Bond masonry: Encyclopedia - Bond masonry

Bond (masonry)

When laying bricks, the manner in which the bricks overlap is called the bond. A brick laid with its longest side exposed is called a stretcher, as opposed to a header, where only the end of the brick can be seen in the brickwork.

The thickness of brickwork is often measured using units of length known as the brick. The length of the longest face of a particular brick equals "one brick" for the purposes of measuring a wall built from such bricks.

There are a number of different bonds used.

Bond masonry - Running bond

This is the most common bond in modern times, as it is easy to lay. It consists of course entirely comprised of stretchers (giving its alternate name stretcher bond) offset by half a brick length. As the bond uses no headers it allows a thin wall (half a brick thickness). Two such walls may be built close together and the gap filled with Cavity wall insulation. For this reason this bond is sometimes known as cavity wall bond, although it is possible to give the appearance of other bonds in a half-brick cavity wall, either through extensive brick-cutting or the use of purpose-made half-bricks.

Running bond may also used to build a single-wythe wall without a deliberate cavity. In this case, wall ties are used to hold the two leaves of brickwork together. The main advantage of this technique is that it allows walls with both faces visible, such as domestic dwarf walls, to be built using low-cost bricks that have only two fair faces. Laying any such brick as a header would reveal a poorly finished header face on one side of the wall.

Bond masonry - English bond

This bond is made up of alternating courses of stretchers and headers. This produces a solid wall that is a full brick in width. English bond is fairly easy to lay and is the strongest bond for a one-brick-thick wall. If only one face of an English bond wall is exposed, one quarter of the bricks are not visible, and hence may be of low visual quality.

Bond masonry - Flemish bond

Flemish Bond has historically always been considered the most decorative bond, and for this reason was used extensively for dwellings until the adoption of the cavity wall. It is created by alternately laying headers and stretchers in a single course. The next course is laid so that a header lies in the middle of the strecher in the course below. Again, this bond is one brick thick. It is quite difficult to lay Flemish bond properly, since for best effect all the perps (vertical mortar joints) need to be vertically aligned. If only one face of an Flemish bond wall is exposed, one third of the bricks are not visible, and hence may be of low visual quality. This is a better ratio than for English bond, Flemish bond's main rival for load-bearing walls.

Monk Bond is a variant of Flemish Bond, with two stretchers between the headers in each row, and the headers centred over the join between the two stretchers in the row below.

Bond masonry - Garden Wall bond

These bonds are variations on normal bonds. They use a high proportion of stretchers, and hence require fewer facing bricks than normal bonds. This makes them less sturdy, but cheaper to lay. As such they are most commonly used for garden- and other non-load-bearing walls.

Bond masonry - Herringbone bond

When bricks are laid on alternating angles, it is called a Herringbone. This is primarily a decorative style, more often used for paving or fireplace reflectors than for walls.

Bond masonry - Basket bond

This decorative pattern imitates the weave of a basket. It's also sometimes called a basket weave bond, and there are many variations on the weave pattern, some very elaborate.

Category: Construction

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Bond masonry", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki