Brick house construction in Batumi with seismic ring beams

A brick house in Batumi carries its floor slabs and roof on the walls themselves. In a seismic zone we tie these walls together with concrete: continuous ring beams at every floor level, cores at the corners and next to openings, and mesh in the joints. A house with a concrete frame, where the brick only fills in the walls and forms the facade, is built differently, and it has its own page on concrete frame and brick houses.

How a house with load-bearing brick walls works

The walls take the weight of the floors and roof, and in an earthquake they work together with the ring beams and cores as a single cage. That sets the rules for the plan: it is compact, the internal load-bearing walls sit directly above one another on every floor, and the width of the windows is limited by the sections of wall between them, which the calculation checks.

In a house like this we make the floor slabs cast-in-place. A slab poured together with the ring beam ties the walls of each storey into a rigid box, and in a tremor they don't pull apart at the corners.

If the layout calls for glass walls, large spans or a third storey, it is simpler to hand the load over to a concrete frame. How the two schemes differ in an earthquake, on a slope and in the estimate is shown in the concrete vs brick comparison. The structural engineer chooses on the basis of the ground survey and the sketch: for a one- or two-storey house of simple shape both schemes usually pass, and then the windows, timing and price decide.

Which brick goes into the walls, plinth and facade

For load-bearing walls and the plinth we lay only fired clay brick, and by the sea we don't use calcium silicate brick. Solid brick goes where the load is concentrated in one place: the plinth, piers and narrow sections of wall between windows. Hollow brick is lighter and warmer, and we lay it above the plinth if the calculation allows.

• Common brick will later be covered with render or cladding, so we look at its strength and dimensional accuracy, and the colour doesn't matter.
• Facing brick stays on show. We order it for the whole facade at once, with extra for cutting: the next batch may arrive in a different shade, and the line between the two will show on the wall.
• For the plinth and steps, which catch splashes off the paved apron, we use high-density solid brick or clad the bottom of the wall in stone.

We check each delivery as it is unloaded: we measure bricks from different pallets and look for cracks and underfiring. An underfired brick is paler than the rest, sounds dull when struck and, in a humid climate, soon starts to crumble at the surface. We send those pallets back.

Seismic ring beams, mesh and cores in brickwork

Masonry easily carries the weight of the storeys above it, but the sideways shove of an earthquake is the most dangerous load for it. How much mesh, how many ring beams, cores and lintels a wall needs is set by the calculation, and the general rules for masonry and frames are collected on the page about earthquake-resistant construction.

We bed the mesh fully in mortar. Exposed wire rusts by the sea, and mesh laid on dry brick without mortar doesn't work together with the masonry. At corners and wall junctions we carry it round with an overlap, because that is exactly where walls pull apart in a tremor.

A wall like this is built in its own order. First the storey is laid, with the brickwork left toothed where a core will go and the ends of the mesh left projecting. Then the reinforcement is fixed and the core is poured: the concrete fills the toothing, and the masonry ends up locked inside a concrete frame. The site foreman photographs every core and ring beam before the pour, and the report shows whether the reinforcement matches the drawing.

Batumi weather and brickwork

Frost hardly troubles masonry here, and the mortar usually needs no anti-freeze additives. The trouble comes from downpours and summer heat. Rain washes the mortar out of fresh joints, so overnight and before a downpour we cover the top of the wall, and in the rain we stop facing brickwork altogether.

In July, dry clay brick draws water out of the mortar, the joint doesn't gain strength and later crumbles. In hot weather we wet the bricks before laying and shade the fresh wall with mesh on the scaffolding.

Between the foundation and the first course we lay a horizontal damp-proof course. Without it, the brick draws moisture up from the concrete, the bottom of the wall darkens and white efflorescence comes out on the cladding.

A brick shell goes up more slowly than a block one: a metre of wall takes many times more units and mortar, and we only lay the next storey once the concrete in the cores and ring beam has gained strength. So the contract schedule for a brick house is longer, and we build the rainy weeks into it from the start. In return, a wall with fully filled joints, cut off from damp below and covered by the roof above, needs almost no upkeep afterwards beyond checking the joints and the plinth.

Foundations and facade for heavy walls

A load-bearing brick wall weighs noticeably more than a block wall, and that weight goes into the ground along its whole length. So for a brick house we usually build a strip foundation under every load-bearing wall, and on weak or waterlogged ground a slab. The type and size are set by the ground survey. We build a supporting ledge for the cladding into the foundation from the start, and above the ground floor the cladding is also carried on the ring beam at floor level, as the calculation requires.

We choose the facade according to which way the wall faces and how far it is from the sea:

• facing brick with a ventilated air gap and mineral wool insulation: the cladding takes the wind-driven rain, and the insulation behind it stays dry;
• vapour-permeable render over common brickwork with mineral wool insulation: cheaper, but on the windward wall it will need renewing;
• a ventilated facade with panels on a subframe, if you want a different material on the outside.

By the sea, the ties between the cladding and the load-bearing masonry are always stainless steel. Galvanised wire rusts inside the wall in salt air, and it can't be replaced afterwards.

When brick is worth it and when it isn't

Brick wins where you need a wall that damp doesn't harm and a facade that never needs painting. That means a compact house to live in all year round, a house near the shore that the owner visits now and then, and a guest house, where massive walls between the rooms muffle voices.

There are cases where we recommend a different method:

• a steep slope with no access, where a heavy house needs substantial foundations and the bricks have to be lifted in by crane;
• glass walls facing the sea and large cantilevers, which load-bearing masonry can't accommodate under the calculation;
• a hard deadline before the season, when a shell goes up faster in large blocks.

If you want a warm fired clay wall with less weight and faster laying, have a look at houses built from large-format clay blocks. On water, heat and fixings, brick is set against aerated block in the aerated concrete vs brick comparison.

How much a brick house costs in Batumi

The shell of a brick house costs from 960 to 1,140 ₾ per m² of floor area. This covers foundations for heavy walls, masonry with seismic ring beams or brick in a concrete frame, floor slabs and the roof. Facing brick cladding, windows, building services and finishing are priced on top of the shell, as are the design and the plot. A finished turnkey house costs from 1,950 ₾ per m².

Guide prices for the parts: brick wall masonry with materials costs 240–300 ₾ per m² of wall, facing brick cladding 180–230 ₾ per m² of facade, and a ring beam on masonry 100–130 ₾ per linear metre. An aerated concrete shell of the same area starts from 750 ₾ per m². The difference goes on the brick itself, the mortar, laying by hand and the heavier foundations.

Load-bearing walls in solid brick, ornamental cladding and a slope push the price up, while a simple plan and render instead of cladding bring it down. We send a preliminary estimate from a sketch and photos of the plot within 24 hours on business days, and the final cost is set on the basis of the design, after a visit to the plot and once the estimate is agreed.