BRICK/BLOCK/STONE

MASONRY

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 Contents

• Masonry materials
• Types of masonry units
• Manufacture of bricks
and blocks
• Characteristics and
testing of bricks
• Mortar for
brickwork/masonry work

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 MASONRY
Type of construction whereby units are laid together to
form a structure

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 Masonry

Masonry Construction = masonry units +

mortar
Masonry units:
Bricks
Blocks
Stones
Made from a variety of non-organic
material

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 MASONRY UNIT

BLOCK

STONE BRICK

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MASONRY STRUCTURE

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MASONRY STRUCTURES

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 DESIRABLE
CHARACTERISTICS
• Strength
• Durability
• Resistance to water, noise
and fire
• Aesthetic
• Other special requirements
e.g. blast resistance

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BRICKS

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 Bricks
• Bricks are produced in
many formats: solid,
perforated and hollow

• Typically 215 x 102 x

65 mm (length x width
x height)

• Made of clay, sand-

cement, concrete and
calcium silicate
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 Types of bricks (shape)

Face shell Central web

End web

Cell
Solid
End web cavities exceeding 25
Hollow % of total volume of
brick.

Frogge
Perforate d
d volume of indentations
holes 25 % of gross must not exceed 20 %
volume of the brick of gross volume. 13
 Types of Clay Bricks
Three types of clay bricks:
1) Common – general use; not design to provide
good finish or high strength; usually plastered,
non-load bearing
2) Facing – for attractive appearance; no cracks;
may or may not be load bearing; durable
3) Engineering – good strength and durability;
high density; well fired (load bearing walls,
retaining walls, sewers, embankments etc.)

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Common Brick

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Facing Brick

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Facing Brick

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ENGINEERING BRICK

Column

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 CLAY BRICKS
Clay bricks continue to be the
most important building units
Raw materials are clay or shale
Efficient material to use in terms
of their energy consumption
Strong and durable

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 Clay for Brick-making
A variety clay composition and minerology
deposited at different geological period; from
soft sticky mud to shale
Hence bricks are differ in their properties-
colour, texture, strength, density and durability
Only 30-40% of brick making clay are clay
minerals
Clay minerals-size less than 2 microns; the
amount and particle size present in the clay
affect the cohesiveness, forming characteristics,
drying and firing properties of the clay
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 Cont.
Too much clay can result in high drying
shrinkage; adding sand can reduce drying
shrinkage
Clays are hydrated aluminosilicates
(predominance is silica and alumina); the main
minerals are: kaolinite, Illite, montmorillonite
Other mineral present in clays are: potash (K2O),
Lime (CaO), Soda (Na2O), Magnesium (MgO)
and iron (FeO, Fe2O3)
Chemical analysis may be undertaken, together
with minerological examination can assist in
identifying the presence of chemicals and clay21
Manufacturing of clay bricks

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 Stiff mud process
PUG MILL Grind clay
Preparation

MIXER Mix clay

EXTRUDE Form clay strip

Formation R

WIRE CUTTER Cut

bricks

Drying TUNNEL DRYER @ 40oC – 150 oC

Dry bricks 24 – 48
hrs
KILN
Firin Burn bricks @ 930 oC –
g 1320oC.
60-80 hrs.
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 Manufacturing Clay Bricks
1) Clay Preparation
Objectives:
1) improve homogeneity and plasticity of clay
2) control of physical and chemical properties
such as shrinkage, colour and vitrification
temperature
3) well prepared clay eliminate problems
during the production process thereby
reduces the rejection rates
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 Clay Preparation (cont.)
Process
Digging, crushing, sieving, grinding,
proportioning, mixing, tempering
Add chemicals for special purpose; eg.
barium carbonate react with soluble salts
producing insoluble product (expensive)

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 MOULDING
Process of giving
shape to the bricks
A variety of shaping
methods that
depends on the
moisture content
and consistency of
the clay
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 Semi Dry Process
Moisture content @ 10%
Granular consistency, pressed in 4 stages
After pressing be textured or sand faced
Can be fired without going through
drying stage
Smooth finish
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 Stiff Plastic Process
Moisture content @15%
Extruded and then compacted into a
mould under high pressure
Many engineering bricks are made this
way; clay containing large quantity of iron
oxide help the fusion during firing
Smooth finish

