Brick floor is suitable for low-cost construction, and for places where heavy articles are usually to be kept as in case of ware houses, shops and godowns. Brick flooring is normally employed in alluvial places, where natural stone is scarce and properly burned bricks of very good quality are readily obtainable. The brick flooring may be installed with bricks placed flat, or on edge planned in hearing-bone pattern, or set at right angles to the walls.
The bricks, whether placed flat or on edge, are set in normal mortar and pointed with cement, or set in hydraulic mortar. Brick-on edge is required to bricks laid flat, because the previous being less likely to break under stress than the latter and also having the higher depth gives a more thickness in the former case to resist the wetness penetration.
The method of
brick flooring is as follows,
First of all, an excavation is made about 40 cm or so below the recommended surface or level of the floor based upon the nature of soil and the type of structure. The earth is then levelled, well watered and rammed, until it gets dry and hard. On the bed so prepared, the sub-grade should be made with a 25 cm layer of rubble or brick bats, and covered with 10 to 15 cm thick layer of lime concrete or lean cement concrete (1 cement : 3 sand : 6 C.A.). Upon the prepared subgrade, the bricks are laid in preferred shape (could be in parallel rows or herring-bone pattern) and set in cement or lime mortar. The joints should be ideally be 1.5 mm in thickness. The joints, sometimes may be required to be pointed to have significantly better appearance. For Pointing reasons, the mortar is initially raked out from the joints to a depth of about 2 cm and then pointed with cement mortar. For brick flooring outdoors of the building, the bricks joints are grouted with dried up sand and the method is termed as sand grouting.
Merits of brick flooring:
It presents a tough and completely tough floor surface.
It provides a non-slippery and fire-reluctant surface.
It is cheaper in early cost as compared to cement concrete, mosaic, terrazzo flooring, etc.,
It is simple in maintenance.
Demerits:
The only drawback of this flooring is that it is water absorbent.
