Brick Shelves

dakzaag

Today I built a brick shelf. I laid up three piers 8" by 24" tall 16" deep. Spaced 5' apart. I then built a wood shelf 16" deep flush with the top of the piers and braced with 2 X 4.

Then I laid two rows of brick across the piers and wood in double soldier fashon except the soldiers are sleeping. I hope this is making sense. My goal is to span the piers with brick and remove the wood.

To hold the brick together, I ran 3/8" all thread through the outside holes of each row of brick and tightened until I saw movement in the joints.

CJ Carl did a chimney cap this way and it is his avatar pic.

So my question is, did I try to span too much? the rod should prevent the brick from spreading and folding down on the floor. I could have put an arch in the bench, but then it wouldn't function as a shelf and the customer definately needs a shelf.

Pictures to come tomorrow. I will leave the wood bracing in place til at least Friday and maybe Monday. This is inside so it will set up mostly tonight.

The customer is an engineer guy and he is really excited to see if this works. He loves stuff in his office that makes people say "how did you do that?"

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D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

lukachuki

Can't wait for the pictures as i'm right brained and not visualizing your description very well. If you have problems uploading your pics just ask stacker how to do it! :-)

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"The problem with internet quotes is, you never know if they are authentic." -Abraham Lincoln-

Less with the jaw more with the paw!

dakzaag

Im still waiting to see the pics of his broken concrete retaining wall. No problem posting pics, but worked til after 7 tonight and was in too big a hurry to snap pics. Will tomorrow, might add a second shelf if the first one looks stable.

I really really hope this works. 75 percent of my best customers are in this guys shop several times a year.

I hope they all want one just like it.

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

Tscarborough

In 5' I would probably have put 1/2" to 3/8" arch with the falsework.

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It ain't Rocket Science unless you are building rockets.

dakzaag

I used 1 X 12 so a little tricky getting an arch in 5 feet.

Pride may have gotten the best of me. I was bragging to one of the sons of the operation that there would be no support under the brick.

Then I added, he would be able to see the back side of the brick from underneath. So when I laid the shelf I didn't bed in mortar which made a few of the brick proud from little bumps and raised corners. Looks fine, but I can pick out the high spots pretty quick.

Should have kept my mouth shut.

TS since your not laughing at me I take it you think it may be functional.

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

artisanstone

Once the mortar sets up, tighten the all thread some more. Like a post-tensioned foundation. It should work fine.

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Bill Baddorf
Bill@artisanstoneworks.net
www.artisanstoneworks.net
www.stonefoundation.org

CJKarl

Still waiting for pics. I'm glad my idea worked...I hope.

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There's Always A Market For Quality
http://www.kaufmannmasonry.com/

dakzaag

Ok here are some pictures.
Today went pretty well, but I was planning on putting another shelf above the first one, but the customer decided it would just become another shelf filled with stuff. This is what the place looks like all the time.


Now I was brought in to fix the brick outside the door that has been falling down since 10 minutes after the guy put down his trowel some twenty years ago. I had to open the wall up and push it back to the original place as the door had slowly moved the wall in over 4 inches or so. I suggested some brick shelves to help organize the office. Ron (the owner) was in a good mood and said go ahead, I'm leaving for 2 days.

Here are the bolts


artisanstone was exactly right. When I left the night before, I had the all thread pretty tight and I thought all was good. This morning the rod was loose and wiggled easily. I thought I was in trouble, but went ahead and snugged the rod up again good and tight. Not a mechanic, but just before grunt with a 9/16 box end wrench.

This is just before I put the brick over the bolts.


This is how I capped the end. 1 end is tight to a pillar so just a corner exposed.


This is the big picture.


I came in this morning and a guy was getting his laser serviced and put the control box on the shelf... this is going to get more use than most peoples kitchen table.

So I have it all buttoned up, a few more brick over the door and tuck point a bunch around outside and we will be done for now.

I want to strip the forms tomorrow and see what happens. Should I wait?

