Modular brick: One name, two meanings

Modular. Great word. It calls to mind sectional couches and Legos. If you’re in the architecture and design world, we hope you also think of fired clay brick.

In our last post we discussed how the size of brick chosen for a structure can contribute to its look, style, and feel. Brick sizes play a distinct role in the bond pattern, and multiple sizes of brick can be used together to do some pretty amazing visual things with a facade.

Modular brick is one of the most popular brick sizes. At 4” (width) by 2 2/3” (height) by 8” (length), it’s what many typical consumers would say is the “regular” size for a brick. Because its length is a multiple of two, it lends itself well to the half running bond pattern, where the midpoint of each brick is centered on the head joint (the mortar between the ends of two brick units) in the courses beneath and above it. The layman’s way to say it is, “half on this brick, half on that one.” Flemish bond, and any pattern that incorporates a “header” (brick with its end exposed to the facade) put Modular brick to good use, also. Modular brick turns corners well and requires very minimal cutting in a well-designed structure, so it’s efficient for masons to lay. A 4” by 8” brick sure is handy! But there’s a catch…it’s not actually 4” by 8”.

That’s right. It’s actually closer to 3.5” by 7.5”, maybe even 3 5/8” by 7 5/8”, and while that may seem confusing, it actually makes designing with modular brick very simple. Modular brick is said to be 4” by 8” because those dimensions anticipate the thickness of the mortar between each brick unit. So, dimensions for the entire facade, including placement of windows and doors for the least amount of brick cutting and most appealing aesthetic, can be calculated in 4” x 8” modules without having to figure the mortar separately. Slick.

However…not all modular brick is 4” by 8” with the mortar. Confused yet? Hang in there. “Modular” is used both as the name of a particular brick size of 4” by 2 2/3” by 8”, and it’s used to describe any brick size that results in four inch modules once it is installed in the wall. For example, a Norman brick is 4” by 2 2/3” by 12”. A Meridian brick is 4” by 4” by 16”. While neither are Modular by name, both are modular in their type. Other brick sizes of the modular type are Roman, Engineer Norman, Engineer Modular, and Closure Modular.

The beauty of modular masonry (and therefore, any brick size of the modular type) is that the following rules typically apply:

• Two brick widths plus one mortar joint equal one brick length.

• Three brick heights plus two mortar joints equal one brick length.

As we already discussed, this has important implications for bond patterns and wall openings. It also makes using different orientations of the brick units simple, even if the the beautiful detail it produces seems intricate. And one more benefit: A modular brick facade matches up nicely with a load bearing back-up of modular concrete masonry units, aligning mortar joints and anchors, as well as openings.

So if modular brick has so many benefits, is non-modular brick even a thing? If so, why?

Answers: “Yes,” and “Stay tuned.”