Thread: Buadhai's Quest for Bricks -- Success!

Those of you who have followed my construction and gardening threads know that I have been on a six month quest for bricks. Not for construction, but for garden decoration. After all, you see bricks all over Thailand from the ancient hin prasat to modern resorts. But, not in Korat. In spite of searching all over the province we were unable to find a single source of bricks. Yeah, one place would sell us common brick, but for 20 baht each and a ten day waiting period. I finally got to the point where I was going to order from outside the province and eat the huge transportation cost for the small number I wanted.

Today we were driving to Dan Kwien, the pottery village that is a few K south of Korat. Suddenly, on the side of the road we saw stacks of bricks; just the sort I wanted. Ms. B talked to the guy attending them and got a price, which was fine. I backed the car up to the stack of the size I wanted when the guy told us that these were not for sale, but for display only. If we actually wanted to buy, we'd have to go to the factory.

He gave and Ms. B comprehended driving directions as only Thais can do. That is, not at all. It was supposed to be a one kilometer drive. But after taking many wrong turns and stopping to ask many people, all of whom pointed in different directions, we were about to give up. We seemed to be headed no where when we saw a group of women. Ms. B asked again. We were close! We drove a bit further and then a woman overtook us on a motorcycle and said to follow her. A few hundred meters down the twisty lane and we arrived at her brick factory.


Here she and Ms. B discuss the purchase. The proprietress explained that she's been in business for only a year and that business is hard because no one wants to use bricks. (Maybe if they were more readily available they would.)

The bricks stacked to the right of the photo are unfired and still drying out. The fired bricks just behind her right shoulder are the ancient style flat bricks that are about 30 cm by 60 cm.


These are the extruded construction bricks; the ones with holes through and through. I'm sure she sells plenty of these. They have just been made and are set out to dry. It was raining, so the workers were just covering them with plastic.


This is where the bricks are fired. The red bricks are done and are being cooled. Behind them a stack of bricks is being fired. You can see the flames coming out the top of the metal enclosure.

To fire the dried clay bricks they are stacked so that there are air passages throughout the pile. The pile is covered with dry rice husks, surrounded by a thin metal enclosure and set on fire.

Bricks fired this way are not very strong and not really suitable for a patio or path as they will quickly degrade. They are suitable, however, for making garden pillars and walls, borders and that sort of thing.