ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the basic skills required when building curved arches. For specialist work, some brick manufacturers will prepare drawings giving the number, size and degree of taper of brick voussoirs for an arch and the dimensions of the timber arch centre required to support it during construction. Traditionally, gauged arches were built from bricks known as ‘rubbers’ made from a fine, red-burning clay, blended with a high percentage of fine sand. Some specialist brick manufacturers now offer to supply, to the client’s requirements, sets of purpose-made arch bricks. The chapter describes the basic bricklaying operations for constructing a soldier arch supported by a steel box lintel. Polychromatic brickwork is built from bricks of different colours in decorative features ranging from simple band courses of contrasting colour to complex patterns or murals. A corbel, in general building terms, is an isolated or continuous feature built into and projecting from the face of a wall.
