Double Brick or Frame?

Why Brick?

Perth and much of the southwest of WA is unique to Australia in its default wall construction method. The eastern sea-board of Australia mostly has brick veneer as the standard construction method. In WA, the northern regions use a lot of steel framing for cyclonic construction and the Great Southern or other regions that are further from Perth usually use timber or steel framed brick veneer because of the increased cost of brick transport.

Decades of marketing from large brick manufacturers and resistance to change has embedded double brick as the ‘best’ way to build for most consumers, despite evidence to the contrary.

Advantages of Double Brick Construction

  • Provides decent sound deadening to internal walls

  • The cheapest building method in regions where it is the standard construction type.

  • Allows for suspended concrete floor construction for double story homes. This construction provide a nice solid and noise resistant floor.

  • Provides internal thermal mass which can dampen temperature changes somewhat

  • Easy to fix wall anchors to anywhere on the wall

  • Not termite attracting

Advantages of Framed Construction

  • Timber or steel framing can be used (though steel framing has some extra insulation considerations)

  • The frame is easily insulated with R2.5 fibreglass batts (or R4.0 batts if 140mm studs are used), unlike double brick which has lower R-value insulation options.

  • Lightweight construction allows for more complex or flexible structural design features.

  • Many different modern claddings are available that include a wide range of fibre-cement or timber products. Brick cladding is an option too in a brick veneer construction.

  • Timber external walls are very ‘upgradeable’ with options to change wall thickness, a variety of insulation and wall wrap products that can achieve up to a high performance ‘air-tight’ house building method.

  • A ‘clean’ build without the wet trades of brick laying and plastering.

  • A single carpentry team can complete much of the build, a great option when dealing with smaller boutique builders.

  • An easier build process for owner builders.

Can we overcome the advantages of Double brick?

The internal sound deadening of brick walls is something that is easily accounted for with framed construction. There are options to upgrade specific internal walls with acoustic insulation, acoustic plasterboard and even offset stud construction. It is also perfectly reasonable to just integrate some brick internal walls in your framed construction where noise control is important.

For double story framed projects it is not practical to specify a suspended concrete slab but there is an alternative. Hebel Powerfloor is an aerated concrete panel which is fitted to timber joists and provides a good solid walking feel and reduced noise transmission. While not the same as suspended concrete it is a very good option and something many of my clients have expressed satisfaction with. In addition to this, the use of insulation batts in the floor and acoustic sound deadening insulation to waste plumbing allows a very high quality double story floor system.

The cost of a framed home will be higher than double brick and this probably can’t be overcome other than by reducing the size of the home but the higher cost of a framed home in Perth and the southwest should be weighed up against the advantages it offers.