What's Happening To The Brick Sidewalk?

[northside lurker]

When it rains, won't the salts be washed off the bricks to the ground below?  Won't the precess start all over again?

Not necessarily.  When it rains, and the bricks get wet, the salts wick up through the brick.

I'm guessing that the salts/minerals are in the bricks themselves.  Eventually, these salts will be "cleansed" from the brick, and the white residue will wear off and wash away.

[jay]

When it rains, won't the salts be washed off the bricks to the ground below?  Won't the precess start all over again?

This could become a tourist attraction for those who love physics.

[northside lurker]

I forgot about this thread.

To me, it looks like some kind of efflorescence.  That means water is pulling salts/minerals out of (or through, from the dirt below) the bricks.  When the water evaporates, the minerals remain, and build up to form the white residue.

Maybe this is because they are new bricks, but I don't really know.

[AllanY2525]

The bricks may not be those made of traditional materials.  Many so-called
"bricks" nowadays are actually made of a form of concrete, which has a
red dye mixed in with it to give it the appearance of red brick.  Patio
paving tiles are made in this fasion.

if these are that type of brick, it could be that the dye has been worn
away on the exposed surface of them, either by traffic or by the
elements.

[jay]

I noticed some of the new sidewalk bricks along West Federal Street have a white appearance.  What has caused the bricks to turn white?