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

dakzaag

A few more Pics

This is outside where we took all the brick out between the door and window. Not a single wall tie. As the door beat the wall into the building, mortar chunks fell down between the brick and wall and the brick was slowly falling into the building.



Once we got the brick out of the way.



I opened up the wall on the inside and discovered the "plate" (just a common 2 X 4 with nary a nail or anchor bolt. No wonder the door was pushing the wall in.


I put 4 tapcons in the plate and closed it back up.

this is adding the brick back in.


We could still see the marks the mason made on the door frame all those years ago. He wasn't a mason, he was an inventor/engineer but he had these bricks, you see and his dad had been a mason so he figured if dad could do it so could he.

Well, he did stuff no one else ever thought of, but masonry stopped with the dad. Today this shop sells a two wheel car for parades and shows that the mason/inventor designed in the 60's. With an operator sitting in the seat, a person can stand on the bumper front or back and the car will still balance on just two wheels. Pretty cool to see at a parade.

Here we are putting it back together

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

lukachuki

argh!!!! the best pics are missing!!!

__________________
"The problem with internet quotes is, you never know if they are authentic." -Abraham Lincoln-

Less with the jaw more with the paw!

dakzaag

Crap! I went back to organize the photobucket, I didn't realize the links were active. Here they are again.

the bolts


more bolts


The middle...


one end finished.



The big picture



Sorry about that.

Hey what about stripping the forms? I gotta get to bed, someone chime in about pulling the bracing tomorrow.

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

Tinstaafl

Oh, man. Allthread or not, sooner or later someone's going to sit on that. And the mortar will crack.

I'd really like to be wrong...

Tscarborough

Possibly if it had been built as a separate unit, fully grouted, slightly arched, and severely tensioned it might last, but I don't think it will as built. Wait a week for the falsework, and try to grout it with a groutbag.

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It ain't Rocket Science unless you are building rockets.

CJKarl

I should put a disclaimer on my shade tree engineering projects. As a shade tree wannabe engineer, my unprofessional opinion is that it is not robust enough to support itself and any imposed loads.

__________________
There's Always A Market For Quality
http://www.kaufmannmasonry.com/

joasis

I am not a mason, and IMHO, it won't last a week. How about cast concrete stained to a brick color? Just a thought.

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lukachuki

Or a couple of brick arches underneath for support.

__________________
"The problem with internet quotes is, you never know if they are authentic." -Abraham Lincoln-

Less with the jaw more with the paw!

dakzaag

Well, thanks for all the encouragement. I think it will be there til they tear the building down.

I managed to get a small arch in one of the spans. It used to be said a broken watch is right twice a day. Well, they don't make stuff like they used to... so I might have been right once.



As you can see they are already using it.

This is what the rest of the office looks like. The yellow cases have lasers in them, they will be stored under the shelf, and whatever on top.


In the owners office, a note on the wall...


Anyone who measures earth curvature in feet is a big picture type of person in my book.

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

dakzaag

A few more comments. I should have completely filled the holes as I laid the brick. I also think the slight arch is a good suggestion. It appears that drawing the allthread up caused an arch which is a good thing, but probably could be more arched and still function as a shelf or bench.

It probably wouldn't hurt to leave the ends open for several days and check tension before enclosing so if the rod stretches or the mortar shrinks any slack could be taken up. I retightened the next day then sealed it in. Waiting another day would not hurt anything.

Here is the look from below.


You can see the rod in a few places. Since the rod is at the bottom of the hole, I guess that puts the stress lower on the brick which is where I think it should be. If the ends hold, I don't see this going anywhere. Now if they try to use the bench as an anvil then all bets are off.

The good news is every shelf in this place has stuff on it, so it won't be long til there wont be any place for someone to sit or set something down.

How would you like it if your desk looked like this?

__________________
D K & Sons
The maintenance schedule for brick
1. Stand back and say "man that looks nice!"
2. Repeat as often as needed.

Tscarborough

You should tuck those joints, and shoot a slurry up the holes.

Why would the curvature of the Earth matter in surveying, unless you were setting grade on skyscrapers?

__________________
It ain't Rocket Science unless you are building rockets.

SLSTech

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