Different types of bonding in brick walls
Different types of bonding in brick walls
Brick having definite shape and size. In construction joints cannot be continuous you have to break the joints. Longitudinally it will be continuous as it is layer by layer. But vertical joints shall never be continuous. Country burnt bricks portions of bricks will not be available you have to break the well burnt bricks. Factory made bricks you will have moulds which will give different shapes and forms of bricks and those bricks are called closers. One purpose of closer is to stagger the vertical joints, another is for architectural rendering, then to facilitate corners. Half brick (brick cut across) is an example.
A closer when we cut a brick along its length into two halves which are equal is called queen closer. King closer is a closer bigger than a half brick, more specifically a brick with one corner cut away making the header at that end half the width of a brick. Bevelled brick means some of the corners is cut out. Tapered bricks where there is tapering from one end to the other. The other end will be having half the height. In king closer you start from middle in tapered you start from another end. These various types of bricks are used for architectural rendering, in corners or in making the joints.
Bull nose brick is used to provide a smooth, rounded edge for countertops, staircase steps, building corners, verandas, or other construction. Staggering of vertical joints is called bonds. Bonds are made by interlocking. English bond and Flemish bond are good examples of structural bond. Stretcher bond and header bond are the basic bonds. To develop stretcher bond, bricks are placed horizontally like stretchers on the faces of walls. The length of the bricks remains along the horizontal direction of the wall. If it is required to build up the walls with half brick thickness, stretcher bond becomes very effective. The square face of the brick with dimension (9cm x 9cm x 9cm) is known as “header”. When all the bricks are arranged as headers on the faces of the walls, the bond that is developed is described as “Header Bond”.
Instead of plastering entire surface of the masonry, special mortar finishing work is done to the exposed joints. This is called pointing. Even though using full brick the wall is called half brick wall because thickness of the wall is only half. Half brick wall is used for parapets above the upper wall. Half brick wall is a stretcher bond not structure bond as it cannot bear load. When header bond is used it is a full brick wall. In full brick wall length of brick decides the thickness of the wall. Header bond is a structural bond.