Brickwork

Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar to build up brick structures such as walls. Brickwork is also used to finish corners, door and window openings etc. in buildings made of other materials.

Where the bricks are to remain fully visible, as opposed to being covered up by plaster or stucco, this is known as face-work or facing brickwork.

Brick dimensions

Brick sizes are generally coordinated so that two rows of bricks laid alongside, with a mortar joint between them, are the same width as the length of a single brick laid across the two rows. That allows headers, bricks laid at 90 degrees to the direction of the wall, to be built in and tie together two or more layers, or wythes, of brick. The thickness of a brick wall is measured by the length of a brick, so a wall one brick thick will contain two layers of brick, one and a half bricks is three layers etc. A common metric coordinating size is 215 x 102.5 x 65mm, which is intended to work with a 10mm mortar joint: 75mm course height, 215mm wall thickness etc. This is based on the earlier inch sizes. There are many different standard brick sizes worldwide, most with some coordinating principle.

Wall thickness and construction

Solid brickwork

The simplest type of wall is constructed in solid brickwork, normally at least one brick thick, and the different bricklaying patterns are ways of incorporating headers to tie together the layers of brick.

Cavity walls

In a cavity wall, two layers (or leaves) of brickwork are tied together with metal ties, with a cavity or 2 to 4 inches that may be filled with insulation.

Brick facing

A non-structural outer facing of brick is tied back to an internal structure: a layer of blockwork, timber or metal studwork etc.