Brick Bond

What is Brick Bond?

It is a pattern or framework in which bricks are laid. It can also be defined as

an arrangement of bricks in brick wall construction called brick bonds. There are many
various bonds in brick masonry and each has its own look, installation difficulties, and in
the case of walls, structural considerations. Most of all bonds require bricks or
other masonry units of a similar size or else at least compatible sizes.

Brick masonry work is done by placing side by side and one on another with mortar to make
the bond between them. All ancient and historical building has evidence of the use of brick
masonry work in it.

Uniform sizing makes a regular, repeatable pattern that can be provided over any size of the
region. Many bond pattern designs in such a way of interlocking each row of brick called
a course to the neighboring courses.

Brick masonry strength depends on the type of bond and materials used for construction.
They play an important role in providing strength, stability, and durability to brick masonry.

Bonds in masonry wall construction are categorized based on the laying and bonding pattern
of bricks in walls. It is developed by the mortar filling between layers of bricks and
in grooves when bricks are laid adjacent to each other and in layers in walls. Mortar, lime
mortar, and mud mortar are mostly used materials for brick bonds.

The major objectives of providing the bonds in brick masonry construction can be listed as
follows:

a. To hold the building units together.

b. To resist all the imposed loads and external loads.
c. To ensure the strength and stability of the masonry structure.
d. To increase the aesthetic appearance of the masonry structure
Types of Brick Bonds

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular brick bonds used for walls,

1. Stretcher Bond

Bricks are laid horizontally and flat with a long side called a stretcher and in this bond, all brick
is laid as stretchers, which is lengthwise shown in fig. Sometimes stretcher bond is also known as
a running bond.

The limitation of the stretcher bond is that it cannot make an effective and strong bonding with
adjacent bricks in full-width thick brick walls. They are only suitable for one-half brick-thick
walls such as partition walls.

Walls constructed using these bonds are not strong enough to stand alone in case of long span
and height. Thus they need supporting structures such as brick masonry columns at regular
intervals.

Advantages of stretcher bond

This bond is mostly used in steel or reinforced concrete framed structures as the outer facing as
well as for the construction of cavity walls.
2. Header Bond

Header means a shorter square span face of the brick which has dimensions 9cm x 9cm. In
these bonds, all bricks are placed as headers on the faces of any type of wall.
Sometimes header bond is also called a heading bond.

While Stretcher bond is used for the construction of walls of half-brick thickness whereas this
bond is used for the construction of walls with full-brick thickness.

In these bonds, the overlap is kept equal to 1/2 the width of the brick. For this purpose three-
quarter brickbats are used in alternate courses as quoins.

Advantages of Header Bond

 Easy to construction
 Simple structure
 No skilled labor required

3. English Bond

English bond in the brick masonry work consists of one course of the stretcher and another
course of the header above it, i.e. pattern formed by laying alternate courses
of stretchers and headers.

Headers are laid centered on the stretchers in the course below and each alternate row is
vertically aligned.

For the breaking of continuity of vertical joints, the queen closer is used at the beginning and
end of a wall after the first header in each heading course.

A queen closer is a brick cut lengthwise into two halves and used at corners in brick walls.

Advantages of English Bond

English bond is one of the strongest bonds but it requires more facing bricks than
any other bond. Brick flooring is done with an English bond.

4. Flemish Bond

Flemish Bond also famous as the Dutch bond is created by laying alternate
headers and stretchers in a single same course.

The very next course of brick is laid in such a way that the header lies in the center of the
stretcher in the course below, i.e. the alternate headers of each course are centered on
the stretcher of the course below. Each and every alternate course of this bond starts with
a header at the corner.
This bond is difficult to construct and requires high skill to lay it perfectly as all vertical
mortar joints need to be aligned vertically for the best and great effects.

For the breaking of vertical joints in the successive courses, closers are putting alternate
courses next to the quoin header. Bats are used for walls having their thickness equal to an odd
number of half bricks.

Even though Flemish bonds have a better appearance it is weaker than English bonds for
load-bearing wall construction.

So, if the pointing has to be done for brick walls, then the Flemish bond can be used for
the best aesthetic view but for the walls have to be plastered, and then the English bond is
more suitable.

Flemish Bond gives a better outer appearance.

Types of Flemish Bond

There are two types of Flemish bonds,

A single Flemish Bond is a combination of English bonds and Flemish Bond. The front
exposed surface of the wall is composed of a Flemish bond and another back surface is
composed of an English bond in every single course while a Double Flemish Bond takes
a similar kind of appearance both in the front as well as the back of elevations.
5. English Garden Wall Bond

The arrangement of bricks in the English Garden Wall is similar to that of the English
bond except that the heading courses are only inserted at every (4th or 6th ) course
whereas stretchers are used in consequent courses every (3rd, 5th, or 7th ). In short, the
arrangement consists of one course of headers and three courses of stretchers.

The queen closer is placed next to the queen header of the heading course forgiving the
necessary lap.

6. Scottish Bond & American Bond

In the bond, the stretchers course is used 5 times consequently then it is known as Scottish Bond
and if it is used 7 times consequently then the bond is known as American Bond.
7. Flemish Garden Wall Bond

The Flemish bond has Stretcher, Header & Stretcher Models. It is also known as Sussex
Bond.

In this type of bond instead of having 1 stretcher & 1 header, here we have 3 in 1, 3 numbers
of stretchers, and 1 header in the same course. It is also known as balanced bonding. You can
see that by the Image.

In the Flemish garden wall bond, it is two types of variations of the Flemish bond one is 3
stretchers in 1 header ratio other is 2 stretchers in 1 header ratio.

8. Stack Bond

In bond, bricks are laid directly on top of one another with joints aligned, running vertically
down the whole wall. Bricks can be stacked horizontally or vertically too.

The alignment of joints results in minimal bonding which means that this bond is weak and
often structurally unsound unless wire bed-joint reinforcement is placed in every horizontal
course or, where loading is moderate, every alternate course. This is often
used purely for decorative purposes and in rain-screen applications.
9. Raking Bond

In this bond type, the bonding bricks are laid at any angle except zero or ninety degrees.
This type of arrangement helps to increase the longitudinal stability of thick walls’ built-
in English bonds.

In this pattern of bonding, the space between the all external stretchers of a wall
is filled using bricks inclined to the face of the wall.

A raking bond is introduced at certain intervals along with the height of any wall.

There are two common patterns of raking bonds;

 Herring hone bond

 Diagonal bond

Diagonal Bond: It is best suited for walls of two to four brick thicknesses. A diagonal bond is
normally introduced at every fifth or seven-course along with the height of the wall.

Bricks in this type of bond are placed end to end in such a way that extreme corners of the
sequence remain in contact with stretchers.
Herringbone Bond: This type of bond is suited for very thick walls usually not less than four
bricks thick. In this pattern of brickwork, bricks are laid in a course inclined at 45° in 2
directions from the center. This type of bond is also commonly used for brick paving.

10. Zig Zag Brick Bond

Zig Zag Bond is very similar to a herring–bone bond only difference is that in
this case the bricks are laid in a zig-zag pattern. It is mostly adopted in brick-paved flooring.

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