HeyBub wrote:
Aaron wrote:
Thanks, I was worried about disturbing the integrity of the wall
itself but I didn't know at what point (from a structural) point of
view you could do this. I am assuming if you punched too many holes
or too large of a hole that at some point cracks would appear and you
would disturb the integrity of the wall?

You could probably
remove every other block and the wall would be okay.

Clearly removing blocks from a wall will reduce its strength. The question is
whether the reduction it too severe. If the wall is much stronger than it
needs to be, removing some of the blocks will maintain enough strength. However,
if the wall is _just_ strong enough, removing even one block may have a
deleterious effect.

A small hole will have a small effect on the strength - the material in the
block will transfer the stresses around the hole. Too big a hole and the block
is seriously weakened.

Somewhere in the standards for these blocks you'll find a reference for how many
holes can be tolerated with negligible loss of integrity. I don't have a copy
of such a standard on hand - try the web.

Mike