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Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

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Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#41

Post by drakythe »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #29
jguimont wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever built Lego?

Maybe, a long time ago. For those whose childhood is a long way behind them, would you explain?

Imagine a posterboard, one of those 3 section things you can by at a supermarket kids use in science fairs. What happens if you attempt to stand that posterboard up with the sections in a strait line? Now take the outer two sections and place them at an angle to the central board. One will fall over by itself. The other will stand upright and even take a non-trivial amount of downward pressure (weight) before it falls over.

It works the same way with any thin and tall building, it needs to have support perpendicular to the main body. You'll note that most straight brick walls have thicker "towers" at regular intervals. Or it needs underground support, like concrete in the ground for a fence post.

Unrelated: Go buy a lego set! If you've forgotten the joy of LEGOs I encourage you to rediscover it. The kinds of sets they have available these days are vast and the cleverness of their building techniques needs to be seen to be appreciated.

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#42

Post by hammock »

geeky4qwerty wrote: post #26

This feels a bit like diet clickbait... "use fewer bricks than a straight wall"* *A straight wall of the approximal strength and length of a wavy wall, not just length. My counter would be that from a practical perspective the amount of space wasted by the wavy design seems to negate the usefulness of the design. Probably makes the lawn crew dizzy when mowing it too!

Do you also think corrugated cardboard is wasteful?

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#43

Post by turnsout »

geeky4qwerty wrote: post #36
turnsout wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have plenty of space but you're tight on money, it's an ingenious solution.

Good point. I'd say if you're tight on money I'm not sure a wall should be at the top of your to-buy list.

It is if you're selling sheep milk and you don't want to lose your flock.

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#44

Post by gswdh »

geeky4qwerty wrote: post #36
turnsout wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have plenty of space but you're tight on money, it's an ingenious solution.

Good point. I'd say if you're tight on money I'm not sure a wall should be at the top of your to-buy list.

[dead]

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#45

Post by vehemenz »

geeky4qwerty wrote: post #26

This feels a bit like diet clickbait... "use fewer bricks than a straight wall"* *A straight wall of the approximal strength and length of a wavy wall, not just length. My counter would be that from a practical perspective the amount of space wasted by the wavy design seems to negate the usefulness of the design. Probably makes the lawn crew dizzy when mowing it too!

The extra space doesn't have to be fully wasted. You could plant bushes or small trees in the concave sections.

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#46

Post by scott_w »

geeky4qwerty wrote: post #36
turnsout wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have plenty of space but you're tight on money, it's an ingenious solution.

Good point. I'd say if you're tight on money I'm not sure a wall should be at the top of your to-buy list.

It's relative. You might be "tight on money for building a wall" so you save money by building a wavy wall.

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#47

Post by hammock »

Corrugated cardboard just is a wavy wall, sandwiched in between two straight walls.

You can also observe corrugated steel and its use in construction, shipping containers, etc. Because these are steel and stronger than paper, the sandwich layers are not needed

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#48

Post by yboris »

geeky4qwerty wrote: post #26

This feels a bit like diet clickbait... "use fewer bricks than a straight wall"* *A straight wall of the approximal strength and length of a wavy wall, not just length. My counter would be that from a practical perspective the amount of space wasted by the wavy design seems to negate the usefulness of the design. Probably makes the lawn crew dizzy when mowing it too!

Every dip in the wave is an opportunity to plant beautiful bush, flowers, or shrubbery.

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#50

Post by HWR_14 »

geeky4qwerty wrote: post #36
turnsout wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have plenty of space but you're tight on money, it's an ingenious solution.

Good point. I'd say if you're tight on money I'm not sure a wall should be at the top of your to-buy list.

If you own a large amount of land than the savings add up. Especially if you live 250 years ago (or you want to match the walls from then) when bricks were not produced and delivered in massive industrial processes and large estates were more common.
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