Advantages: Bricks and stones increase thermal mass which can protect a building from fire. No painting is required. Masonry is non-combustible. Masonry is resistant to projectiles which makes it durable during natural disasters. Masonry structures generally last much longer than steel or reinforced concrete.
Disadvantages: Frost damage can degrade masonry. Masonry is very heavy and must be built on a strong foundation such as reinforced concrete to avoid settling and cracking. Masonry requires skilled labor. Masonry has low tensile strength.
Masonry’s shortcomings can be mitigated by increasing the thickness of a wall, by building piers(vertical columns/ribs), and adding windposts(steel reinforcement).
Abutement joint: Abutement joints are sometimes refered to as construction joints or isolation joints; Are placed at junctions between masonry and other materials, or between new masonry and old masonry, to accommodate differences in movement
ASTM C144: Standard specification for Aggregate and Masonry Mortor.
Bed Joint: The horizontal layer of mortar beneath a masonry unit.
Bond Beam: a horizontal structural element, usually found as an embedded part of a masonry wall assembly
Brick: A unit of masonry
Building Separation Joint: divide a large or geometrically complex, building mass into smaller, discrete structures that can move independently of one another. Building separation joints can be classified into three types: volume-change joints, settlement joints, and seismic separation joints.
Cavity wall: a wall formed from two thicknesses of masonry with a space between them.
Centering: framing used to support an arch or dome while it is under construction.
Clean out holes: the openings through which mortar droppings and other debris are removed and a wall is inspected prior to high-lift grouting
Common bond: A brick masonry wall pattern in which a header course of brick is laid after every five or six stretcher courses.
Concrete masonry unit: CMU: also called concrete brick, concrete block, cement block, besser block, breeze block and cinder block is a large rectangular brick used in construction.
Control Joint: Grooves manually made on concrete flooring to help control where the concrete should crack.
Corbel: a projection jutting out from a wall to support a structure above it.
Double Open End CMU: Shaped like a H
Expansion Joint: An expansion joint or movement joint is an assembly designed to safely absorb the heat-induced expansionand contraction of construction materials, to absorb vibration, to hold parts together, or to allow movement due to ground settlement or earthquakes.
External Flashing: Weatherproofing
Flemish Bond: In bricklaying, an arrangement of bricks such that each course consists of alternate bricks having their short sides (headers) and long sides (stretchers)