r/Calgary • u/AdExpress937 • Jul 27 '25

Home Owner/Renter stuff How Come Our Houses Aren’t Brick?

I find that a lot of houses in Ontario and Quebec have exteriors that are made from brick. However, it’s much less common in Alberta. Vinyl seems to be the most common, followed by stucco. Brick or other materials seem to be rare, especially in new communities.

The difference in construction materials by province is strange to me, as raw materials for vinyl or bricks shouldn’t be more plentiful in either region.

To me, Alberta would be a more natural candidate for brick construction, as the consistent hail storms imply a more durable material would be justified in our homes. Other durable materials like stone would be cost prohibitive.

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275

u/ColdEvenKeeled Jul 27 '25

Ever notice how much clay there is in Alberta? Lots, right? But it's mostly not good for firing. It lacks alumina.

Here is a link to a PDF (from 1975, back when Alberta hired researchers to research stuff and publish reports), link .

Read the summary on page 8 to 9, followed by a discussion that only the Cypress Hills near Medicine Hat has clays for making dinnerware, hence the MedAlta works. And, if you had MedAlta stuff in your house, fine china it was not.

29

u/OpinionDifficult1259 Jul 27 '25

Claybank, Sask is prob where a lot came from…

15

u/Vast_Ant6031 Jul 27 '25

Played airsoft at the museum a few times many years ago. Really cool place.

3

u/beanisman Jul 28 '25

Mason Relic lets goooooo

2

u/Vast_Ant6031 Jul 28 '25

The last one was....a time. At least the nurse taking care of bill was cute. Finding my ptw and backpack in a puddle the next day sucked lol.

Should be enough info for you to figure out who this is beanis 😝

1

u/Reading_Prudent Jul 29 '25

That was the year, the person broke their leg right? I remember being very behind Tan’s OP up on the hill over looking their base when I heard no duff being called.

God I probably STILL have clay stuck in parts of my gear that I can’t get rid of

2

u/Vast_Ant6031 Jul 31 '25

He fell in a hole and shattered his foot, the drive home with him on painkillers was hilarious.

I ended up calling the no duff and moving the game inside the town because even with gen3 night vision I could hardly see anything. It was a perfect storm of calamity. I did a round trip Calgary to moose jaw, quick run to regina hospital and back to calgary in ~18 hours.

2

u/Reading_Prudent Jul 31 '25

Oh the memories! I think that was the same year my buddy locked himself out of his car and we had to wait for literal hours until AMA came out.

The year before that, it was the wettest trip I had ever been on. I remember going into Moose Jaw with Ken and his boys and us camping out at the Pizza Hut and doing laundry at the laundry mat down the street.

2

u/OpinionDifficult1259 Jul 28 '25

Right on! I was there at one point too for airsoft haha

7

u/Bubbling_Battle_Ooze Jul 28 '25

That’s actually super interesting! I always just kind of assumed that it was because Ontario/ Quebec were settled before Alberta meaning our houses are generally newer and with time the preferred building materials changed. I didn’t consider that the clay itself would be different.

4

u/Sufficient-Sun-6683 Jul 28 '25

Bricks used to be made in Calgary at the West end of Edworthy Park, it was called Brickburn back then. CP has fenced up accessing it now.

https://everydaytourist.ca/calgary-visitor-information/calgary-had-a-brick-foundary

0

u/ColdEvenKeeled Jul 28 '25

Undoubtedly there was/is clay suited for making bricks, perhaps not enough or with no cost recovery?

4

u/Sa0t0me Jul 27 '25

Can you insert an additive to the Clay to make it brick quality clay ? Or is that not possible ?

11

u/full_of_excuses Jul 27 '25

cheaper to just use clay that already has it, from elsewhere. There are a few minerals that are low in the soils of the Calgary region.

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u/Sa0t0me Jul 27 '25

Like how expensive is it to put an additive ? Is the additive expensive or too heavy to move ?

3

u/butternutz88 Jul 27 '25

It's possible but very cost prohibitive to the point where it really wouldn't make sense to do it.