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 Wire Cut Process
Moisture content @ 20%
Extruding a column of clay through a die
and cut by tensioned wire
Extrusion to a size which allow dry and
firing shrinkage
Perforated bricks are made this way, the
perforation being formed during
extrusion

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 Soft Mud Process
Moisture content @ 30%
Soft clay from shallow deposit
Rolled in sand or sawdust and pressed
manually into a mould

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 DRYING OF BRICKS
 Green bricks contain a considerable amount of
moisture depending on the shaping process
 The moisture content has to be further reduced before
firing can be carried out
Objectives:
 Enable brick to be stacked higher in the kiln
 Avoid too much shrinkage happening in the kiln
which might cause the stack to become unstable
 Enable firing temperature to be increased more
rapidly
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 Drying of Bricks (cont.)
Important for green bricks with high moisture
content;
Temperature being increased while humidity
progressively decreased
Low rate of drying to avoid stresses that cause
cracking and distortion
Dried until approximately at critical moisture
content (leather-hard)
Sufficiently rigid and strong for handling and
stacking
Chamber or tunnel dryers takes 1 or 2 days,
natural drying takes 6 weeks 32
 FIRING OF BRICKS
 Changes their physical structure and give them
good mechanical properties and resistance to
water
 Sintering of clay increases the strength and
decreases the soluble salt without loss of shape
 Silica and alumina do not melt, they are fused
together with metallic oxides
THREE stages of firing:
1) 100 °C – water evaporation
2) 400 ºC – burning of carbonaceous matter
3) 900 – 1200 °C – sintering of clay 33
 Firing of Bricks (cont.)

Clay composition and chemical

changes during firing influence the
final colour of bricks
Fe2 oxidation produce red colour
bricks
Large amount of lime produce
yellowish-brown colour bricks
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 Properties of clay bricks

Physical Engineering properties

properties • Compressive strength
• Colour • Water Absorption
• Initial rate of suction
• Texture
• Efflorescence and
• Size soluble salt content
• Density

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 Colour and texture

• Variety of colours:
red, yellow, brown etc
• Depending on mineral
content and firing
temperature
• Variety of textures:
smooth, rough, bark
face etc.

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 Density
• Varies from 1300 – 2200 kg/m3
• Important for thermal and
acoustic property of wall
– Heavier wall better sound and
thermal insulation
– Solid units have higher thermal
conductivity

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 Size
Bed face
Header face

Stretcher
102.5
face
mm

65
Bed Head joint
mm joint
215
mm

Actual size 215 X102.5 X 65

mm often called work size Coordinating size
(BS) (brick size +mortar
thickness)
225 X112.5 X 75 mm 38
 Size

Dimensional tolerance (MS 76/BS 3921):

• Sizes of bricks must not be outside the ranges shown in

Table 1
• Must not exceed the coordinating size
• Test method – overall measurement of 24 bricks

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 Table 1: Limits of sizes (MS/BS)

Coordinating Work size Overall measurement of

size (mm) (mm) 24 bricks

Maximum Minimum
(mm) (mm)

225 215 5235 5085

112.5 102.5 2505 2415
75 65 1605 1515

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 Test Methods for Dimension

Length Width Height

Dimensional deviations
• Overall measurements of 24 bricks
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 Compressive strength
• Most important mechanical properties
• Measure of quality
• Use for classifying bricks
• Varies in accordance to materials and
manufacturing methods
• Available in strengths of 5 – 100 N/mm2

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 Test Methods for Bricks
Compressive strength
• Select 10 bricks from a stack
• Bricks are immersed in water for 24 hours before
testing
• Faces are capped between 3 mm ply sheets or packed
before testing to reduce the effects of roughness,
lack of plane and platen effects
• Bricks loaded normal to its bed face. Tested until
failure. Compressive strength is calculated as the
average of 10 bricks as below:

Compressive strength
maximum load
= N/mm2
bed face area
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Compressive Strength

