Brick Bonds Types And Patterns

A brick bond belongs to a pattern where the bricks are placed. The applications of brick bonds are found on the walls as well as for brick paving for paths & patios, concrete blocks and different types of masonry construction.

Brick Bonds can improve the strength & stability of the structure, retain consistency to the structure and composition, and increase the visual appeal. Given below, the details of commonly used wall brick bonds :-

1. Stretcher Bond / Running Bond: It is also known as running bonds. The process is very simple to place this type of bond. Stretcher bond is useful when the walls of half brick thickness are required to be constructed. This bond is applied to build up several types of wall construction as follows :

• Sleeper walls
• Partition walls
• Division walls (internal dividers)
• Chimney stacks

Stretcher bonds should not be used for self-sustaining structural walls, but it is effective for building up the walls of less thickness. Remember, this bond can collapse when the thickness of the walls remains greater than half of the total length of the brick applied.

2. Header Bond: A header stands for the shorter face of the brick. In header bond brick masonry, all the bricks are built up in the header course. Under this type of bond, the overlap is done according to a half width of the bricks. The three-quarter brickbats are used as quoins in alternative courses. This bond is primarily applied for the erection of one brick thick walls.

3. English Bond: This bond contains alternating courses of headers and stretchers. Headers are placed in center position on the stretchers in the course underneath and each alternate row is arranged vertically. To rupture the continuity of vertical joints, a quoin closer is utilized at the start and end of a wall once the first header is provided.

A quoin close belongs to a brick that is cut into 2 halves according to length and applied to the corners in brick walls. This type of bond is useful for building up strong one brick thickness walls.

4. Flemish Bond: Under this type of bond, alternate headers and stretchers are contained in each course. Each header remains on the center of a stretcher over and below and each alternate course is started with a header in the corner. To rupture the vertical joints in the sequential courses, quoin closers are provided with alternate courses alongside the header.

5. Stack Bond: In a stack bond, all the bricks are simply loaded on top of each other and retained with mortar where all bonds are arranged properly. Due to its poor masonry structure and less strength, stack bonds are effective for decorative purposes.

As this bond is a non-structural bond, therefore it should not be used for the walls which need to transmit loads.

6. Dutch Bond: It is a customized form of the English cross bond that includes alternate courses of headers and stretchers. In this arrangement of the brick bond, each single stretching course is started at a quoin containing a 3-quarter bat. Each alternate stretching course contains a header set alongside the 3-quarter bat brick placed at the quoin. This bond is suitable for developing strong corners of the wall that is susceptible to extra loads.

7. Common Bond / American Bond: This bond contains courses of headers provided with each five or six courses. Header courses are placed in center position of the previous header course. This header bond usually functions as a tie brick among the fronting and the backing. To attain the plenty offset in a standard common bond, queen closers are provided at both ends of the header courses. The common bond is generally applied in outside load-bearing walls.

8. Facing Bond: This bond is effective for thick walls, where the facing and backing are selected for construction with bricks having different thickness. Normally, this bond comprises of heading and stretching courses which are provided in such way that one heading course comes after quite a lot of stretching courses. The load distribution of walls of this bond is irregular due to the variation among the facing and the total number of joints in the backing. It can also result in unequal settlement of the 2 thickness of the wall.

9. Diagonal Bond: It is perfect for walls with two to four brick thickness. This bond is generally provided at each 5th or 7th course along the height of the wall. Bricks in this bond are arranged end to end in such a way that extreme corners of the sequence gets in touch with the stretchers.

10. Rat Trap Bond: Under this bond, bricks are placed on edge or in a vertical location rather than the conventional horizontal position. It produces a cavity (hollow space) inside the wall as a result superior thermal comfort is maintained and the inside becomes cool as compared to the outside and vice versa. Because of the internal cavity, a little amount of materials is required for this type of walls.

