SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE,

BUILDING AND DESIGN

Bachelor of Quantity Surveying (BQS)

NAME:

VIVIAN TAY HUEY SHUEN

STUDENT ID:

0323869

ASSIGNMENT:

BRICK WALL VIDEO REPORT

MODULES:

MEASUREMENT 1 (QSB 60104)

CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY
1(BLD60104)
BUILDING MATERIALS (BLD 62003)

LECTURERS:

MS. ANG FUEY LIN

MS. AZRINA MD YAAKOB
MS. AISHAH KAMARAZALY

SUBMISSION DATE:

12TH JULY 2016

TABLE OF CONTENT
No
.

Title

Page

1.0 Introduction & Technical Observation

2.0 Objectives

3.0 Brick

3.1 Brickwork

3.2 Materials
3.2.1 Brick
3.2.2 Mortar
3.2.3 Types of wall

34
45
5

3.3 Types of bondings

67

4.0 Method of Constructing Brick Wall

5.0 Types of machineries, plants and
Tools Required
6.0 Conclusion

89
10 - 11

12

1.0 Introduction & Technical Observation

For this assignment, our lecturers decided to collaborate and give us one assignment
instead of three for their modules. The modules involved are Measurement 1, Construction
Technology 1 and Building Materials. Firstly, we are required to create a report based on
three short videos about Brick Wall. In the report, we must include the process of how a brick
wall is constructed such as its bonding type, materials used and its method of construction.
Furthermore, we must also incorporate the machineries, plants and tools involved in
constructing a brick wall.
The video has briefly taught us about the bricklaying technique. In the first video, it
showed us the process of a worker laying bricks on a layer of mortar. The bricks used for
constructing the wall must be bonded together with mortar so that the bricks can stick
together. Both mortar and concrete are very similar. However, bricks and mortar are
commonly used together because of its suitability as a binder or bonding agent. It is more
ideal than concrete as it has a higher water-cement ratio that leads to having a thicker
substance whereas concrete is harder and stronger as it has the addition of rock aggregate.
Besides, the second video showed us that the workers put in different building
materials into the concrete mixer. What the video is trying to say is that we can use the
concrete mixer or mortar mixer to produce the mortar using the right ratio of materials.
Mortar consists of water, sand and cement. The amount of water in mortar is more than that
in concrete. Lastly, the third and last video has showed us that the worker is using the
rendering process. He used a trowel to even out the cement mortar making the wall surface
smooth. After laying all the bricks, we must finish by filling in any holes between the bricks
and layers of mortar using a trowel or a piece of pipe.

2.0 Objectives

Understand the basics of the construction process of brick wall.

Explore and identify various types of building materials and technology on site.
To give us a better perception on the construction process.
To expand our knowledge on brickworking.

To prepare us for the future.

To be more knowledgeable on this topic

3.0 Brick
3.1 Brickwork
First and foremost, Brickwork refers to the process of stacking bricks evenly with
mortar to hold both of them together. Normally, we will lay bricks in rows, or commonly
known as the term courses, to form a basic brick wall or building. For every basic house or
any other building, we require a double layer of bricks with a cavity in between. A cavity is
basically a hollow space in between the bricks which serves the purpose to drain water out
through small weep holes at the base of the wall system. We normally use masonry like
bricks, stones and concrete for the two layers, known as skin of the building because they
are absorbent materials. This means that they can absorb humidity of the wall or rainwater
from the outside or inside the house and bring a more cooling environment to the building.
Wall dimension

Besides, each brick is buttered with mortar to form a tight bond between the bricks
which adds strength and stability with each row of bricks. A worker would rely on trowels to
add mortar and even the brick surface and use wet saws to cut the bricks to the desired size
to complete each row.

