expansion lines?

hi long time reader first time poster here.....quick question to anyone that knows, we are building a house and the garage has two plaster walls and one brick, i have noticed that the expansion lines ( if thats what they are called ) in the garage brick wall have no foam in them as the ones on the house do, so essentially you can look through the gap in the bricks into our garage..is this normal?? Im a little worried as the garage is actually going to be a bar!!

Probably just have not got around to it yet.
Ours is the same and looks a little weird.

Yeah I was wondering what this gap was for. Hehe My dad explained that they do put it in. When? Not exactly sure. Now that our whole house is bricked there are expansion lines everywhere and only a few of them have those foam bits. Even then it's only partly got foam.

ahhh at least im not alone....went looking at some other houses at different stages of completion, some do some dont but it always seems to be the garage that doesnt...damn i hope they put something in there...

I remember having the same conversation with our building supervisor.

Once they all have foam in them, generally they will use a glue covering the joins matching the brick color.

Hope this helps

Hello longneck,Expansion joints have to be sealed off to make them weatherproof.We always use the rubber foam type backing (Abelflex etc)and then caulk up the joints when the brickwork is finished.Expansion joints in brickwork are essential even though alot of people think they are a bit of an eyesore,I think they look much better than the resulting cracks if no allowance is made for movement in the brickwork.Regards Terry.

Terry. There seems to be a lot more use of these expansion joints today.
Do they detract from the strength of the wall
I know for instance the outer wall of our new garage has a pillar and then a full length gap before the next panel of wall starts.Just seems to take away from old brain logic of the pillar adding strength to the wall.

thanx terry, do you know if it is required to fill them with foam? i ask because yesterday i was speaking to a work mate who just moved in to their new home and the expansion lines in the garage dont have it, you can still see the fence through the wall.

We actually insert the "abelflex"as the bricks are layed.It comes in long rolls.Concreters use it extensively as well.Every few courses we then put a special wall tie in which has the ability to "slide"and this is what the exansion joint is there for.Without getting too technical clay bricks can "grow" quite abit and the movement has to be allowed for.We sometimes used to put the joints in behind downpipes to hide them but the council decided that they needed to be visable.In short longneck yes,the joints need to be sealed up with mastic.Hopefully in a fairly close colour to your bricks.Regards Terry

spoke with my building supervisor he assurded me they will be filled when they wash the bricks