CONSTRUCTION METHOD STATEMENT FOR BRICKWALL

Construction of brickwall seems to be an easy component of construction work. However as usual any construction work shall come with their construction method statement. Below is a general method statement for construction of brickwall.

METHOD STATEMENT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF BRICKWALL.

Construction material.

Red clay brick, Exmet, Sand, Ordinary Portland Cement(OPC), Clean Water

Construction Tools and Equipment.

Scalfolding, Brick cutter, Trowel, spirit level, Guiding tread, Plumbob, Hammer, Hand drill and etc.

Safety Equipment.

Personal Protective Equipment, Safety Tape, Rubbish Chute, Safety Baricade, Safety Railing any practical safety equipment for the purpose of the construction of brickwall.

Construction Procedure.

1. Obtain approval for construction material.

2. Upon approval, Setting out of the wall location shall be done, inspect and approved prior to construction work.

3. Safety and health shall be submitted and approved by Superintending Officer(S.O) or his representative(S.O.R).

4. Submit request for start work to S.O, once steps above already complied.

Construction work.

1. Ensure that the working environment is safe and bricklayer is wearing PPE.

2. make sure that the guiding tread or line is visible.

3. lay a layer of damp proof sheet at the bottom of the first layer of the brick.

4. On top of the damp proof sheet spread a layer of mortar. The mortar shall be mix by hand or mixer and the composition is according to requirement specified in the construction drawing or contract specification.

5. Red brick then shall be lay according to the construction drawing position. 

6. Exmet reinforcement shall be introduce after forth course of the brick. If required a dowel bar shall be install to strengthen the ties between column and the brickwall.

7. At any time during the work, all debris shall be clean especially the excess mortar to avoid it from harden on the floor surface.

8. Upon completion of the brickwall, leave it to dry and bonded before proceed with the plastering work.

9. Upon completion a request for inspection shall be submitted to S.O or S.O.R for acceptance of the work.

Red clay masonry works

Building work consist of numbers of major work component. Four(4)  major components of building work are Structure work, Architectural Work, Mechanical Work and Electrical Work.

In this article we will discuss on building the building wall which is another small component of work which fall under Architectural work. Building Wall can be describe as External wall and Internal wall. Both of this wall can be build using various building material. Among the material used is Red clay brick. Building wall that was constructed with Red Clay brick, commonly known as common brick is a type of wall that being design not to carry any loading apart of its own weight.

What is common brick? Definition of common brick is " acceptable burned clay brick for the purpose of general usage of brickwork with no special claim for attractive value". Walls built with common brick required rendering or plastering for a fine finishing prior to any painting work or introducing of wall paper. Wall that required tiling as it finish surface usually required plastering to ensure that the built wall have a flushing surface in order to properly fixed the tiles.

*Standard size for masonry or Red clay Brick according to BS: 3921: 1985 or MS 7.6 : 1972 are as follows;

Length = 215 + 3 mm

Width  = 102.5 + 1.875 mm

Height = 65 + 1.875 mm

(* quoted from http://www.claybricks.com/more_info/brick-specifications.html )

In building a brick wall for any building we often heard of this terminology.

1. Half brick thick wall

2. One brick thick wall

3. One and a half brick thick wall.

All of those terminology is base on the measurement or the length of a standard brick. 

- Half brick thick wall = 1/2 x length of the brick,

- One brick thick wall = 1 x length of brick 

- One and a half brick thick wall = 1 length + 1/2 x brick length. 

Apart form the thickness of the wall another important part of the brick wall construction is the bond type between the brick. This bonding is to provide integrity between each of single piece of Red clay brick. Some of the type of bond are;

1. Stretcher Bond.

2. English bond

The application of those type of bond can be seen base on the wall thickness requirement. 

Half brick thick wall : stretcher bond

One brick thick wall : English bond

One and half brick thick wall : English bond and Stretcher bond.