I live in a 6 floor building made entirely out of brick. And there are much larger ones.
The problem is earthquake resistance. Brick and masonry have very little strength in tension as opposed to compression. So steel reinforcement needs to be added.
The International Building Code specifies the safety precautions, materials, and details of construction that must be followed. The Masonry Society publishes many design guides and details on how to achieve those requirements. The key feature is to provide diaphragms and sub diaphragms to resist the horizontal loads from wind and seismic forces.
The code based on research sponsored by The Masonry Society, its member organizations, and predecessor organization have determined height to thickness requirements for multistory walls.
it is possible to build such a house. but it has some drawbacks.
1. there should be lintels at door frame top level i.e.@ 7' ht.
2. walls at gr. floor level should be sufficient thick may be 14" thick. as per span and loading.
3. the doors and windows should not be kept at exact corner places. as corner becomes weak.
4. there should be parapet wall of sufficient ht. so that slab will not have deflection in long term.
and many other smaller things to be done in practice. if you are from India, here many wrong traditional practice are done by thumb rule.so pls better to go for RCC work.
the most best benefit of RCC work is that you can design building for any purpose, any type and any span usually used.
Your going to want to use cement block, 4x8x16 or 8x8x16 for structural support. They are stronger and they will lay quicker as well.
will it safer to use it ?