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Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
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Kinds of Bonds used in Brick Masonry

Bonds are like the arrangement or bricks to strong the imaginable interlocking and stop the flow of the vertical joints that can be done in various ways.

About Bond

Bond is the arrangement of either bricks or stones in every course, so to ensure the greatest imaginable interlocking and to escape the flow of vertical joints in two successive courses; both on the face and in the body of a wall. Generally brick bonds are used in masonry work and these bonds are like patterns in which bricks are laid and it can be applied in both brick walls and paving; besides that it also used to concrete block and other kinds of masonry construction.

Objectives of Bonds

A bond is given to achieve the following objectives-

• The main objective is to provide a bond is to break the flow of the vertical joints in the serial courses both in length and thickness on masonry framework which will act as a bounded mass and its weight will be transformed uniformly to the foundations.
• Secondly it can ensure lengthwise and sidelong strength of the structure.
• It also provides comfortable appearance by laying bricks regularly.
• It can do the masonry stuffs fast by captivating more masons on a job at a time.

Types of Bonds

The types are divided as per laying and bonding style of bricks in walls and the bonds in brick masonry is increased by the mortar filling between layers of bricks and in channels when bricks are laid near to each other and in layers in walls. In brick masonry the most used material is cement mortar; line and mud mortars are also used sometime. Here is the list of the types of bonds which are used in brick masonry:

• Stretcher Bond

longer narrow faced brick is called as stretcher and this bond is known also as running bond which is created in the time when the bricks are laid with only their stretches, overlapping midway with the courses of bricks below and above. They come with the simplest repeating pattern but the limitation can’t make effective bonding with near bricks in full width thick brick walls. These bonds are generally used in the steel or reinforced concrete framed structures as outer facing and in cavity walls, boundary walls, gardens etc. Walls built with stretcher bonds are not enough strong to stand alone in longer span and height and need supporting structure like brick masonry columns at normal intervals.

• Header bond

Header is the shorter square face of the brick measuring 9cm * 9cm and the header bond is known as heading bond where all the bricks in every course are placed as headers on the faces of the walls. This bond is used for the construction of walls with full brick thickness measuring 18cm and the overlap is similar to half width of the brick.

• English bond

It has only one course of stretcher and a course of header above it where headers are laid centered on the stretches in course below and every alternate row is vertically aligned. Quoin closer is used in the beginning and the end of a wall after first header to break the flow of vertical joints and a quoin close is a brick cut lengthwise into two halves and used at corners in brick walls.

• Flemish bond

it is also known as Dutch bond and is created by laying alternate headers and stretchers in a single course and the next course of brick is laid such that harder lies in the middle of the stretcher in the course below. The thickness is minimum one full brick but the problem of using it is that it need to be aligned vertically for best effects and they are weaker than English bonds for load bearing wall construction.

• Facing bond

in this bond, the bricks are arranged for thick walls where facing and backing are needed to be constructed with bricks of different thickness and the bond has heading and stretching corners nicely arranged.

• Dutch bond

it is a change of the old English cross bond and has alternate courses of headers and stretchers; here the bricks are arranged in a form where every stretching course start at the quoin with a three-quarter bat and the alternate stretching courses has headers placed next to the three-quarter brick bat given at the quoin.

• English cross bond

it is like English bond and is very strong to bear a good elevation where queen closer are beside the quoin headers.

• Brick on edge bond

It is like English bond but the stretcher courses are replaced by laying the brick on the edges and header courses lay on the beds.

• Raking bond

The bonding bricks are arranged in any angle which helps to improve the longitudinal strengthens of thick walls made in English bond.

• Zigzag bond

It is like herring bone bond but the difference is that the bricks are laid in a zigzag style that used in brick paved flooring.

• Garden wall bond

it is very much adopted for one brick thick that can act as a garden wall or a boundary wall and for garden wall bond; it is possible to build uniform faces for a wall without much labor or expense and is very strong also.

Source: www.slideshare.net

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.constructioncost.co

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