The size of cement bricks can vary, but a common size is 8 x 4 x 4 inches. Prices depend on location, quality, and quantity, ranging from $0.50 to $1.50 per brick. The weight of a standard brick is around 5 pounds. Strength is measured in PSI (pounds per square inch), and cement bricks typically have a compressive strength of 1,500 to 2,500 PSI.
Cement brick/ fly ash bricks
Cement bricks is popularly known as fly ash brick is a building material made from mixture of fly ash, sand, stone dust and Portland cement, more demanding today in construction industries, specially manufacture for external and internal wall or partition wall in the house.
Cement brick containing Class C or class F fly ash and water, their main ingredient is coal dust, fly ash, water, quick lime, lime sludge, Portland cement, aluminium powder and Gypsum.
During the manufacturing process of cement brick/ fly ash brick, it is compressed at 28 MPa and cured for 24 hours in a 66 degree Celsius steam bath, then toughened with their air entrainment agent.
Cement bricks manufacturing process reduce pollution in environment, reduce cost up to 20% less than traditional red clay brick and due to uniform shape and size plaster cost will be reduced up to 50%.
Composition/ ingredients of cement brick
Main ingredient of cement brick/ fly ash bricks is coal dust, fly ash, water, quick lime, lime sludge, Portland cement, aluminium powder and Gypsum.
Raw material of cement bricks/ fly ash Brick in consist of fly is 60% by mass, sand/ stone dust is about 30% by mass and Portland cement or lime is about 10% by mass.
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High concentration of calcium oxide CaO in Class C fly ash brick describe “self cementing”. Their pozzolanic reactivity of fly ash is more due to calcium oxide, the greater the pozzolanic activity leads to higher the strength of fly ash brick.
Autoclaving increases the hardness of fly ash brick by promoting quicklime curing of the cement and Gypsum composition act as long-term strength gainer.
As per ASTM fly ash brick is classified into two types Class C contain more than 10% lime and class F fly ash contains less than 10% lime.
Advantage of cement brick/ fly ash bricks
● It reduces dead load on structures due to light weight, regular dimension of 230 mm X 110 mm X 70 mm cement brick generally weight around 2.6 kgs.
● Same number of cement bricks will cover more area than red clay bricks
● its provide high fire insulation or protect against fire
● Due to higher strength of cement bricks, so practically no breakage during transport, storage and use.
● Due to uniform size of cement bricks mortar required for joints and plaster reduces almost by 50% of construction cost of plastering.
● Due to lower water penetration seepage of water through cement bricks is considerably reduced.
● Gypsum plaster can be directly applied on these bricks wall without a backing coat of lime plaster.
● These bricks do not require soaking in water for 24 hours, even sprinkling of water before use is enough.
Disadvantages of cement bricks/ fly ash bricks
● Depending on the mixture mechanical strength can be low, this can be partially rectified by adding marble waste or mortar between blocks.
● Large size can have more breakages depending on the mix of materials.
● It has high thermal conductivity and extra insulation is required in colder regions.
Properties of cement brick/ fly ash brick
● cement bricks Industry is considered one of the biggest natural resources consumer as it use recycling wastage like fly ash, a stone dust and coal dust.
● it has compressive strength of 7.5 to 10 Mpa that makes it highly durable
● due to uniform shape and size it is easy for installation, architect will preferred cement brick clay brick
● it has higher insulating properties depending on manufacturer and it depend on density of cement bricks.
● It has good aesthetic appearance generally white colour looking beautiful
● cement have less permeable and porosity that’s why its require less amount of water and it has also fire insulation properties.
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Cement brick/ fly ash brick size
In india, in construction industries more commonly used size of cement brick is 9 inch in length by 4 inch wide by 3 inch high represented as 9 ×4 ×3 in inches or 230 × 110 × 70 in mm which generally weight around 2.6kgs used for construction of external and internal wall in the house.
Wall construction in house which installed with fly ash brick/ cement brick reduces the dead load on a structure due to light weight (2.6kgs, 230 × 110 × 70 in mm or 9″ × 4″ ×3″ in inch). Due to high strength, practically no breakage during transport and use.
Size of cement brick/ fly ash brick:- rectangular solid fly ash brick or cement, medium & light weight used in construction, their minimum, regular, normal size is 230 × 110 × 75 in mm or 9″ × 4″ × 3″ in inch, this is ideal, best, perfect, nominal and standard size of fly ash brick/ cement brick for house construction.
