GUEST,Dazbo 09 Nov 06 - 06:57 AM "Been puzzling me for a while now but if you built a building out of normal bricks and mortar (where the bricks and mortar take the full weight of the building) how high could you build it before the bricks at the bottom can no longer take the weight? Which would give way first the bricks or the mortar?"

IF the first question is, "How high can a brick wall be built before the bottom bricks can no longer take the weight?" (That is, considering only the weight of the wall itself - ignoring ALL other loads.), about 1200 feet for cheap (1000psi compressive strength) bricks.

Regarding the second question, the bricks.

Now, you can take into account many load and quality factors, some as discussed above, each reducing practical wall height accordingly. For instance, consider Liz's "drunkards" above. Clearly, if this wall was laid by the most famous mason of all, Tim Finnegan, and he had no fall protection as required by the safety authority having jurisdiction, the maximum wall height would be about eight feet.