Ricky's Audio Video Barn Build Project

[Owen Smith]

That's true.. the exterior finish that appears as brick or stone can be structural or it can be a veneer, strictly for appearance. There is pretty much always interior wood framing to facilitate plumbing, wiring, heating, runs, etc. then covered with drywall.. I'm not sure how all that stuff fits into the construction style @Owen Smith is describing.

It doesn't fit into what I'm describing as the norm in the UK. The exterior skin of the outer walls is brick or stone mortared together, then a 3 inch gap (which has recently doubled to 6 inches) which used to be an air cavity but has been filled with glass fibre insulation slabs since the 1980s, then an interior skin which is also solid but built of breeze blocks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_block) mortared together. Then traditionally wiring was clipped to that wall and thick plaster (two layers called browning and pinking) was applied directly to it. Since about the 1980s instead drywall (plasterboard in UK parlance) is stuck to the breezeblocks and then skimmed with plaster (the old pinking layer), this is less labour intensive and drys faster and can result in a better finish. It's harder to put shelves up on though as you need long screws and wall plugs to reach the structural breezeblocks.

Loading bearing internal walls (eg that hold the upstairs floor up) are just mortared breezeblocks, with either plaster on both sides or drywall stuck on and skimmed both sides. Internal walls that aren't load bearing (typically all the upstairs walls) are timber and drywall.

Before anyone points it out, yes this construction method makes running the plumbing a nightmare. When houses had crawlspaces under the floor you ran the pipes there, but with solid concrete floors downstairs now being standard it's a total pain to run the pipes.