Any brick layers in the house?

[MushCreek]

Although it's a ways off, I like to plan for future steps of building my house so they can marinate in my brain for a while. The columns on the front porch will be typical Craftsman- fat brick lower columns with tapered wood uppers. All of this is for show, as there are steel columns actually holding the porch roof up (and down).

My question is this: Is it easier/faster/better to lay up hollow brick columns, and then fill the center with concrete, or form up the concrete, and then brick the outside of it? The columns are 3 bricks wide, or a little under 24", and roughly 44" tall, or whatever the closest brick comes to. The resulting inside void is a little over 16" square. I would make up the core out of concrete block, but the 4" square columns are in the way. I don't want to use 16" square block, as each one of those buggers would have to be lifted over the top of the steel column! So- the inside will be solid poured concrete. It's just a matter of whether I do it before or after the brick. Thoughts?

[nathan.principe]

Since it wont really be structural, Ive seen masons in my field of landscaping, create masonry pedestals, bench seating, signs, etc. by simply filling the "void" with mortar and ruble ( broke bricks, short pieces, stone), filling in as they go and the structure gets higher

[roadtripray]

I had thought about the brick bases as well, but one thing is you have to realize how much all that brick weighs.  I haven't figured out how that would be done, but I guess you'd have a CBU foundation pier directly beneath each of the columns, which I suppose would be necessary anyway to transfer the weight of the porch.

Have you considered the brick veneer panels?  I've been looking at those myself, but they aren't cheap.  They seem to run about $7 per square foot for brick or masonry panels, on up to double that much.  I have seen some clearance deals at under $4/square foot.  I don't know much about putting those up either, but I suppose you'd build a stud box for the "fat" part of the columns and then put the facing over that.

Ray

[MushCreek]

My porch slab is already poured. It is a monolithic slab, and way more than strong enough for the bricks. I made a ledge in the footing so I can run the bricks down past the slab on the front and the sides to give the appearance of going into the ground. Brick is dirt cheap around here, and I like the look, at least in this part of the country.

I read of a technique using 2 piece 16" chimney blocks to create a form for the brick. If I can't find 2 piece blocks, I can always cut them.

[roadtripray]

My porch slab is already poured. It is a monolithic slab, and way more than strong enough for the bricks. I made a ledge in the footing so I can run the bricks down past the slab on the front and the sides to give the appearance of going into the ground. Brick is dirt cheap around here, and I like the look, at least in this part of the country.

I like the look of brick, also.  Is the house foundation also on a monolithic slab, or is it just the porch?  If the whole house is a slab, do you pour the porch slab at the same time?

Thanks,
Ray

[MushCreek]

The house has a full walk-out basement, so the porch was poured after the fact, as was the garage slab. We drilled holes every 2' and doweled the slabs to the basement walls with re-bar.

The support columns are 4" square steel tubing, 1/4" wall, with 3/8" plates welded to each end. I wanted something lighter, but the welder said he could do them cheaper with the 4" because he had stock on hand. Those columns are serious overkill. Speaking of kill, they nearly killed this old man setting them up at 120# each. I bolted them down with (4) 1/2" anchors each. They'll be lagged to a built-up carrier beam, which will hold up the roof rafters. It's ironic that I'm building a hurricane-proof house now that I'm moving 300 miles inland......