How to check quality of Bricks on site

Hello friends, today in this post you will learn the easy methods in which you learn : "How to check quality of bricks on site". 
So,  please read the post completely. After reading the post, you will completely understand the simple tests to check the quality of bricks on site. 
Also, for your reference below I'm sharing the video releated woth this post. 
So, let's start with these amazing topic... 

How to check quality of Bricks on site

Bricks are building blocks of a structure. Brick is most extensively used materials of the building construction.

We must know how to check the quality of bricks on site as well as in lab. 

A good quality of brick should be free from any forms of chemical reactions, that means it does not show any reaction when it mixed with any material.

In today's post, you will learn how to check the quality of bricks on site as well as what are the qualities of a good brick.

How to check the quality of bricks on site:-

To chose the right quality of bricks, we have to test the brick for following tests:-

1. Uniform Color, Size, and Shape :

Colour & shape of Brick :-

A good quality of bricks should be well burnt, also the bricks having a colour of rich red or Copper colour.

Bricks having other colour other than above indicates that brick is under burnt or over-burnt. 

If bricks are over or under-burnt, then it loses it shape.

Size of Brick:-

Brick size should be uniform, also it shouldn’t have any bulks on edges.
If there are More bulking in bricks, the requirements of mortar will be more.

This will leads to increase in the cost of construction work. 

A good brick having sharp edges. A good quality bricks should have an accurate dimension whereas +/- 3 tolerance is allowed.

2. Hardness of brick :-

A good quality of bricks are resistance to the scratches against sharp things. 

We can perform these test easily on site, by doing Scratch on the brick using your fingernail or sharp tool.  

A good quality of brick didn't show any impression or scratch of a fingernail on the brick.

3. Homogeneity:-

In this test, we have to Break the brick and have to examine it properly. Brick of good quality, should be homogeneous, compact as well as with zero lumps.

4. Water absorption:-

A good brick should absorb less than 20% of water, If it is immersed in water for about a time period of 24 hrs.

If the brick absorbs water more than the allowable limit. It will start absorbing water from cement mortar during its bonding. 

Due to the absorption of water, This will affects the brick bonding strength.

Water absorption test on brick:-

To test the water absorption of bricks, we have to follow the below procedure :

Take a brick & weight it as (W1). Then, next step was to immerse the brick in water for 24 hrs. & then weight it as (W2).

On last,  we have to determine the percentage increase of brick weight by using below formula.

Water absorption in the brick formula:

5. Check for efflorescence on bricks:-

The term Efflorescence means the presence of salt deposits on the surface of bricks. 

If can observe the white colour on bricks. This can be visually inspected by checking white patches on the bricks surface.

White patches on bricks, shows the sign of the presence of sodium as well as the potassium salts on it which is not suitable for construction.

Soils used in the manufacturing of bricks should free from sulphate, potassium as well as the sodium. 

If brick contains such harmful salts then will get dissolved, when bricks come into contact with water.

When bricks contain such harmful salts as used exposed surface then serious surface disruption occur which may harm outer plastering. This phenomenon is called efflorescence.

As per IS 3495 – 1992. To check the presence of efflorescence following procedure is adopted.

1. Take a flat tray and fill it with a 2.5 cm height of distilled water.
2. Treat five bricks as a test specimen and place these bricks vertically one after other. On a tray containing distilled water.  Now wait until the water is absorbed by bricks
3. Again fill the water up to same height 2.5cm and allow it to absorb water as above (Second evaporation)
4. Now after second evaporation, examine the brick for efflorescence as below :
5. Brick is only used if the extent of efflorescence is from slight to moderate. 
6. The above-mentioned tests are the simple as well as it will be reliable test, which gives an idea about the quality of bricks on site.

6. Brick Earth:

The composition of Brick should be free from stones, kankar as well as the other chemicals ingredients.

7. Soundness of Brick:

For soundness test,  we have to Take two bricks one in each hand & stuck it each other a good brick, we hears a metallic sound or ringing sound. 

If brick breaks without Metallic sound, then it not be suitable for construction purpose.

Throw the brick at the height of 1.5m to the ground. A good quality brick won’t break when it is fallen from the 1.5m height.

8. Examine frog in brick:

For these test, we have to Check the size of the frog as well as it should be 100mm x 40mm x 10mm. 

Due to lesser size of frog, these will leads to improper motor filling,along with that it requires more amount of mortar. 

If the frog dimensions are more than above mentioned value, which makes structure uneconomical.

The manufacuring of bricks get reduced, Due to scarcity of natural resources.

Due to these reason, an alternative of bricks introduced in construction field, which is named as “AAC Bricks”.

Similarly, to common red bricks, these bricks can be also used as red bricks for all construction purposes. 

For easy understanding of test, take reference of below video for easy understanding :

Video 1 :

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