ᐅ Exterior Wall Bricks: Should You Choose Hollow, Solid, or Facing Bricks?

Hello everyone,

I have gone through countless discussions about bricks by now. However, some questions remain regarding the construction of our single-family house.
In the meantime, we have decided on bricks without external thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS).

What remains unclear is whether to use filled (perlite), unfilled, or possibly even a (more stable) engineering brick from the ranges offered by well-known manufacturers.
It is important to us that the brick is not too crumbly and that kitchen cabinets, etc., can be securely fastened with reasonable effort. Sound insulation is also a factor.

How do you see the following points:

• Which type of brick is more "stable," or which holds fixings better?
• Are bricks with lambda values of 0.09 to 0.12 in practice significantly more stable than those with 0.07–0.08?
• Are unfilled bricks more crumbly than filled bricks?
• Is the extra cost for engineering bricks designed for multi-family buildings worth it for sound insulation and stability reasons?
• Do sound insulation ratings of bricks above 45 dB make sense at all if no soundproof windows are installed (since the "weakest link" for sound would then be the windows)?
• How do filled bricks compare to unfilled bricks in terms of price, i.e., which is more expensive? (As a layperson, I found the price lists from well-known manufacturers quite contradictory)

Thanks for your input
ufr123

For a standard single-family home in a typical location with average requirements, unfilled Poroton bricks are more than sufficient. As you can see, many "average" conditions...

If you have a railway line or something similar nearby, you will need to upgrade even the windows.

Poroton bricks filled with perlite offer better sound insulation, and the additional cost for a 160 m² (1,722 sq ft) single-family house is about 6,000 euros (approximately construction shell surcharge).

However, fasteners only hold slightly better in these.

If you want really good soundproofing without any issues with fastenings, you need to use sand-lime bricks and exterior insulation systems (EIFS / external wall insulation).

Personally, I can only recommend unfilled Poroton bricks, a great building material, preferably in 42.5 cm (17 inches) thickness. This always gives you some extra reserve if something chips off during the shell construction or if grooves are cut in.

ufr123 schrieb:
I have gone through countless "brick debates" by now.

Then you must have noticed that the preaching usually outweighs the informational content.

The crumbly nature of the ceramic part of the brick itself is not affected by the filling. However, the behavior of this so-called "cream filling" (curing, settling, etc.) can certainly influence the choice of anchors for fastenings. In case of doubt, the unfilled brick is better, since you can introduce a "local" cavity filling with properties of your choice through the drill hole. A settling filled cavity would have to be viewed pessimistically as being of undefined quality and tending towards a hollow space.

---

https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

That is not entirely correct. The filled brick has significantly thicker and more stable internal walls. The myth of bricks crumbling when drilled has also been disproven many times.

Bookstar schrieb:
That is not entirely correct. The filled brick has significantly thicker and more stable internal walls. The myth of bricks crumbling when drilled has been disproven many times.

Even between manufacturers, the crumbling effect varies. There are brick manufacturers whose products are not preferred by builders.

The statement is correct that filled bricks tend to have thicker walls compared to unfilled ones, which offer the best possible thermal insulation (more air layers = better insulation).