Brickwork and Bricklaying E-Book

Jon Collinson

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Brickwork and Bricklaying is written for those who are new to the craft of bricklaying, and those who are improving their skills. It provides an overview of the materials, processes, craft skills and related subjects to enable the reader to construct their own simple brickwork projects and undertake brickwork-related maintenance projects around the home.The book covers: Materials; Constituents and mix proportions of good quality concrete and mortars, and how to successfully mix both, with an overview of different types of bricks and blocks; Foundations: How to place, compact and cure concrete for simple foundations and bases; Setting-Out: Methods of setting out the positions of simple wall lines, corners and buildings; Bricklaying: Overview of tools required; step-by-step methods and instruction on all the basic craft skills of bricklaying from first principles; different methods of bonding and finishing mortar joints; Boundary Walls: Design principles for boundary and garden walls, including the application and construction of piers; Decorative Brickwork: Simple methods of decoratively enhancing brickwork projects; Maintenance: Identification of the common defects associated with brickwork and masonry and methods for rectifying those defects. A practical guide aimed at those who are new to the craft of bricklaying and also for those who are improving their skills. Provides details of materials, processes and craft skills for the reader to construct their own simple brickwork projects and maintenance around the home. Superbly illustrated with 110 colour photographs and 160 diagrams. Jon Collinson has been involved in bricklaying within the construction industry, as well as teaching brickwork, for over twenty-five years.

Leseprobe

Copyright

First published in 2012 by The Crowood Press Ltd Ramsbury, Marlborough Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2013

© Jon Collinson 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 579 9

All illustrations by the author unless otherwise stated. Frontispiece courtesy of Hanson Building Products.

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Preface

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction

2 Concrete

3 Mortar

4 Bricks and Blocks

5 Simple Foundations and Bases

6 Basic Setting-Out and Levelling

7 Bricklaying Tools

8 Bonding of Brickwork and Blockwork

9 Bricklaying Basic Skills

10 Basic Joint Finishes

11 Cavity Walls

12 Boundary Walls, Copings and Caps

13 Simple Decorative Work

14 Defects and Maintenance

Useful Addresses & Websites

Index

Preface

I began as a bricklayer in 1984, on the recommendation of my father (one rainy Tuesday afternoon, as I recall, in Nottingham’s Victoria Shopping Centre), who saw the practical and financial worth of such a course of study, and my career path has stayed within the construction industry ever since.

It has been a varied career, which has encompassed bricklaying, health and safety, estates management and many years of teaching brickwork as a vocational craft subject. In all those years, however, I have never found one craft book, among the many excellent works by expert practitioners, which gives someone new to bricklaying all the underpinning and practical knowledge needed in one simple, accessible volume, at the same time providing a basis for further reading. It is with this in mind that I decided to write this book! It is intended to provide an overall appreciation of the materials and the basic practical skills associated with the craft, to enable the reader to undertake simple practical bricklaying projects of his or her own.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the fundamental part played by the following people in shaping my knowledge, experience and understanding over the years, both as a student and beyond. Without them this book could not have been written. In addition, the list also gratefully acknowledges those individuals who have provided practical support and assistance with both information and images used in the book: Jim Beardsley, Hugh Carr, Ken Crowe, Albert Johnson, Ray Linley and Andy Williamson (all South East Derbyshire College); Steve Morton (Hanson Building Products); Robert Parkin (North Nottinghamshire College); Andy Thomas (Travis Perkins Eastwood); Annabelle Wilson (Ancon Building Products); and Nicola Jane Slack, for everything!

Thanks are also given to the numerous, unknown bricklayers whose work is included in this book in order to illustrate good practice.

Finally, this book is dedicated to the memory of my late father, John Foster Collinson, who set me on the path for a most rewarding career and who was a ‘gentleman builder’ of the old school for whom ‘It’ll do’ never would!

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

The use of bricks and the ancient craft of bricklaying have been in existence for thousands of years. The oldest shaped mud bricks, discovered near Damascus in Syria, date from as far back as 7500BC. Mud bricks were extensively used by the civilization of Ancient Egypt and the first sun-dried clay bricks date back to 4000BC, having been discovered in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). The Chinese also were experts in stonemasonry and bricklaying, the most iconic example of their work being the Great Wall of China, which was begun in the fifth century BC and is claimed to be the only man-made object visible from outer space.

The Romans made use of fired bricks and the Roman legions, who were known to operate mobile kilns, introduced bricks to many parts of their empire, including Europe around 2000 years ago. Great innovators in many areas, the Romans developed bricklaying as a craft, including the use of mortar and different types of bonding arrangements; however, with the eventual decline of the Roman Empire, the craft of bricklaying declined with it.

It was not until the latter half of the seventeenth century, after the Great Fire of London in 1666 in fact, that the English again started to use bricks in building and it took almost another 200 years, until the middle of the nineteenth century, before the mechanized production of bricks began to replace manual methods of manufacture. Despite the advent of mechanized production, however, growth in the brick industry was relatively slow as the moulded clay bricks were still being fired in fairly inefficient static or intermittent kilns. In 1858, a kiln was introduced that allowed all processes associated with firing the bricks to be carried out at the same time, and continuously. Since the introduction of this, the Hoffmann kiln, the brick industry has made great progress, particularly since 1930, when the output of bricks in Great Britain doubled up to the start of the Second World War.

Clay has provided the basic material of construction for centuries and brick properties vary according to the purpose for which they are intended to be used. Today, clay bricks feature in a wide range of buildings and structures, from houses to factories. They are also used in the construction of tunnels, waterways and bridges, and so on. Many hundreds of attractive varieties, colours and texture of brick are available, which can be used imaginatively and creatively to greatly enhance the physical appearance and design of modern buildings.

CHAPTER 3

Mortar

Mortar is the ‘chemical glue’ and ‘gap-filling adhesive’ that holds masonry structures together. Its purpose is to even out any slight irregularities in brick shape and size and it has a direct influence on compressive strength, durability and resistance to rain penetration through brick walling. On this basis it is as fundamental to the construction of a wall as the bricks or blocks themselves.

In basic terms, mortar is a mixture of an aggregate (soft sand or builders’ sand), a binder (usually Ordinary Portland cement) and water. Additives such as plasticizers and pigments can be added in order to achieve a particular performance objective. Water is added to form a paste with the cement, which covers the surface area of every sand particle in the mix, binding the particles together to form a solid mass when the mortar hardens. The sand is not physically altered in any way, but is firmly set into the hardened, rock-like cement paste.