So it needs special adhesive, special bricks, special maintenance (Whats the lifespan on that internal saw if you have a lot of corners?) and it's only for the inner walls? What is the value proposition here?
Bricklaying is a skilled job and key to the building's stability and durability... so remind me to stay way from buildings next time I visit central Europe...
Key to the building’s stability and durability are the steel reinforced cement corners and support columns. The bricks in between, especially for internal walls, are just dividers. You could build them out of paper and the building would be just fine.
Afaik you need the reinforced concrete part of construction for even small family homes for earthquake safety. Bricks don’t do well under sheering forces.
As I wrote, this is a skilled job and they are apparently in very short supply here in the UK, where most houses are made entirely of bricks and even many taller buildings use a lot of them... so they can make a good living, indeed. Maybe not as high as you suggest but pretty good.
Actually, many skilled trades in the UK can make 50-60k a year, bearing in mind that these are technical qualifications, no university involved (whereas the system pushes everyone towards uni)
Speaking for Romania here (if you go more "Central" they have smaller earthquakes and it might be different), the houses are supported by pretty big reinforced concrete columns, and the floors/ceilings are all reinforced concrete. You can use other materials other than brick, like aerated concrete bricks, the main role is thermal/sound/fire insulation, there is no strength value assigned to the walls, only to the corners+columns. e.g. https://img3.imonet.ro/XV08/V0801LH4N7O/casa-la-rosu-in-oras...
Romania used to have brick-only houses, but after a major earthquake in 1977 that is not allowed anymore.
Bricklaying is relatively easy, and it's a quick part of the building process, it only takes a couple of days for a regular house. I was looking at the robot, and an experienced bricklayer can lay the bricks just as fast, if you can keep the bricks and mortar coming.
Here in the UK I believe the full training to become a qualified bricklayer takes 2-3 years.
So "relatively easy" has to depends on the quality and specifics of the end result... for instance, here in the UK, most houses are 100% bricks and visible ones on the outside, and the result is flawless (definitely not 'easy' to achieve) and lasts for literally centuries.
The UK doesn't have the earthquakes that Romania does, bricks houses just don't last there. So they use thick bricks with many airholes, for insulation, because winters are harsher, and then cover the bricks with mortar/stucco. They still line them up right, but obviously there is no need for them to be as nice as in the UK.
> Here in the UK I believe the full training to become a qualified bricklayer takes 2-3 years.
This has nothing to do with how difficult it is to learn how to lay bricks (insert ali g joke?) but more to do with capitalism. Paying apprentices £20-40 a day is a lot cheaper, shock horror, than paying a "qualified" brickie 3-600 a day.
Anecdotal I know, but family in the trades. I spent ~18 months* whilst doing my degree on the roofs, side by side with brickies on projects that range from single site, domestic, to 1500+ dwellings and commercial sites. A good 85-95% of them don't even have a GCSE. It's, still, a very much family business - at least in the UK. Connections will get you everywhere - most were pulling in 60-150k.
The main thing I learnt from the brickies I worked with, never mess with them. Even if you're in the right. They may look unhealthy, but jesus christ they're more than capable of throwing you a not insignificant distance. Going up a ladder all day, every day, with 24 bricks on your shoulder when your labor doesn't turn up will turn you into a beast - albeit one covered in fat due to poor diet.
*Weekends and 4-6 hours a day when the schedule allowed it. Site carpenters are just as bad. Most are bent as hell, very few take pride in their work. The housing stock in England is shit for a reason and it's entirely historic. Take a look at the city and guilds guides. Sparkies are the best and...that's not saying best.
Edit: Just watched the promo video, these are - special - breeze blocks. With a veneer? Stuck together with at best glue? This is going to be a hyperlocalised response to a labor shortage and wouldn't hold up to building standards outside Australia.
> The housing stock in England is shit for a reason and it's entirely historic.
To an extent that's always been true I'll agree but it has gotten better and worse at times, when we where looking at houses I specifically gave more weight to stuff built in the 70's/80's over anything after that or before that, relatively new (for our housing stock) but built at a time when pride in work was still a thing.
As a result the build quality on my house is excellent (and I used to be a sparkie so I know a lot of the trades tricks).
The new builds we looked at had much better energy efficiency but god when you go look in the loft/anywhere that wasn't immediately visible was the quality dire plus tiny in comparison, 90sq/m2 for the same as we paid for a 4 bed 128 sq/m2.
As a northern European I was always confused when in action movies people fight each other and throw one another through walls. I later realised this is a thing because American homes are built like garbage.
If you have to stay away from buildings in Central Europe I'd recommend not visiting at all, you'll miss all our beautiful European cities built for humans. You'll have a better time on your 8 lane highways back home.
It's called light timber frame construction and drywall cladding. The framing is 100mm x 50mm (dressed, about 87mm x 34mm) timber, the drywall is 122mm thick gypsum (hydrated calcium sulfate) lined with paper on both sides of the frame.
It partitions spaces perfectly cromulently, particularly if soundproofing material is placed in the dead space between the two sheaths of drywall.
Very much less labor intensive than stone or brick walls. And of course much lighter if it falls on you, in an earthquake or because a truck drives into your building or a military drone delivers an exciting present.
This is coming to the UK. I'm seeing more and more new houses built that way here with "composite cladding" on the outside, or sometimes still brickwalls on the ground floor but that do not seem to be load bearing.
I am in the UK, you know, red bricks everywhere, that's why I know that the description I replied to means that those brick walls are indeed garbage if they are built by 'nonprofessionals' because this IS a very skilled job (and I was also being facetious). It seems I have touched a nerve, though... oh well, nevermind.
It seems hard to think that in 20 years all those issues won't be better (it will be able to do other types of walls, windows, integrate plumbing, etc.)
The "special bricks/adhesive" also doesnt seem to be a huge deal at scale. Every type of construction has its own speciality equipment (there are drills just for drywall, just for concrete, just for glass etc.)
