What is a brick and stone masonry

Stone Masonry

• Masonry refers to anything constructed by a mason using materials such as stones, bricks, tiles, etc.

In stone masonry mortar is used to bind stones.

• Types of stone masonry are rubble masonry and ashlar masonry. In rubble stone masonry stones of

irregular shape and size are used. Dry rubble masonry, random rubble masonry, square rubble

masonry, polygon walling and flint walling are some of the types of rubble stone masonry. In

ashlar stone masonry stones are dressed neatly to regular shapes and used is regular courses.

Ashlar fine tooled, rough tooled, rock or quarry face, chamfered, block in course and ashlar facing

are some of the types of ashlar masonry.

• Structural members built with stones are steps, walls, plinth, sill, string course, frieze, parapet and

coping.

• The types of joint made are butt joint, lap joint, joggle joint, bed joint, slate joint, cramp joint and

plugged joint.

• To lift stones during construction chain, chain dogs, grab hooks, Lewis or tongs are used.

• Stones should be laid on their natural bed. Through stones within 1.5 m distances should be used.

Under beams, trusses, etc., large flat stones should be used. Proper curing is necessary for 2–3

weeks.

Brick Masonry

• Bricks with mortar are the materials used in brick masonry. Stretcher is a brick with longer face in

the direction of wall. Header is the brick at right angles to a stretcher. Bed joint is the horizontal

layer of mortar over which bricks are laid. Perpend is an imaginary line passing through the

vertical joints in the alternate courses. Quoin is the angle at corner on the face side of wall which

is normally 90°. Bat is the portion of the brick cut across the width. Closer is the portion of the

brick cut along its length. Queen closer, king closer, bevelled closer and mitred closer are some of

the types of closers. Toothing is a method of terminating a wall with alternate courses projecting.

At the end of days work a wall is terminated in a stepped manner. This is known as racking back.

• Construction of a brick wall always starts from a corner. About 15 mm thick bed is prepared with

mortar over an area to be covered by the corner of the wall. The first brick is pressed on it and

then closer is placed with mortar on its sides. The joint thickness of 10 mm throughout should be

ensured. The brick is gently hammered. The headers are laid on the same manner. The edge line is

checked after laying each brick other courses are laid and vertically is checked frequently.

• Trowel, bolster, brick hammer, spirit level, plumb rule, masons square, line and pins and end frames

are the tools used in brickworks.

• Various types of bonds used are stretcher bond, header bond, English bond, Flemish bond, English

cross bond, Dutch bond, Raking bond, zig-zig bond, garden wall bond, facing bond. The English

bond is stronger for walls thicker than brick, since it uses large number of headers compared to

flemish bond.

• The following types of junctions are built in brick walls: T-junction, intersection, squint junction.

• Apart from wall, brick masonry is used for columns, footings, buttress, threshold, window sills,

corbels, coping, ornamental works, brick nogging, fire places and flues, chimneys. Brick nogging

is brickwork in wooden frame. This type of walls are provided in earth- quack-prone areas.

• Defects in brick masonry are: small depressions with nodules due to use of interior bricks,

development of cracks due to expansion of bricks due to sulphate action disfiguration of surface

when soluble salts present come in contact with water, corrosion of embedded fixture, shrinkage

on drying and cracking due to frost action.

• Walls should be raised uniformly and in no case difference between adjoining walls should be more

than 1 m. No wall should be raised by more than 1.5 m in a day. The face joint should be raked to

a depth of 12–20 mm when the mortar is green in order to ensure proper key to plaster. Masonry

should be cured regularly for two weeks.

• Thickness of a wall is always in terms of multiples of 1/2 brick length. To get better thermal comfort

in 1–3 storey residential building, thick bricks exterior walls may be used.