3.2

Materials

3.2.1

Brick
Brick

often

is

made

from fired clay and secured with mortar comprising of

cement, sand, and water. Brick retains heat, withstands corrosion, and resists fire. It is
usually four inches wide and twice as long, approximate dimension is 215mm x 102.5mm x
65mm or 225mm x 112.5mm x 75mm. Brick is an ideal material for structures in confined

225mm X 112.5mm X 75mm

spaces, as well as for curved designs. Moreover, brick buildings generally

last a long time.
with joint

Dimension of brick with joint and

Common brick

Types of Bricks
a. Common Brick
These are bricks which are hard to safely carry the loads normally supported by brickwork,
but because they have a dull texture or poor colour they are not in demand for use as facing
bricks which show on the outside when built and affect the appearance of buildings. These

common bricks are used for internal walls and for rear walls which are not usually exposed
to view.
b.

Common brick

Engineering Brick
These
are

bricks

which

have

been

made

from
selected clay, which have been carefully prepared by crushing, have been very heavily

Engineering
brick
moulded and carefully burned so that the finished brick is very solid and hard, capable
of
safely carrying heavier loads than other types of brick. They are mainly used for walls like
brick piers and general engineering works. Examples of the best engineering brick are the
red South water brick and the blue Staffordshire brick.

How the bricks can be cut

Queen

Split

3.2.2Mortar

Three quarter
closure

Half bat

King
closer

Bevelled

Mortar is used to hold building materials such as bricks, stones

and concrete masonry units together and is often known as the bonding
agent. It composed of a thick mixture of water, sand, and cement. The
water is used to hydrate the cement and hold the mix together. The
water to cement ratio is higher in mortar than in concrete in order to form
its bonding element. It isnt practical for structural projects because you
need to replace it every 25 to 50 years. Mortar becomes hard as it set, resulting in rigid
aggregate structure.

Composition of Mortar
Mortar consists of a mixture of sand binder such as cement or
lime and water. Ratio to cement to sand and water is 1:3:4.

Types of Mortar

Cement

1 part
4 parts of
3 parts
ofof
sand
mortar
cement a. Cement
water
It is a mixture of cement, sand and water where cement acts as a binding material. The
proportion of cement to sand varies from 1:2 to 1:6.

b. Lime mortar

Lime Mortar

It is a mixture of lime, sand and water. Fat lime, which acts as a binding material, is added
for preparing mortar when it is to be used in masonry work and hydraulic lime is added when
mortar is to be used in foundation work or in damp conditions. Generally, lime to sand ratio is

Combination

kept 1:2.

c. Combination Mortar (Gauged Mortar)

It is a mixture of cement, lime, sand and water. The process of adding cement to lime mortar
to improve its quality is termed as gauging and mortar thus prepared is known as gauged
mortar. The preparation of cement to Lime mortar by volume is about 1:6 to 1:9.

3.2.3 Types of wall

There are two types of wall which are load bearing wall and non-load bearing wall.

Load bearing wall

Eg. Stone wall as

load bearing wall
Able to carry the load from above (own weight & load from roof) and transfer it to the

foundation.
Examples are pre-cast concrete wall, retaining wall,
masonry wall and stone wall.

Non-load bearing wall

Faade brick wall as

Only carry their own weight
non-load bearing wall
Examples are hollow concrete block, faade bricks, hollow
bricks and brick wall

Types of bonds
Bonds are arrangement of bricks or horizontal patterns in which bricks are laid to
build a wall, in such a way they are overlapping in order to
ensure the stability and strength of the wall, not to mention
increase the appearance of brickwork. Normally, brick masonry
uses the mortar or cement mortar filling between layers of
bricks in walls. Cement and lime mortar is commonly used for
permanent buildings while mud mortar is used for temporary
sheds. The four main types of bonds generally used in brick masonry are Stretcher bond,
Header bond, English bond and Flemish bond. The others
include the Garden wall bond, Facing bond, Raking bond.

