BRICK MASONRY
Brick masonry is made up of bricks bonded together with mortar. Therefore two essential requirements of brick masonry are Bricks and Mortar.
In brick masonry, for optimum use of material, mortar strength should match the brick strength. We will discuss both bricks and mortar requirements for brick masonry on this topic.
BRICKS
- Bricks used in masonry can be of two types. (1) Traditional/country bricks (23 x 11.4 x 7.6 cm) (2) Standard modular bricks (19 x 9 x 9 cm).
- Sometimes bricks are also manufactured into special shapes and sizes for architectural purposes e.g. copings, cornices, string courses, sloping walls, etc.
(a) Single Bull Nose
(b) Double Bull Nose
(c) Cownose
(d) Curved
(e) Coping
(f) Bird's Mouth
(g) Cant (Jamb brick)
(h) Double cont.
(i) Squint
(j) Pinth stretcher (Splay stretcher)
(k) Pinth Hooder (Splay stretcher)
(l) Doglog
MORTAR
- It is defined as a paste obtained by adding water to a mixture of fine aggregates such as sand and binding material, e.g., gypsum, lime, and cement.
- Building mortars are similar to concrete, but these do not contain coarse aggregate.
- Mortars are used for filling joints as a binder in stone and brick masonry for the preparation of decorative and protective plasters and the production of small size building elements (blocks, bricks, tiles, etc)