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Compressive Machine
 Water Absorption
• Water absorption is the quantity of water
that could be absorbed by the unit
• Indicate porosity
• Varies widely, clay units from 4.5 to 21%,
calcium silicate units from 7 to 21% and
concrete units from 7 to 10%
• Clay bricks which absorb between 4.5
and 7.0% of their weight can be used as
damp-proof course material

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 Water Absorption

• Highly absorptive clay bricks

remove water from mortar
preventing complete hydration
of cement
• Relation of water absorption to
flexural strength of masonry

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 Water Absorption

Two types of tests:

1) 24 hours cold immersion test
(Partially saturated condition)
2) 5 hr. boiling test (Fully
saturated condition

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 24 hours cold immersion test
(ASTM C67)
– Select 5 bricks from a stack
– Dry bricks in the oven @110ºC for not less than 24 hrs
– Cool the specimen and weigh each brick (Wd)
– Immerse the dry bricks in clean water at 15 to 30ºC
for 24 hours
– Remove the bricks and weigh each brick (Ws)
– Calculate the absorption of each brick as follows:

Absorption % =

Report the average100  Ws - Wd for the 10 bricks

absorption
 
 Wd 

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5 hours Boiling Test
• Select 10 bricks.
• Heat at 110 °C for not less
than 48 hours – dry bricks.
• When cool, weigh the bricks
and record the dry mass (wd)
• Then boil for 5 hours and then
allow to cool naturally in the
water a minimum of 16 hours
and a maximum of 19 hours.
• Weigh each brick and record
the wet mass (ws)
• Water absorption A %=  W - Wd 
100 s 
 Wd 
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 Classification of clay bricks according
to compressive strengths and
absorption (BS)
Designations Average Average
compressive absorption not
strength not less greater than (%
than (N/mm2) by weight)
Engineering A 70 4.5

Engineering B 50 7.0

Damp-proof 5 4.5
course 1
Damp-proof 5 7.0
course 2 50
 Characteristic flexural strengths and levels of water
absorption (BS 5628 Pt. 1, 1985)
Characteristic flexural strength, fkx N/mm2
Plane of failure parallel Plane of failure perpendicular to
to bed joints bed joints
(i) (ii) and (iv) (i) (ii) and (iv)
Mortar (iii) (iii)
designation

Clay bricks 0.7 0.5 0.40 2.0 1.5 1.2

having a water
absorption less
than 7%
Between 7 % 0.5 0.4 0.35 1.5 1.1 1.0
and 12 %
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Over 12 % 0.4 0.3 0.25 1.1 0.9 0.8
 Initial rate of suction
(IRS)
• The rate at which bricks absorb water from mortar
during laying

• Measured in kg/m2/min. For clay bricks generally range

from 0.25 – 2.05 kg/min/m2
Low values < 0.25 kg/min/m2
High values > 1.5 kg/min/m2

• Necessary for bond between bricks and mortar

• Water tightness

• Critical for highly stressed masonry structures

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Initial Rate of Suction
• Select 10 bricks
• Dry bricks in the oven
• When cool, weigh the
bricks and record the dry
mass (m1).
• Then immerse the dry
brick in water for 1 min.
Depth of immersion is 3±
1mm
• After 1 min remove the
wet bricks and weigh (m2)
• Calculate initial rate of
suction using formula
below:
1000(m - m )
2
IRS (kg/m /min) = 2 1
A
A is the area of the immersed face of the brick in mm2

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 Efflorescence and Soluble Salt
Content
• Efflorescence is the white
deposits (salts) on brick
surfaces
• Salts from bricks, ground
and environment
• Usually occurs on new
brickwork
• Affect appearance but
often harmless
• Bricks exceeding the
“heavy”category should
be rejected
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Efflorescence and Soluble Salt
Content

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 Efflorescence and Soluble Salt
Content

Spalling effects of Source of

bricks water
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 Levels of efflorescence (MS/BS)
Nil No perceptible deposit of salt

Slight Up to 10% of the area of the face covered

with a deposit of salt, but
unaccompanied by powdering or flaking
of the surface.
Moderate More than 10% but not more than 50% of
the area of the face covered with a
deposit of salts but unaccompanied by
powdering or flaking of the surface.