Stretcher bond
Stretcher Bond, or Running bond is one of the most
commonly used bonds which overlapped midway with courses

Stretcher Bond

above and below. Courses are bricks laid in a row. A stretcher is the longer face of the brick.
In the brick of size 190 mm 90 mm 90 mm, 190 mm 90 mm face is the stretcher.
However, the downside is that it is not suitable as an independent structural wall because of
its longer span and height. It would be very unstable. Wall ties are required to be fixed
directly behind the wall to support the wall such as brick masonry columns. Traditional
Stretcher bond is only one-half brick. They are used as the outer facing of cavity walls. Other
common applications of such walls are the boundary walls, gardens and more.
Overlapped midway

Header Bond
Header is the shorter square face of the brick which measures 90mm x 90mm.
Besides, Header bond in brick masonry is also known as heading bond. All bricks in each
course are arranged as headers on the faces of the walls. While Stretcher bond is used for

Stretcher bond
pattern (elevation)

the construction of walls of half brick thickness whereas header bond is used for the
construction of walls with full brick thickness which measures 18cm. In header bonds, the
overlap is kept equal to half width of the brick. To achieve this, three quarter brick bats are
used in alternate courses as quoins. This bond permits better alignment and as such it is

used for walls curved on plan. This bond is chiefly used for footings in foundations for better
transverse distribution of load. This type of bond is useful for the construction of one brick
thick walls.

Plan of header course

Plan of stretcher course

Shorter square face= 90mm
X 90mm (Elevation)

Isometric view of English Bond

English Bond
English bond in brick masonry consists of two alternating courses of stretchers and
headers, one course of stretcher only and a course of header above it. In this English bond
arrangement, vertical joints in the header courses come over each other and the vertical
joints in the stretcher course are also in the same line. For the breaking of vertical joints in
the successive course it is essential to place queen closer, after the first header in each

Elevation of English Bond

heading course.

Flemish Bond

Header course

Stretcher
course

In Flemish bond, each course consists of alternate

headers and stretchers. Every alternate course starts with a
header at the corner. For the breaking of vertical joints in the
successive courses, closers are inserted in alternate courses next to the quoin header. In
walls having their thickness equal to odd number of half bricks,
bats are essentially used to achieve the bond. Flemish bond can
be further classified into Single Flemish Bond and Double
Flemish Bond. Single Flemish bond is a combination of English
bond and Flemish bond. This type of bonding cannot be adopted
in walls Plan
less than
one andBond
a half brick in thickness. In Double
Flemish
Bond, Bond
every course
of Flemish
Elevation
of Flemish
consists of headers and stretchers laid alternately. It enables the one brick wall to have flush
and uniform faces on both the sides.

etho

4.0 Method of Constructing Brick Wall

Steps

1. Purchase the right amount of bricks.

Bricks come in different variety of shapes and sizes, Common brick, a modular bricks
dimension is 215mm x 102.5mm x 75mm. We must always account for the mortars size and
measurement to plot out our actual dimension of wall. Therefore, the actual size of brick
depends on the combination of both brick and mortar. We can use tape measure for this.

2. Dig out a trench for your foundation

Using a shovel, dig out a rectangular trench with the length and width
for the planned wall to seat in, approximately 1 foot or 305mm deep.
After that, pour in a layer of concrete, which represents the footer or
concrete foundation.

3. Drive level wooden stakes into trench

After putting the wooden stakes into the soil, find the nominal/ actual
height of bricks, which is the sum of height of bricks and mortar. Space
this about 2 to 4 feet apart.

4. Mix and pour concrete up to the top of the guideposts.

Fill up the trench till the top of the stakes, leaving the space you measure for the bricks. The
concrete will harden is 2 to 3 days.

5. Make your guideposts, or gauging rods

Concrete filling to trench

Take two long wooden boards or posts and measure each row of the
brick wall, or course. Mark the boards where each brick should be,
and include the mortar lines. Make sure that posts can be driven to the
ground so that they can be free-standing.

Brick wall tools

6. Prepare the supplies before foundation dries

Make sure you have Chalk line, Mortar and Mortar mixer, Brick joints, Mason hammer, and
Tape measure.

7. Build the First Row By laying first row on brick in foundation for a dry
run.
Space them out according to the dimensions, accounting the
mortar height and width.

8. Clamp the line on the first guideline.

This would be the second layer of bricks.

9. Lay the first inch of mortar along the base of foundation.

Add more mortar as you will be pushing the brick down slightly. Use the
trowel to press into the center line, living little intents.

10. Press the first brick to the mortar and then lay mortar
down for the next 2 or 3 bricks
Once the first brick is set, lay down some mortar for the next few.

11. Butter the end of the next brick with mortar and press
it into place.
Take a slab of mortar and coat the end of the brick that will be pushed up against the first
brick.

