The Bungled Brick Matter

Construction materials such as paints, glues and sealants do fail and the reason for this failure can range from defective products to errors in application. One case of the latter occurred a few months ago.

The enquiry commenced when our laboratory was contacted by a firm of Façade Consultants. They had examined the façade wherein brick slips had been bonded onto a silicate backing board. Many of the brick slips had started to fall off the sides of the building and in so-doing, created a major danger.

When we arrived on site, the majority of the brick slips had been removed, and this allowed our specialists to examine the supporting substrate, the back of the brick slips and the adhesive. Several of the brick slips and a section of the backing board was taken back to our laboratory for technical examination.

While our laboratory examination was commencing, a separate investigation was in progress, the purpose of which was to ascertain what products were used in the bonding process, where the products used the ones which were specified, was the bonding carried out in accordance with the brick slip manufacturers advice.

Our investigation and laboratory examination of the brick slips showed the following:

1. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), did not detect any primer on the silicate backing board.

1. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis on the of the cementitious adhesive on the back of the brick slip showed that two different cementitious adhesives were used to bond the brick slips onto the silicate backing board.

Anything else could have pushed this matter into the long grass of claim, counterclaim and costly litigation.

In conclusion we advised that the underlying cause of the issue was the failure to prime the receiving surface in advance of the brick slip being applied to the receiving surface. Then the adhesive coated brick slip was pressed onto the receiving surface, suction occurred wherein water contained within the cementitious adhesive, was sucked out and in so-doing, effecting the cure of the adhesive.

Irrespective of the situation, in all cases, the manufacturers advice must be adhered to and the system approach must never be deviated from.

In this case, the failure to prime the surface of the silicate board before the brick slips were applied, was the root cause of the failure. If the silicate board had been primed, with a primer other than what was specified by the brick-slip manufacturer, the contention could be made that the primer used was incompatible with the system. Simply put, in this case, the primer and adhesive specified for use with the specific type of brick slip, should have been used. Anything else could have pushed this matter into the long grass of claim, counterclaim and costly litigation.

We are experts in the provision of technical analysis on a wide range of materials so feel free to contact us.