Heavy More than 50% of the area of the face

covered with a deposit of salts and/or
powdering or flaking of the surface.
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Applications

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 Calcium Silicate Bricks
(sand-lime)

• Consists of 90-95%
sand (majority
passing 1.15 mm
sieve)
• lime (aggregate
lime ratio by
weight of 10 – 20 :
1)
• water

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 Manufacturing

Mixing Mixing of sand,

lime, pigments and
water

Pressed under very

Pressin high pressure to give
g shape and
compaction

Autoclav High pressure steam

curing combining lime
e and sand to form
calcium silicate.
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 Properties of
Calcium Silicate Bricks

• Size
• Colour
• Water absorption
• Strength
• Shrinkage

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 Size and Colour

• Size – similar to
clay bricks
• Colour –
Calcium silicate
and are usually
light grey and
other paler
shades

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Paving Units

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Water Absorption

• Varies between 6 to 16 %
• Absorption is less
relevance for calcium
silicate and concrete units

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 Strength

• Compressive strength is
the criteria
• Typically strength varies
from 14 – 27.5 N/mm2

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 Compressive Strengths Classes and
Requirements of Calcium Silicate
(BS187)
Designations Class Mean compressive Shrinkage not
strength of 10 bricks greater than
not less than (%)
(N/mm2)
Load-bearing 7 48.5 0.040
brick or facing 6 41.5
brick 5 34.5
4 27.5
3 20.5

Facing brick or 2 14.0

common brick

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CONCRETE BRICK AND
BLOCK

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 Blocks
• Three main
types of blocks
Solid blocks – blocks
containing no formed
cavities
Hollow blocks – blocks
containing cavities which
fully penetrate the block

Cellular blocks – blocks

containing cavities which do
not fully penetrate the block
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Block

70
Block

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 Concrete Bricks and Blocks

• Bricks are units with size

not exceeding 337.5mm in
length, 225mm in width and
112.5mm in height. Bigger
than this are called blocks
• Lengths 400 – 600 mm,
heights 150 – 300 mm
Thickness 60 – 250 mm
• Consists of aggregates,
cement and water
• May contain additives such
as air entraining agents,
pozzolanic material,
colouring pigments
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Concrete bricks and blocks

Standard blocks

Screening 73
blocks
 Manufacturing of Concrete
Blocks Cement,
Aggregates are stored aggregate, water,
separately by density Mix is fed
pigments and other into a
and gradation, then admixtures are
weighed and mould and
combined to form consolidate
transported by conveyor damp but not wet
to mixer. d by
mix. vibration

Separate and Mixing

weigh aggregate Moldin
g

Curing Ejectio
n
Curing is done under
saturated conditions.
Units in sets of
Temperature may be raised to
three ejected
accelerate hydration (steam
from moulds.
curing) for 18 hours, or 74
autoclaving (high pressure)
 Manufacturing

Handling of aggregates Block machine

in a plant in operation
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 Properties of Concrete Blocks (BS
6073)
Type Face size (440 × 215 mm)

Thickness (mm) Minimum average

compressive
strengths of unit
(N/mm2)

Solid 75  
100  
7.0 – 21.0
Solid or cellular or 140  
hollow 150
190
200
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215
Glass Blocks

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Stone

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 Stones

Most common
• Limestone
• Granite
• Marble
• Slate

Marble quarry 79
80
Applications

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MORTAR FOR
BRICKWORK

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MASONRY MORTAR

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MORTAR

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 MORTAR
A mixture of materials for jointing
masonry units
Made up of sand, a binder such as
cement or lime, and water
The thickness of mortar in brickwork
is normally 10 mm thick and should
not exceed 15 mm because of high
shrinkage
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 FUNCTION OF MORTAR

Joint the units together

Seals any gaps to resist wind and
rain penetration
Take up the tolerances between
building units, fill up the holes
between the units

