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My time in Germany gave rise to an appreciation for how well houses are built there. It's typical for Germans to wait much longer, well into their 30s or later, to buy a home that is much more costly to build due to the quality of materials used: brick, stucco, tile, stone, concrete. Here we rever size and bells & whistles over quality, hence the typical 3500+ sq. ft McMansion, much larger but "built" just as cheaply as cookie cutter tract homes, with plastic siding, tar paper/granule roof (shingles), tinny aluminum covered trim, plastic plumbing, cheap wood decks instead of stone patios... cost cutting materials and techniques wherever you look. Oh, it may have fancy appliances, granite, hot tubs, 2 story entrance foyers and hardwood floors, but the construction itself is not made to last, it's flash over substance for most buyers here. It's the same for almost all consumer products, cheap disposable crap, made to be thrown away, not repaired.

My wife's family, the Dietrichs and Wolfels, were from Dresden in the East. Her other side, the Schulls, were from Stuttgart.

I'm a little surprised to see nothing that looks like reinforcement in the bricks. There appears to be a horizontal tie bar between the two layers but nothing going vertical. I guess Germany doesn't have to worry about earthquakes but out here full brick construction is not the norm for homes--or really much else anymore. When it is used (mostly low one or two level commercial), there are multiple vertical steel rebars inserted every few inches and grouted in. This buildinghttp://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.johnmartin.com/earthquakes/eqshow/images/64700908.GIF&imgrefurl=http://www.johnmartin.com/earthquakes/eqshow/647009_08.htm&h=345&w=500&sz=118&tbnid=yahj8U_GyHAs7M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcoalinga%2Bearthquake&usg=__tZ9m1bas2xFm6o4NRZ29Z18pYYA=&ei=2ILdS_CKFJDisQPg8q3aBg&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=6&ct=image&ved=0CCkQ9QEwBQ was a stately building of brick construction 80 miles from me but shows why bricks are now discouraged here. I believe there is a fair amount of brick construction in the southern US but is it also just laid up vertically or fully reinforced. The wooden truss support for the room looks very much like what we do.

Typical and popular brick VENEER does not have any significant reinforcemnet. Only thing that is used is a 3/4" x 6" piece of corrugated sheet metal that is nailed to a wall stud and then bent horizontal to intersect with the brick mortor joint.

HH56 raises a good question. How is the German outer brick wall tied or secured with the inner large block wall????

They really don't build with brick in California anymore. At least not structurally. Any brick you see here is typically decorative or a facade. Bricks and mortar don't flex in an earthquake, they disintegrate. Most of the damage you see in any of our earthquakes is from older non-reinforced construction.

But I do love the look of brick when I travel on the East Coast and Europe. My favorite style is English Tudor style with the large exposed beam-work.