Types of Brick Bonding

Brick is one of the most durable materials, and it is far less boring than it seems to those who grew up surrounded by standard five-story buildings of silicate block. Its expressive potential lies not only in today's range of colors but also in the bonding itself, so as early as the planning stage it is worth thinking about how you picture your country "family nest": texture combined with a pattern, the features of the bond, and relief elements can turn your house into something like a princely castle, a futuristic object striking in its lines, or a cozy manor that recalls a Mediterranean villa.

Our new review is devoted to the possibilities of decorative and artistic masonry in face brick.

First of all, let's answer the question of what decorative bricklaying is for.

For pure beauty! The possibilities of face masonry leave plenty of room for self-expression. Among the cozy and pleasant but fairly standard modern country-house designs, yours will stand out with its bright decor or the boldness of its lines, and the finished house may well earn its own name in the manner of historic buildings: "the house with lilies," "the house with an angel," "the Gothic one," "the one with the staircase"—in short, a house with character!

There are three main methods of brickwork: plain, decorative, and artistic (relief).

1. In plain masonry the pattern of the facade is created using different ways of bonding the bricks with an even distribution of joints.
2. Decorative brickwork creates a facade pattern not only through the layout of the joints but also through the use of colored bricks (in this case the pattern is determined in advance).
3. Artistic brickwork involves creating the design of the facade through the layout of the joints, the color, and the way the bricks are laid: the facade is not a flat plane but a complex relief with architectural elements—ledges, recesses, reveals, pilasters, and other three-dimensional features.

Talking about decorative masonry calls for some knowledge of construction terms—not because you will have to lay the wall yourself, but because being able to speak the same language as a specialist lets you agree quickly and precisely on what you want, since not everything our imagination suggests has the necessary performance characteristics.

A bond is a system of laying bricks in which the joints of the lower course are positioned so that the bricks of the upper course overlap them. The simplest masonry is one in which the longitudinal and transverse vertical joints are fully broken every three to five courses.

A brick laid across the wall (with its short end facing out) is called a header; one laid lengthwise (with its long side facing out) is a stretcher. The wide side of the brick is called the bed; a continuous horizontal layer of similar bricks or stones bonded with mortar in a masonry structure, one unit high, is a course.

1. header,
2. stretcher,
3. inner side wall,
4. backing,
5. course,
6. header brick,
7. stretcher brick.

The names of the bonds originally came from the names of the brick surfaces. A course of bricks that are all laid as stretchers is a stretcher bond, also called a running bond. A heading bond is a course of bricks that are all laid as headers. In Old Russian masonry (often called Gothic), courses of stretchers and headers alternate, and each header sits centered below the stretcher above it. In English bond, stretcher courses and header courses alternate, with the stretcher positioned vertically and symmetrically between the two headers.

Today there are far more options for facing masonry, and using bricks of two colors expands the possibilities almost infinitely.

A simple solution: plain masonry

The most familiar and simplest way to create a decorative facade is plain masonry: by varying the thickness and color of the joints and the surface of the brick itself (smooth, colored, textured), you can create a one-of-a-kind facade.

The most popular types of plain masonry in single-color brick are:

Trend: plain Bavarian masonry

One of the most popular masonry systems today is called Bavarian masonry because it originated in the German states. Even within a single batch, the bricks have different shades of color, and this is what craftsmen began to use to give a facade special expressiveness. Classic Bavarian masonry is laid in four shades of facing brick of the same or different textures. Typically these are black-brown, brown, dark red, and red, but the range can be expanded if desired.

The technique is simple: a horizontal course is laid from bricks of every shade in a random order, and in the next course the colors alternate in the same order. Two bricks of the same color are not allowed next to each other, and to give the facade a unified look, the vertical joints in each course should line up. Laying the bricks in a set pattern is also possible.

The result is a facade that is original and lively, yet not garish.

The possibilities: decorative brickwork with colored and textured brick

Decorative masonry is often defined as brickwork with a clear geometric pattern of joints (bonds) on the facade, or a combination of a certain joint pattern with colored, textured, or embossed elements. It really is a simple and highly effective way to create a beautiful surface out of ordinary bricks. Decorative patterns usually cover the ends of buildings, partitions, the areas under the eaves, and other prominent parts of the walls.

The decorative effect can be heightened with glazed bricks set, either in a set pattern or seemingly at random, into regular masonry of textured or smooth brick.

The texture of the bricks makes an enormous difference in masonry. A fluted surface accentuates the expressiveness of the brickwork and creates the atmosphere of an old house that has survived for centuries. A "rough" texture with a chipped, stone-like surface is usually used to finish the massive parts of a building—plinths, retaining walls, pylons. A coarse texture is used to finish the walls of the upper floors, partitions, and cornices.

There are quite a few options for decorative masonry, differing in the patterns formed by the joints and the patterns on the facade surface. And using bricks of different colors can produce various ornaments on the facade—decorative patterns formed by laying stones of different shades.

Let us show the most common types of flat ornaments produced by single-course (chain) masonry using bricks of different kinds:

A few words about the joints

The quality of masonry depends largely on how the joints are treated: they stand out on the surface of the walls, setting off the pattern of the bricks. Without clearly defined joints the plane of the wall becomes flat and lifeless and the masonry blurs before the eye, so depending on the purpose, the type of brick, and the artistic goals, different types of joints are used (Fig. 3). Which option makes sense is worth discussing at the design stage.