Brickwork

Brickwork masonry is produced when a bricklayer uses bricks and mortar to build up structures such as walls, bridges and chimneys. Brickwork is also used to finish openings such as doors or windows in buildings made of other materials. Where the bricks are to remain fully visible, as opposed to being covered up by plaster or stucco, this is known as face-work.

Flemish bond, also known as Dutch bond, has historically always been considered the most decorative bond, and for this reason was used extensively for dwellings until the adoption of the cavity wall. It is created by alternately laying headers and stretchers in a single course.

The next course is laid so that a header lies in the middle of the stretcher in the course below. Again, this bond is one brick thick. It is quite difficult to lay Flemish bond properly, since for best effect all the perpendiculars (vertical mortar joints) need to be vertically aligned.

If only one face of a Flemish bond wall is exposed, one third of the bricks are not visible, and hence may be of low visual quality.

This is a better ratio than for English bond, Flemish bond's main rival for load-bearing walls. Stretcher bold

Flemish bond, with two stretchers between the headers in each row, and the headers centred over the join between the two stretchers in the row below.

Rat-trap bond, also known as Chinese bond, is a type of garden wall bond in which the stretchers and headers are laid on their sides, with the base of the stretcher facing outwards. The main advantage of this bond is economy in use of bricks, giving a wall of one brick thickness with fewer bricks than a solid bond.

Rat-trap bond was in common usage in England for building houses of fewer than 3 stories up to the turn of the 20th century and is today still used in India as an economical bond, as well for the insulation properties offered by the air cavity. Also, many brick walls surrounding kitchen gardens were designed with cavities so hot air could circulate in the winter.

Herringbone bond

A brickwork bond in which the exposed brickwork is bonded to the heart of the wall by concealed courses of bricks laid diagonally to the faces of the wall in a herringbone pattern, with the end of each brick butting against the side of the adjoining brick; a form of raking bond.

Basket pattern bond

A pattern made up of pairs of bricks placed in a square grid so that the join between each pair is perpendicular to the join of the four pairs around it.

English Bond

The English bond bricks were laid in alternate layers of headers and stretchers. while flemish bond has alternate headers and stretchers within a layer, giving good looks to the surface. english bond has high strength value while flemish bond has looks.

Bricklayer

A bricklayer is a tradesman who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The term also refers to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of masonry.

The training of a trade in European cultures has been a formal tradition for many centuries. A tradesman typically begins in an apprenticeship, working for and learning from a master craftsman, and after a number of years is released from his master's service to become a journeyman. After a journeyman has proven himself to his trade's guild (most guilds are now known by different names), he may settle down as a master craftsman and work for himself, eventually taking on his own apprentices.

The modern process can be different. A tradesman still begins as an apprentice, but the apprenticeship is carried out partly through working for a qualified tradesman and partly through an accredited technical college delivering level one, two and three brickwork qualifications to learners .

The training takes three years. After that there is an examination by the (guild). The apprentice must show that he is able to construct masonry, knows how to protect a house from humidity, knows about thermal insulation, knows about construction material science and about occupational health and safety.

A man who has many years of experience in his trade will be allowed to become a master. He will have an exam again. In this exam he will show that he is an expert of his trade. He also must show that he can work with other people well and has some knowledge of pedagogy, because as a master he will be allowed to educate younger bricklayers.