12. Polish away access mortar with your trowel.

Using your trowel, take away the access mortar.

13. Keep adding bricks and repeat it for the next

few rows.

Excess
mortar

Continue laying bricks down in this fashion, mortar bottom and

side, press in, check evenness with the level until your first row
is complete. Then proceed with other rows.

14. Continue building your wall from the ends inward.

15. Fill in any missing patches of mortar along the wall.
Use your trowel to fill in any patches or gaps in the joints, making sure there is a nice, even
amount of mortar holding your wall together.

16. Use a brick jointer to indent the mortar professionally

Press the tool into the joints and run it down the mortar, trimming and polishing your wall

17. Consider other jointing patterns for your wall

5.0 Types of Machineries, Plants and Tools Required

1) Trowel
trowel

There are different kinds and sizes of trowels. Its handles are generally made of plastic or
wood while the blade is usually made of steel in order to last longer. A
trowel is a tool that is used for digging, smoothing, or otherwise moving
around small amounts of viscous or particulate material. Large trowels
are used for spreading mortar. A variety of smaller trowels are used
repairing old mortar joints and scraping off excess mortar. Most
common is pointing trowel.

2) Masons Hammer/ Brick Hammer

This tool is used for hammering nails and for splitting block or brick with the other end. One
end is square and flat and is used like a hammer. The other Masons Hammer end is sharp,
like a small chisel. The sharp chisel-end is used to make a cutting line
around the masonry to be split. Light blows with the chisel-end all the

Splitting
brick

way around the block or brick and then a sharp blow with the hammer
end will give a clean cut.

Masons Hammer

3) Chalk Line
A chalk line comes in a metal or plastic case, with a cotton line coming

Chalk line

out of one end. As the line is pulled out, it passes through a fine chalk
powder, usually blue or red. A chalk line is0 used for laying out a block
wall on a concrete foundation to get the alignment correct.

4) Jointers

Jointers

A jointer is used to finish a mortar joint to the beds and joints of a

brick wall after it becomes hard enough so that a finger print will show
in the mortar upon being pressed. Jointers come in many sizes and
shapes. Jointers are shaped to give a variety of indentations,
depending on your preference.

5) Brushes

Brushes

After a wall is built, there may be some mortar stains or powder

residue on the wall. Before cleaning solutions are used, these marks can often be brushed.
A light accumulation of mortar could be brushed with a stiff bristle brush. Stains that don't

respond to brushing should be cleaned with a special solution and brushing with a stiff bristle
brush.

6) Wheelbarrow
It can be used to transport supplies, tools, materials and more.

Wheelbarrow

7) Mortar Mixer
Mortar Mixer

The barrel of a mortar mixer doesn't rotate the way that the
barrel of a drum mixer does. Instead, rotating paddles inside
a stationary barrel create the mixing action. The paddles
rotate on a shaft in the center of the barrel, and they're often
equipped with rubber strips that scrape the mixture from the
sides of the barrel as the paddles turn.

8) Brick Bolster

Brick Bolster

Brick bolsters are designed for cutting brick and stone. They have a
wider cutting edge than an electrician's bolster. A brick bolster is
designed for making cleaner, more exact cuts through material.

9) Tape Measure

Tape measure

Tape measure is a portable measurement device used to quantify the

size of an object or the distance between objects.

10)

Level

To ensure bricks are horizontal and uses the string to label the
bricks to be placed in straight lines.

6.0 Conclusion

Bricklaying is actually quite an easy process if we

know suitable construction skills and the various steps in

Level

constructing it. However, we should not take the task lightly because there can be a lot of
mistake if we dont follow the steps efficiently. Nobody wants a tilted wall or house right?
That is why specific measure should be taken to follow the steps to build a brick wall.
I find that I learnt a lot through this report. I gained a lot of knowledge about brickworking and brick wall construction. I do not really understand at first. However, after some
research and some reading, now I can relate the concepts of brick wall constructing methods
from the tools required such as trowel to even out the mortar, to the building materials
needed such as bricks and mortar and also the types of bonding such as Stretcher bond and
English bond.