Would a brick wall (just a standard brick wall that you would find in an ordinary home) offer any protection against a charging grizzly bear? I figure that a determined bear could probably smash through a wall, but I could be wrong.
Yes, the wall would provide protection, and no, the bear couldn’t break through. It takes a car with the energy of multiple horsepower to break through a brick wall, and even then it’s not a sure thing. And a car has a lot more horsepower–read, “strength” and “energy”–than a bear. It’s a physics thing.
Of course, if it’s a poorly constructed wall in the first place, then you are Lunch. But a normal house wall? No. Also, normal brick house walls are just a facade, a single layer of brick, and behind them is a layer of exterior grade plywood and a lot of 2x4 and 2x6 lumber, plus the drywall, all of which would absorb the bear’s momentum, if it should happen to break through a poorly mortared brick house wall.
And an old-fashioned brick-only house would have extra thicknesses of brick, not the single layer you’re used to with a modern house.
If grizzly bears could break through brick house walls, they would have been doing so for the last 100 years, ever since people started building homes in grizzly territory. Grizzlies will stop at nothing to get food, and if a brick wall didn’t stop them, folks in places out West wouldn’t even bother building brick houses, they’d be building their homes out of stone, like a bank or post office, or structural steel like a bunker.
I once watched an adult grizzly bear snap its way through a sturdy plywood and 2x4 dumpster like it was a ritz cracker. Not brick, mind you, but impressive nonetheless when viewed from 10 feet away.
I am not a bear maven, but I have the impression that blunt impact is not a bear way of doing things. A grizzly can run fast, but once she gets to what she wants, isn’t she more likely to stop and tear the thing apart? A bear wouldn’t instinctively know what the weak point of a brick house, but a brick-faced wall is more vulnerable to bear-style tearing than a brutal crash. Pushing in, she’d have to break through the stud wall and the bricks all at once. Pulling outward, the bricks are much weaker, and the Flintkote, studs, and drywall can be pulled apart one layer at a time. I’m not half as strong as a grizzly, but if you give me a pickax and a little time, I could pull apart a brick-faced wall.
If the bear is clever, she’d probably just rip out a window or a door. What’s in there, that she wants badly enough to do that much work? She wants to watch Oprah, maybe? All My Bear Cubs?
We were all taught by the Three Little Pigs that brick walls are very strong. If we built foot-thick brick walls, like they did when the story was written, it would be true.
Grizzlies rarely make meals of humans, and in many such cases there’s evidence the human was killed for reasons other than predation. So there’s little reason to believe that a wall must be capable of resisting a determined grizzly assault to be deemed suitable for a dwelling, and (I’d guess) very little evidence that this constraint controls home construction in western areas.
I’ve heard a lot of stories up here about grizzly and polar bear intrusion, some first-hand accounts and some others. I’ve never heard of one going through brick or steel, but then brick homes are scarce up here. Stud construction? Might as well build your house out of paper. My brother’s cabin has been entered by bears on several occasions, and they never use the front door. And they shit all over everything after destroying it.
Like mice but much, much worse.
Now if your in one of these energy efficient houses that they allow to be built, you’re dead. Aluminum studs with polystyrene sheet insulation on the outside, and vinyl siding on the outside of that. You have 1/2 inch gypsum board on the inside of the stud.
Thanks for the replies!
I figure one thing that might deter a grizzly would be the “unnaturalness” of the brick/masonry. The bear might be reluctant to attack a structure just because it looked substantially different from anything it was accustomed to encountering in the wild. Of course, if a grizzly was acculturated enough to humans, it might not be deterred – especially if it was hungry, and smelled some meat in the kitchen!
Also – don’t bears sometimes tear cars apart to get to food?
“Human dwellings contain food,” she explained patiently. “Hot dogs, Fritos, cans of pork and beans. And grizzlies learn this. Which is what I was referring to…”
Bears don’t fare well against rifles or shotguns, in the off chance they happen to storm their way into a walled residence, which has GOT to be really rare, no matter the building material.
Yes, even a common black bear can peel open your car to get at food. However, a car is not a brick wall. A car can be peeled open by a man wielding a Jaws of Life. It’s just sheet metal, which isn’t as cohesive a unit as a brick wall. A man holding a Jaws of Life would not be able to dismantle a normally constructed brick wall, and neither could a grizzly.
Is there some kind of bar bet in the offing?
Possibly it was your use of the phrase “then you are Lunch” that confused me into thinking you believed the bears might be after humans instead of hot dogs. I stand by the notion that bear-proofness is rarely an important aspect of western building codes.
bears are very happy to join you for what ever meal you are going to serve, are serving, or have served. they usually come through the doors or windows, just like humans. it is much easier on the manicure.
now if you build an “oldfashion” with a double row of bricks with no windows and egress only from the roof and or underground tunnel…that would be rather bear proof.
…or a giant pitcher of Kool-Aid.
It’s that more of a function of not being able to grab the wall with a Jaws of Life? They have a cutting for of 20,000lbs , even if that was over a 2inx2in area, that’s 5ksi, which is above the crushing strength of normal strength concrete. I’m not sure how strong bricks are, but that’ll break the mortar.
Bricks, in general, are pretty weak. I remember breaking them all the time when I was kid while our house was being built. Much, much weaker than the chunks of concrete we had laying around.
Oh, and Thudlow, that was priceless.
It takes a car with the energy of multiple horsepower to break through a brick wall
…or a giant pitcher of Kool-Aid.
If you propelled it with enough force, sure!
This cracked me up. Just a picture of a bear stuffed in a cannon with a little helmet, or possibly in the basket of a trebuchet or sitting on a ballista. And then the bear noise he makes while he’s flying through the air. Although not as funny as a launched-dog noise. “BAROOOOOOOOooooooo…”
I’d like to see that marine try and toss a grizzly bear off a cliff.