Mr.Building Material

The bond of the brickwork in which the bricks are placed in a pattern of headers and stretchers gives the wall strength and stability.

Three types of bond, the patterns in which the bricks are laid, are shown below:

Stretcher bond is only suitable for a single skin; in a modern house the inner skin is typically made from blocks, fixed to the outer brick skin by metal ties. English bond was not popular in the Victorian period. So the common bond is Flemish, with the alternate header-stretcher pattern.

Bricks are 'glued' together with mortar; until the 1920s, this was usually just a mix of sharp sand and lime. This is porous, flexible and matches the typically soft bricks it was used with. Cement has gradually taken the place of lime; it is much harder and largely impervious to water. It suits modern bricks which are much harder.