Brick houses are strong. They can last for centuries and withstand many an onslaught. Once upon a time, that story had a happy ending. When it comes to gardening, clay is more likely to be the beginning of a book with an unhappy ending. A typical example is a sodded lawn around a new home.
Some builders spread a little topsoil on the ground first.
This does help to make the lawn look well established, but the basis of this grass-root issue is that what you can't see can hurt you. The grass roots simply continue to compete with one another in the thin upper layer of topsoil. The unhappy homeowner pays the price with high water bills due to the need for frequent, inefficient watering. A partial solution is to aerate your lawn. This provides an opportunity for water to soak into the ground instead of just running off and down the street.