So here I go with my first thread. I haven't done a search on this because I am lazy.

As a female I know nothing about structural engineering, and I was thinking about purchasing a brick building, but was told they would be no good in Ontario because of the extreme climate conditions. So why do I see brick buildings of over 100 years old dotted here and there across Ontario?

Perhaps your bra is too tight and you're hallucinating.

Sorry you have lost me.

I think that was the idea

Perhaps, but it still sounds surreal to me.

Anyway, this thread is supposed to be about brick houses in Ontario.
Plus, she is only a princess, so what does she know.

I thought it was because they are more expensive and take more time to build than the wooden boxes built in Ontario and the US.

Wow, this thread got weird in a big hurry

Anyway, in N. America, a "brick" house usually means a brick facade over a wooden frame. Structures made entirely of brick/masonry are rare. The big problem, esp. in Canada, is winter. Specifically, repeated freeze/thaw cycles. Wood frame construction responds much better to temperature extremes than a 100% stone structure. Solid brick buildings require a lot of maintenance, and since there aren't as many stonemasons around now as 100 years ago, that means $$$.

I aint never seen a wooden multi story car park.

That is ot true entirely. Modern brick built homes (as built mostly in Europe) are quite easily able to sustain extreme temperature swings because they are not solid bricks but usually bee wasp structures which trap air that not only insulates but responds well to the contracting and expanding with the temperature change. A well built, modern! brick house will be more energy efficient than a traditionally built wooden house and safer in a storm.

This is where the thread got off track. Way to go queen anne.

concrete hunny, concrete.......

concrete has properties built in to it's molecular structure, which allows it to 'move'.....only by a small amount but enough for 'sizeable' solid structures to be formed.....and hold up cars!!!!

It's not because you are female you know nothing about structural engineering.

Some of us women types do know, so it's not a gender thing, it's an education, interest and intelligence thing.

However, since you generalised, I'm sure you don't want my professional opinion as it will only count if I grow a pair.

Hello, thank you for your concern, I'm sorry if I offended you by inserting 'that' statement. Yes I would like to hear your opinion as a professional, it would interest me on a gender level, if nothing else.

Ah yes, brick facades. I had never thought of that. I was thinking of the English method of building, as in two walls of brickwork one behind the other with a cavity in between. There must be some of the older structures still standing from the 1800's. Which would put a big question mark on the theory on wood being the only material able to withstand a cold climate. I must sound a bit dense but that's the fault of my gender.

I lived in a brick cavity wall house in Toronto. It was standing when the area was surveryed in 1926 and is still there now. I'm sitting in a turn of the century (the other one) brick house looking across the street at a 4 storey brick building from, I guess, the 50s. I suspect that brick is viable but wood is cheaper. I have a penis.