ABSTRACT
In Belgium and The Netherlands the majority of the enclosure walls for housing buildings are designed as cavity walls with clay brick masonry veneers. Also concrete bricks and blocks and calcium silicate bricks are sometimes used for veneers. In Belgium the inner wall leaves are mostly built in clay brick masonry and in a lesser extent in concrete, AAC or calcium silicate. In The Netherlands the majority of the load bearing inner walls consists of calcium silicate elements with thin layer mortar.
Generally masonry walls are built on site which is very labour intensive. Due to the lack of skilled masons during the last two decades research has been focused on prefabrication and automation for the production of masonry walls. Thin layer mortar masonry and dry stacked bricks and blocks are new building techniques that become more and more popular.
