Brick is a popular finishing material that is used to decorate walls, fences and columns. It has excellent thermal insulation properties, is inert to moisture, does not fade in the sun and does not deform over many years of use. In addition, with the help of facing bricks you can create interesting masonry with a unique, original design. What types of decorative brickwork are most popular and what are the design features of each of them? More on this below.
Types of brickwork
Let’s look at the main types of brickwork:
- Solid masonry. Monolithic structure half a brick wide. The stone is placed along the outer wall. The rows of bricks are designated “versts,” and the filled spaces between them are designated “zabutki.”
- Lightweight masonry. Suitable for erecting one-story houses/cottages. Consists of two parallel walls half a brick wide. The spaces between the walls are filled with heat-insulating materials. An important point: when erecting lightweight masonry, you need to add a butt row every meter in height.
- Reinforced masonry. Used in objects that experience heavy loads. Iron rods are placed in horizontal and perpendicular seams, and every 3-4 rows of masonry, transverse reinforcement is performed (rectangular metal mesh).
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The basic masonry technologies were described here, the choice of which depends on the number of floors and the load on the building. However, there is another classification based on the brick “pattern”. The following types of masonry can be distinguished:
- Spoon dressing. Here the bricks overlap half their length. This masonry ensures perfect closure of the bottom seams. It is used for cladding residential buildings of any number of storeys.
- American dressing. Several rows of spoon dressing alternate with one row of interlocking bricks. The seams move during laying.
- Flemish masonry. Spoon and interlocking bricks alternate in each row.
- Complex decorative masonry. A variety of design elements of brickwork are used here, such as laps, belts, edges and ledges. With them, the wall relief becomes more interesting and dynamic.
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Experts advise paying special attention to the masonry method, since the amount of building material used and the price of the work depend on this.
