ABSTRACT
Masonry walls can be built from bricks, blocks and stones. The most common method of external masonry wall construction uses bricks and blocks. This chapter will therefore concentrate mainly on wall construction using these materials. Walls built from masonry need to be joined together by a mortar that will allow the masonry units to be adjusted to line and level when they are being laid and will then stiffen and harden to enable the masonry units to work together within the wall. Overlapping the masonry units in a bond pattern in order to transfer the load effectively along and through the wall enhances this. There are a number of bonds that may be used for solid walls and cavity walls. This chapter concentrates on the five most common types of bond and also introduces special bricks that are either made to a particular shape or cut from whole bricks in order to maintain the bond pattern of the wall, particularly where the wall forms right-angled corners.