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 REQUIREMENTS

Should be able to support the

weight of the brick
Should not segregate, easy to
spread and align the units
Adhere to the vertical face of the
units
Should impart sufficient
strength to the whole unit 87
 REQUIREMENTS (cont.)
Should permit movement (unless this is
negligible or joints are provided). When
movement occurs, it should take place in the
form of microcracks within the mortar rather
cracking of the bricks or blocks
“mortar must not be stronger than the units it
is bonding”
Should be durable, resisting the penetration of
water through the units
Should contribute to the aesthetic appearance
of the wall
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 SAND FOR MORTAR
Well graded – even distribution of particle
sizes from fine to coarse. In well graded
sand the void is one-third of the total
volume
Sand containing silt and clay should not be
used which can lead to unacceptable
shrinkage movement
Sand lack in finer particles causes poor
water retention resulting in a harsh
unmanageable mortar 89
 BINDER MATERIALS
Hydraulic lime
From limestone contaminated with
clay which gave the resulting
hydraulic properties
Relatively weak and slow setting
Only suitable for thick wall and low
stress
Lime-sand mortars are obsolete
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 ORDINARY PORTLAND CEMENT

Principal binding ingredients in modern

binders
Cement and sand (1:3) by volume
produces high strength, good durability,
density and hardness
For most application such properties are
not required.
Can be replaced with pozzolanic
materials 91
 MASONRY CEMENT
Premixed binder, 75% OPC,
25% inert fine mineral filler and
powdered air entraining
admixture
On no account should masonry
cement be used in place of OPC
in making up the other type of
mortar
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 SULPHATE RESISTING CEMENT

Sulphate Resisting Portland Cement may

be used in place of OPC to combat
sulphate attack where prolong wet
condition are likely
The soluble sulphates are either from the
ground or in clay bricks
The proportion of the mortar
constituents are not altered
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 Table 15 BS 5628:Part3
Cement: Masonry Cement:Sand
Lime: sand cement:sand with Superpl.

Increasing Increasing 1:0 to ¼:3 - -

Strength and Ability to 1:1/2:4 to 1:2.5 to3.5 1:3 to 4

4.5
Improving accommodate 1:1:5 to 6 1:4 to 5 1:5 to 6

durability movements 1:2:8 to 9 1:5.5 to 6.5 1:7 to 8

(arrow upward) (arrow 1:3:10 to 12 1:6.5 to 7 1:8

downward)

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 NON-HYDRAULIC LIME
Insufficient setting and hardening strength to
make them as a total binder
Added as a binder constituent to produce
cement: lime: sand mortar
Lime has good water retentive properties
which give good workability characteristics
and promote bonding of the Portland cement
Have better resistance to rain penetration

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 AIR-ENTRAINERS
 As an alternative to lime as a binder supplement, the
reduced volume can be made with minute bubbles by
adding air-entraining agent
 In powder/liquid form but must be intended for
mortar
 Air entrainment must not exceed 12% of the volume
because it reduces the bond strength
 At 15% or above the bonding performance is seriously
impart
 Induces good plasticity/workability characteristics
96
Linear Thermal Movement of Masonry unit and Mortar

Material Coeff. Of Linear Thermal

Expansion (x 10-6 /K)
Fired-clay masonry units 4-8

Concrete masonry units 7 - 14

Calcium silicate masonry 11 - 15

units
Mortars 11 - 13

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 Moisture movement and Thermal properties of Common
Building Materials
Material Reversible moisture Irreversible moisture Coeff. Of Thermal
movement movement Exp. (x10-6/ K)
Timber +- 0.5-2.5 _ 4 - 70
Steel - _ 10 - 18
Concrete +-0.02-0.10 -(0.03-0.08) 7 - 14
Dense concrete agg. +-0.02-0.04 -(0.02-0.06) 6 – 12
products
Lightweight agg. +-0.02-0.06 -(0.02-0.06) 8 - 12
conc.
Aerated (autoclave) +-0.02-0.03 -(0.05-0.06) 8
products

Calcium silicate +-0.01-0.05 -(0.01-0.04) 8 - 14

brick
Clay brick +-0.02 +(0.02-0.07) 5 - 898
 Thank You
HAVE A NICE DAY

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