearing structure on a home,” said Priest.
The structural systems of these homes are based on two-by-four wood framing. The brick veneer wall, installed by a mason, rests on the home’s foundation. It is then anchored laterally to the wood frame. There is a small cavity between the brick veneer and framing to allow water to drain.
Builders and manufacturers have been experimenting with different masonry systems in hopes of lowering costs and making true brick homes more competitive with stick homes.
One such system involves construction techniques using hollow bricks, which have voids of 25 to 60 percent of their volume. These “cells” are used to run steel reinforcing bars through for additional structural support, said Borchelt. Then the cells are filled with grout.
That allows home builders to construct a 4-inch-thick brick wall with only a single layer of bricks, he says.
Although only a few such houses have been built in the Chicago area, they have gained popularity elsewhere in recent years. “Reinforced masonry construction has greater seismic resistance, so they’re being pushed by the federal government in areas such as St. Louis, Memphis and California,” said Borchelt.
“While it’s gaining attention, hollow brick hasn’t taken the home building industry by storm,” said Ostrander.
Despite those advances, stick homes will continue to be favored over solid brick homes because of the labor involved.
“Cost is always going to factor as is training craftsmen,” said Borchelt.
“We’ll continue to instead see a lot of brick veneer, especially in the suburbs,” said Ostrander. “Material choices such as synthetic stucco have taken away some customers from brick, but people always come back to brick.”
