Brick Work

Bricks used should be of proper strength and specification. Mortar used should be as specified. Lime should not he used where reinforcement is provided in brick work. Bricks should be thoroughly soaked before use and should he skin dry at the time of laying. 

Laying 

Bricks should be laid generally in English bond with alternate layers of header and stretcher. For half brick wall bricks should be laid in stretcher bond. Broken bricks should not be used except where necessary to complete the bond. Bricks should be laid on a full bed of mortar. During laying each brick should be properly bedded and set in position by gently pressing with the handle of the trowel. Its inside face should be buttered with mortar before the next brick is laid and pressed against it. Joints should be fully filled and packed with mortar such that no hollow space is left inside the joints. 

The walls should be taken up truly in pump of true to the required batter where specified. All courses should be laid truly horizontal and all vertical joints  should be truly vertical. Vertical joints in alternate course should come directly one over the other. Quoin, Jambs and other angles should be properly plumbed as the work proceeds. The height of brick courses should be uniform. 

No part of the wall should rise more than one metre above the general construction level. Parts of wall left at different levels should be raked back at an angle of 45 degrees or less with the horizontal. 

All pipe fittings and specials, spouts, hold fasts and other fixtures which are required to be built into the walls should be embedded as specified, in their correct position as the work proceeds. 

Top courses of all plinths, parapets, steps and top of walls below floor and roof should  be laid with brick on edge, unless specified otherwise. 

Bricks should be laid with frong up except top course where frongs would be filled with mortar before laying. 

In case of walls one brick thick and under, one face should be kept even and-in proper; plane, while the other face may be slightly rough. In case of walls more than one brick thick, both faces should be kept even. 

To facilitate taking service lines later without cutting the completed work, sleeves should be provided, where specified, while raising the brick work.