Pros and Cons of Mixing Salt in Clay Bricks

Bricks are an important material for building walls, pillars, fencing, homes, and commercial units. Bricks are made with clay, concrete, sand, fly ash, lime, and eco-friendly materials. Most brick colors are grey, red, charcoal, brown, orange, yellow, and dark plum. Some brick designs are plain, and others have brickmaker logos, short names, holes inside, and lock shapes.

First, the maker chooses a material like clay, adds water, and mixes it well. They put mixed clay into bricks by using extrusion or soft mud moulding. After this, they dry the bricks under the sun and fire them in a kiln to harden and color them. Now bricks are ready for delivery and used for home and building construction.

But do you know brickmakers use salt in their brickwork? Why do they use salt to make bricks? Is there any scientific reason behind it or their own benefit of mixing salt in brick-making? Salt has been used as a building material for centuries.

The Salty Secret: Unveiling the Pros and Cons of Salt in Clay Bricks

You may not hear that salt is mixed in bricks. But it is true that the following are the reasons for mixing a small amount of salt in clay bricks:

Pros of Mixing Salf with Clay Bricks

• Mixing salt in the soil with water makes the clay smoother and softer. The clay becomes very soft, like butter, which makes brickwork easy, such as putting clay in and out of mud molding and smooth and plain finishing.
• It takes less time to get dried in the sun or a kiln.
• As salt helps to get bricks dry and harder in less time, it saves fuel and money.
• It makes bricks harder and stronger.
• Climate conditions (humidity and temperature) play a role in how salt interacts with clay bricks.

Cons of Mixing Salt with Clay Bricks

• The salt content is in the soil and clay that are used to make bricks. It can affect your construction.
• The main cons of mixing salt in bricks and clay is efflorescence. It is the most common issue in modern housing, where bricks are used for building walls. 
• Efflorescence is a deposit of water-soluble salts on brick surfaces due to water movement through pores. It appears as white powder on the brick wall’s surface. People say that when bricks come in contact with moisture and water, efflorescence comes out due to the salt in the bricks. There is no permanent solution or treatment for efflorescence. 
• Salt crystallization inside brick capillaries can create interior pressure, leading to brick deterioration.

Some brickmakers mix salt with brick clay, but not all. Sometimes the salt content is in the soil and water of the particular area where bricks are made. Proper mixing techniques, brick cutting, and understanding the local environment are crucial for successful outcomes. People who buy such bricks face some issues after using them in construction. So choose a brick factory carefully after testing their brick, or you can visit the construction site where they have already used it.