GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR USING BRICK MASONRY

Pankaj Sharma

Royal Member
Staff member
GENERAL PRINCIPLES SHOULD BE OBSERVED IN BRICK MASONRY:

The points to be observed in supervising brick masonry construction are as following:

1. The bricks to be used should fulfill all the requirements of the specification of the work. The bricks should be sound, hard, burnt well with uniform color, shape, and size.


2. The bricks should be immersed in fresh water at least for 2 hours before using in masonry.

3. Do not use broken bricks unless they are essential for making good bonds.

4. The bricks should be laid on their proper bond. The frog of the bricks should be kept upward.

5. Brick bats should be avoided.

6. The thickness of the joints should not exceed 13 mm.

7. The masonry walls should be always truly vertical and verticality should be checked continuously using a plumb bob.

8. Brickwork should be raised uniformly. Any part of the masonry should not be raised more than 90 cm to the rest of the masonry work.

9. The work should be raked back in successive courses if it is to be constructed later.

10. In masonry work, large voids should not be filled with mortar only. It is uneconomical.

11. Cement mortar should be used to enclose all the iron fixtures of doors and windows.

12. To achieve easy and adequate bond for plastering and pointing, the facing mortar joints should be raked for a depth of 13-19 mm when the mortar in the joint is green.

13. The finished brick masonry should be cured at least for 7 days.

14. Any brick masonry wall should not be constructed more than 1.5 meters in a day.

15. In brick masonry piers, buttresses, counterforts etc should be constructed along with the main walls, maintaining a proper bond between them.

16. Suitable scaffolding should be used to carry out masonry work at higher levels.

The scaffolding should be made by giving one end of horizontal bullies into the new masonry work and secured to it properly.
 
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