This specification covers hollow building brick and hollow facing brick made from clay, shale, fire clay, or mixtures thereof, and fired to incipient fusion. Hollow brick shall be understood to mean hollow clay masonry units whose net cross-sectional area (solid area) in any plane parallel to the surface, containing the cores, cells, or deep frogs, is less than 75 % of its gross cross-sectional area measured in the same plane. The bricks are manufactured from clay, shale, or similar naturally occurring substances and subjected to a heat treatment at elevated temperatures (firing). The heat treatment shall develop sufficient fired bond between the particulate constituents to provide the strength and durability requirements specified. Bricks that are colored by flashing or textured by sanding, where sand does not form a continuous coating, shall not be considered as surface-colored brick. Hollow bricks require greater shell and web thicknesses and higher minimum compressive strength than structural clay tile, but permit greater void area and lesser distance from exposed edge to core hole than solid brick. Therefore, environmental and structural performance may be different in elements constructed of hollow brick from those constructed of structural clay tile or solid brick. The hollow bricks can be classified into Grades SW and MW according to their degree of resistance to frost action and disintegration by weathering. According to their physical properties, the bricks can be classified into Types HBS, HBX, HBA, and HBB. In terms of size of void areas or hollow spaces, the bricks can be designated into Classes H40V and H60V. The brick shall be free of defects, deficiencies, and surface treatments, including coatings, that would interfere with the proper laying of the brick or significantly impair the strength or performance of the construction. Physical properties like compressive strength, water absorption, saturation coefficient, breakage, and cracks shall be determined.

1.1 This specification covers hollow building brick and hollow facing brick made from clay, shale, fire clay, or mixtures thereof, and fired to incipient fusion. Four types of hollow brick in each of two grades and two classes are covered. In this specification, the term hollow brick shall be understood to mean hollow clay masonry units whose net cross-sectional area (solid area) in any plane parallel to the surface, containing the cores, cells, or deep frogs, is less than 75 % of its gross cross-sectional area measured in the same plane (see 4.3). This specification does not cover brick intended for use as paving brick (see Specification C902).

1.2 The property requirements of this specification apply at the time of purchase. The use of results from testing of brick extracted from masonry structures for determining conformance or nonconformance to the property requirements (Section 6) of this standard is beyond the scope of this specification.

1.3 Brick covered by this specification are ceramic products manufactured primarily from clay, shale, or similar naturally occurring substances and subjected to a heat treatment at elevated temperatures (firing). The heat treatment shall develop sufficient fired bond between the particulate constituents to provide the strength and durability requirements of this specification. Additives or recycled materials are permitted to be included at the option of the manufacturer. (See “firing” and “firing bond” in Terminology C1232.)

1.3.1 This specification and its individual requirements shall not be used to qualify or corroborate the performance of a masonry unit made from other materials, or made with other forming methods, or other means of binding the materials.

1.4 Hollow brick differ from unglazed structural clay tile (Specifications C34 and C212) and solid brick (Specifications C62 and C216). Hollow brick require greater shell and web thicknesses and higher minimum compressive strength than structural clay tile, but permit greater void area and lesser distance from exposed edge to core hole than solid brick. Therefore, environmental and structural performance may be different in elements constructed of hollow brick from those constructed of structural clay tile or solid brick.

1.5 The text of this specification references notes and footnotes which provide explanatory material. These notes and footnotes (excluding those in tables and figures) shall not be considered as requirements of the specification.

1.6 The values stated in inch-pound units are to be regarded as standard. The values given in parentheses are mathematical conversions to SI units that are provided for information only and are not considered standard.