Masonry is a building structure consisting of bricks or stones laid on a mortar and bearing the load of its own weight and the weight of the structural elements that rest on it. The laying is carried out in a certain order and performs heat-insulating and sound-insulating functions.
For masonry work, various types of mortars are used: cement, lime-cement and lime.
There are such types of masonry:
- continuous. In this case, the masonry looks like a solid, solid monolith;
- lightweight. In this form, part of the masonry is replaced with insulation material or has an air gap. The most common types of brickwork are well, brick-concrete anchor, with three-row diaphragms, with an internal heater and with an air gap;
- reinforced. These types of masonry are reinforced with metal rods or nets. Both longitudinal and transverse reinforcement can be used.
In its shape, the masonry stone and brick mainly has the shape of a parallelepiped, where all faces have their professional names. So, the sides that are largest in area are called the upper and lower bed, they are the ones that put the stone on the mortar, the short side faces are called bumps, and the long ones are called spoons.
All rows of masonry have their own names, so the extreme rows are called versts, on the facade there is an outer verst, on the inside of the room - an inner verst. If there are rows of masonry between versts, then they are called second-hand (zabutovka).
If the row is laid in such a way that spoons are visible outward - the row is referred to as spoon, if pokes are visible - then the row is spike. The height of a series of masonry consists of the height of the brick itself and the thickness of the vertical layer of the mortar, which, on average, has a thickness of 1.2 cm. The width of the masonry determines the width of the walls and should be a multiple of half the brick. When determining it, the thickness of vertical joints is taken into account and, on average, this value is 1.0 cm.
All types of masonry should have a horizontal dressing. The brickwork is ligated by means of a certain laying of stones and is called a dressing system. The dressing system can be single-row or chain (in this case, the brickwork is formed by sequential alternation of spoon and poke rows), multi-row (five consecutively laid spoon rows are tied with one poke) and three-row (three spoon rows are tied with poke, with matching seams in the rows vertically).
Depending on what kind of plasticity the mortar is used and what are the requirements for the quality of the front side (for joining or plastering) in construction, there are such methods of brickwork:
- squeeze. Masonry is carried out on a plastic or hard solution, the rows can be laid out both spoon and tyuk;
- end to end. Masonry is carried out on a plastic mortar, the seams on the front side are not completely filled, the use of a trowel is not required and the surface of the walls requires plaster;
- end-to-end with trimming solution. Masonry is carried out on a plastic mortar, the seams on the front surface are completely filled;
- half the trouble. It is used when laying in rubble.
The quality of the masonry is controlled by working drawings and building codes. The bricklayer, in carrying out his work, must monitor the correct dressing of the rows, the filling and thickness of the joints, the verticality of the corners and the horizontalness of the rows, the presence and correct installation of anchors and metal ties, the quality of the surface on the front side - selection of bricks, compliance with its color and pattern, jointing .