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Vent: Why does everyone rave about the English bond when the Flemish bond is clearly stronger for load-bearing walls?
I just finished a retaining wall job out in Austin where I used Flemish bond and the engineer said the tie-ins held up way better than the English bond I used on a similar job last spring, so has anyone else noticed this or am I just lucky?
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nathan_kim12d ago
Hold up, are we really acting like the difference between brick patterns is some huge structural deal? A retaining wall that fails probably had bigger issues than which way you stacked the bricks.
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patricia_hill6012d ago
Well, have you checked if the mortar mix was the same on both jobs? That can make a bigger difference than the bond pattern sometimes. But honestly, I've done enough walls to know Flemish bond gives you better cross ties, especially in tricky soils like you get out in Texas. The English bond may look pretty, but those long stretchers can let the wall wiggle more over time. It's not just luck, you've got a real point there.
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