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T/A Russell Edwards BRICKLAYING |
CLICK ON THE BUILDING COMMISSION'S LOGO TO ACCESS THE INFORMATION YOU NEED FOR YOUR PROJECT ! |
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CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO LEARN HOW TO LAY BRICKS !!
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STYLES OF BRICKS & MASONRY There are many and varied styles, textures and finishes available in todays market for the new home builder or renovator, the most common type being the standard size house brick (230x110x76mm). A variety of finishes for masonry brickwork & blockwork are available on the market today. For new constructions, the mortar joints can be finished with a number of methods, the most common currently being used in the region is rolled or round jointed, where a hand tool is used by the tradesman to finish the mortar so that it’s slightly recessed and concave. Other finishes include Raking, Struck joints, Flush, or even Tuck Pointing…which is rarely seen today due to the high labour costs involved. Another feature which has become very popular over the last decade in Victoria has been to use render in parts of the external walls, or entire constructions. This enables the builder to use what’s known as ‘Common’ bricks or seconds, as the look of the completed brickwork is irrelevant because of the rendering process. Quality of brickwork no matter what is still important, as some renders may only cover 3mm thick. Bricks must still be laid straight, plumb, & joints must be full & cut flush. Another reason for this is that if the brickwork is of a poor standard, extra costs may be incurred due to the renderer having to apply more render than otherwise needed to cover poor workmanship by the bricklayer. Render can be used as a sand based mix, or a bagged product such as Unitex. Similar to rendering is ‘bagging’ brickwork. Unlike render where a smooth finish is generally achieved through 3-5mm of render, bagging is applied most commonly with a brush or sponge, giving a textured look. The materials used can also range from a straight mortar mix, with a higher ratio of cement used than composite mortar, to using additives such as ‘Bondcrete’ or ‘Gripflex’ which is mixed into the mortar, giving a much stronger mix and better bonding to the masonry wall. In order to work out how many bricks are required for your project, you’ll first need to determine how many square meters of brickwork are to be built. 10 bricks long with joints = 2400mm. Measurements quoted are reliant upon the quality of the manufacturer of the bricks. The standard house brick size can vary considerably, up to 7 or 8mm on any dimension, especially if ‘common’ bricks are to be used for instance on a wall which is to be rendered.
Some examples of different bonding techniques which can be used, each of these bonds result in differing compressive & lateral strength, English bond being the strongest. FLEMISH BOND ENGLISH BOND FREE STANDING (ISOLATED) BRICK PIERS Isolated Piers can be applied to a building project in many different instances…to support timber columns for veranda’s/pergolas, letterboxes, even garden features. Sizes are usually dictated by the bricks being used (standard house brick 230 x 110 x 76mm) to allow the bricklayer to avoid cutting bricks. This results in square pier sizes of 350x350mm (1 ½ x 1 ½ bricks), 470x470mm (2 x 2 bricks), 590x590mm (2 ½ x 2 ½ bricks) & so on…we can also have different length along each side if required such as 1 ½ bricks wide, 2 ½ bricks length for example…either square or ‘L’ shaped.! |
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