ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces clay brickwork as a structural material. A clay brick, clay unit or masonry clay unit can be defined as a rectangular, cuboid-shaped object made of clay. The precise dimensions of clay bricks can vary and in some parts of the world much larger clay units are manufactured. Clay brickwork is generally very durable. Gathering the raw material for brick manufacture is termed clay winning. Clay preparation consists of transforming the clay raw materials into a plastic mouldable product by a process of grinding and mixing with water. Drying involves the removal of water from the wet brick. The movement occurring along and up a wall as a result of changes in moisture content is controlled in the same way as thermal movement, except that the minimum, initial and maximum moisture content rather than temperatures are considered. Mortar for clay masonry is a cementitious material used to bond individual clay units together.
