Often I see nothing left of houses after a bush fire except the chimney.
Why can’t the rest of the house be built like the fireplace?
Why can’t the rest of the house be built like the fireplace?
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But does it have to be fire brick I wonder? How does normal brick do in bushfire?
The reason I’m asking is because as you know I was in a big house fire as a child. Afterwards the place needed work, but none of the brickwork was an issue. The original bricks still there.
How does “tightly packed” prevent fire when even the hardwoods go?
Seriously though, you can. Chamotte firebrick will handle that just fine, and it’s not much more expensive than fired builders. Buying rejects (warped, over or undersized, cracked, not laminated! and careful about contamination), even cheaper.
(I spent some time working in the refractory industry.)
One of my sisters lived in a small old English cottage made from stone. Took a while to heat too. Cool even in summer.
The main thing is having an inflammable material on the exterior, that doesn’t conduct heat. If heat penetrates the walls you have a risk of the interior catching fire.
Fired brick is essentially imitation stone.
https://www.monolithic.org/homes