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6 DEFECTS IN BRICKWORK DUE Search the site 

TO POOR WORKMANSHIP
Suryakanta | October 7, 2016 | Building Construction, Construction | No
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Masonry has a very long tradition of building by craftsmen, without
engineering supervision of the kind applied to reinforced concrete
construction. Consequently, it is frequently regarded with some suspicion BULKING OF SAND – A
as a structural material and carries very much higher safety factors than
COMPLETE GUIDE
concrete. There is, of course, some justification for this, in that, if
supervision is non-existent, any structural element, whether of masonry or
concrete, will be of uncertain strength. If, on the other hand, the same
0:00
level of supervision is applied to masonry as is customarily required for
concrete, masonry will be quite as reliable as concrete. It is therefore
important for engineers designing and constructing in masonry to have an
appreciation of the workmanship factors which are significant in
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developing a specified strength. This information has been obtained by
carrying out tests on walls which have had known defects built into them
and comparing the results with corresponding tests on walls without
defects. In practice, these defects will be present to some extent and, in
unsatisfactory work, a combination of them could result in a wall being

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only half as strong in compression as it should be. Such a wall, however,

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would be obviously badly built and would be so far outside any reasonable 14K likes
specification as to be quite unacceptable.

It is, of course, very much better for masonry to be properly built in the
first instance, and time spent by the engineer explaining the importance of Like Page

the points outlined below to the brick- or block layer and his immediate
supervisor will be time well spent.

DEFECTS IN BRICKWORK DUE TO

WORKMANSHIP
1. FAILURE TO FILL BED JOINTS
It is essential that the bed joints in brickwork should be completely filled.
Gaps in the mortar bed can result simply from carelessness or haste or
from a practice known as ‘furrowing’, which means that the bricklayer
makes a gap with his trowel in the middle of the mortar bed parallel to the
face of the wall. Tests show that incompletely filled bed joints can
reduce the strength of brickwork by as much as 33%.

Failure to fill the vertical joints has been found to have very little effect on
the compressive strength of brickwork but does reduce the flexural
resistance. Also, unfilled perpendicular joints are undesirable from the
point of view of weather exclusion and sound insulation as well as being
indicative of careless workmanship generally.

2. BED JOINTS OF EXCESSIVE THICKNESS

Increase in joint thickness has the effect of reducing masonry strength
because it generates higher lateral tensile stresses in the bricks than
would be the case with thin joints. Thus, bed joints of 16–19 mm
thickness will result in a reduction of compressive strength of up to
30% as compared with 10mm thick joints.

3. DEVIATION FROM VERTICALITY OR

ALIGNMENT
A wall which is built out of plumb, which is bowed or which is out of
alignment with the wall in the storey above or below will give rise to
eccentric loading and consequent reduction in strength. Thus a wall
containing a defect of this type of 12–20 mm will be some 13–15%
weaker than one which does not.

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4. EXPOSURE TO ADVERSE WEATHER

AFTER LAYING
Newly laid brickwork should be protected from excessive heat or freezing
conditions until the mortar has been cured. Excessive loss of moisture by
evaporation or exposure to hot weather may prevent complete hydration
of the cement and consequent failure to develop the normal strength of
the mortar. The strength of a wall may be reduced by 10% as a result.
Freezing can cause displacement of a wall from the vertical with
corresponding reduction in strength. Proper curing can be achieved by
covering the work with polythene sheets, and in cold weather it may
also be necessary to heat the materials if bricklaying has to be
carried out in freezing conditions.

5. FAILURE TO ADJUST SUCTION OF

BRICKS
A rather more subtle defect can
arise if slender walls have to be built
using highly absorptive bricks. The
reason for this is illustrated in Fig-1,
which suggests how a bed joint may
become ‘pillow’ shaped if the bricks
above it are slightly socked as they
are laid. If water has been removed
from the mortar by the suction of
the bricks, it may have become too
dry for it to recover its originally flat
shape. The resulting wall will
obviously lack stability as a result of
the convex shape of the mortar bed
Fig-1
and may be as much as 50% weaker
than should be expected from
consideration of the brick strength and mortar mix. The remedy is to wet
the bricks before laying so as to reduce their suction rate below
2kg/m2/min, and a proportion of lime in the mortar mix will help to
retain water in it against the suction of the bricks.

6. INCORRECT PROPORTIONING AND

MIXING OF MORTAR

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The effect of mortar strength on the strength of masonry may be judged

from Fig-2 from which it may be seen with bricks having a crushing
strength of 30 N/mm2 that reducing the mortar strength from 11 N/mm2to
4.5 N/mm2 may be expected to reduce the brickwork strength from 14
N/mm2 to 11N/mm2. This corresponds to a change in mortar mix from 1 :
3 cement : sand to 1 : 4.5 or about 30% too little cement in the mix. A
reduction in mortar strength could also result from a relatively high
water/cement ratio whilst still producing a workable mix. It is therefore
important to see that the specification for mortar strength is adhered to
although there is an inherent degree of tolerance sufficient to
accommodate small errors in proportioning and mixing the mortar. The
use of unsuitable or an excessive amount of plasticizer in place of lime will
produce a porous and possibly weak mortar and has to be guarded
against.

Fig-2-relationship-between-brick-strength-brick-masonry-strength-mortar-
strength

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RELATED TOPIC THAT CAN HELP YOU

Also Read: How to Check Quality of Bricks on Site?

Also Read: 8 Must Follow Rules for Good Bonding in Brickwork

Also Read: Why Bricks Are Soaked In Water Before Use?

Also Read: Efflorescence on Plaster Surface – What, Why & How?

Also Read: How to Check Consistency of Masonry Mortar?

Also Read: Defects in Brick Masonry – Cause & Remedies

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Tags: Brick Masonry, Brickwork, QA & QC

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