Cement brick can also be available in other suitable sizes such as 230 × 110 × 100 in mm or 9″ × 4″ × 4″ in inch and 12 × 4 × 3 in inch (300 × 110 × 75 in mm) depending on quality and consumer demand.
Size of cement brick/ fly ash brick commonly known as block measured in mm or inch, commonly used in India, US, UK, Philippines Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and other part of world are following:-
1) 400 × 200 × 200 in mm or 16″ × 8″ × 8″ in inch ( Length × width × height).
2) 400 × 150 × 200 in mm or 16″ × 6″ × 8″ in inch ( Length × width × height).
3) 400 × 100 × 200 in mm or 16″ × 4″ × 8″ in inch ( Length × width × height).
4) 300 × 150 × 150 in mm or 12″ × 6″ × 6″ in inch ( Length × width × height).
5) 300 × 230 × 150 in mm or 12″ × 9″ × 6″ in inch ( Length × width × height).
6) 230 × 110 × 75 in mm or 9″ × 4″ × 3″ in inch ( Length × width × height).
7) 230 × 110 × 100 in mm or 9″ × 4″ × 4″ in inch ( Length × width × height).
What is the weight of fly ash brick/ cement brick
Construction of external and internal wall in the house will preferred light weight fly ash brick/ cement brick to reduces the dead load on a structure, generally, it would be weight around 2.6kgs for regular size of 230 × 110 × 70 in mm or 9″ × 4″ ×3″ in inch cement brick.
Density of cement brick:- density or unit weight of fly ash brick is vary between 1500 to 1850 kg/m3 or 94 to 115 lbs/ft3, it means 1 cubic metre of volume of fly ash brick/ cement brick weight is vary between 1500 to 1850 kg or 1 cubic foot volume of fly ash brick/cement brick their weight is vary between 94 pounds to 115 pounds.
Cement brick weight:- generally, normal, medium, weight of fly ash brick or cement brick used for construction, is vary between 2.75 to 3.25kgs or 6 to 8.25 pounds for regular size 9″ × 4″ × 3″ and 9″ × 4″ × 4″ of cement brick respectively.
Weight of other size of fly ash brick/ block/ cement brick calculated as multiply its volume and density, we kept density of medium weight fly ash brick is about 1700kg/m3, for size 400mm × 200mm × 200mm fly ash brick solid, their weight could be 27kg/brick.
For size 400mm × 150mm × 200mm fly ash solid brick, their weight could be 20 kg per brick.
For size 400mm × 100mm × 200mm fly ash brick solid, their weight could be 14kg per brick.
For size 300mm × 150mm × 150mm fly ash solid brick, their weight could be 11kg per brick.
For size 300mm × 230mm × 150mm fly ash solid brick, their weight could be 17kg/ brick.
For size 230mm × 110mm × 75mm fly ash solid brick, their weight could be 3.2kg/brick.
For size 230mm × 110mm × 100mm fly ash solid brick, their weight could be 4.3kg per brick.
What is the compressive strength of fly ash brick/ cement brick
Compressive strength of fly ash brick or cement brick testing on compressive testing machine commonly known as CTM machine, their strength is measured in some different unit like MPa, N/mm2 or kg/cm2, generally on average according to ASTM and IS code, compressive strength of fly ash brick or cement brick should be range from 7.5 to 10 in N/mm2, 7.5 to 10 in MPa, or 75 to 100 in kg/cm2. This is minimum, normal, on average and standard compressive strength of fly ash brick/ cement brick used in construction.
Cement brick/ fly ash brick price
Price of cement brick or fly ash brick depending on your location, cities, countries, availability of bricks and their sizes, in india, price of cement brick generally range between Rs, 5 to 9 per piece or Rs 5000 to 9000 per 1000 cement bricks for regular size 9 × 4 × 3 inch and higher size such as 8″ blocks even goes upto rs 50 per piece.
How to increase compressive strength of fly ash brick/ cement brick
We can increase compressive strength of fly ash brick or cement brick by applying higher concentration of calcium oxide and their pozzolanic reactivity and autoclaving process with gypsum and and quicklime.
High concentration of calcium oxide CaO in Class C fly ash brick describe “self cementing”. Their pozzolanic reactivity of fly ash is more due to calcium oxide, the greater the pozzolanic activity leads to higher the strength of fly ash brick.
Autoclaving increases the hardness of fly ash brick by promoting quicklime curing of the cement and Gypsum composition act as long-term strength gainer.