Date: 2023/2024

Course: SWEP I

Level: 200

Activity: Building Works

Objective: Block work and laying of blocks.

1.0 Building Works

Is best defined as a structure constructed, erected, assembles or placement of a building or

an incidental on a piece of land. Building is a structure with a roof and walls, such as a
house or factory. It could either permanent or temporary enclosed within exterior wall,
roof and all attached apparatus, equipment and fixtures that cannot be removed without
cutting into ceiling, floors or walls. Building is an activity in which a structure is
constructed from materials such as; sands, cement, granite, aluminum, iron, timbers etc.
This involve; manufacturing, trading, transportation and other activities. Advantage of
building includes; shelter for human being and animals, job opportunity and promote
country development and economy.

Building works involve so many professions such as, Surveyor, Architect, Civil Engineer,
Mechanical Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Horticultural, skill and unskilled labors etc.

1.1 Type of Building:

Type of building includes;

i. Residential Buildings: These include any building in which sleeping

accommodation is provided for normal residential purposes, with or without
cooking or dining or both facilities. Residential types of building could be; lodging or
rooming houses, One-or two-family private dwellings, Dormitories, Apartment
houses (flats) and Hotels.

ii. Educational Buildings: These shall include any building used for school, college or
day-care purposes involving assembly for instruction, education or recreation.

iii. Institutional Buildings: These shall include any building or part thereof, which is
used for purposes, such as medical or other treatment or care of persons suffering
from physical or mental illness, disease or infirmity; care of infants, convalescents or
aged persons and for penal or correctional detention in which the liberty of the
inmates is restricted. Institutional buildings ordinarily provide sleeping
accommodation for the occupants. Institutional building could be; Hospitals and
sanatoria, Custodial institutions, Penal and mental institutions.
 iv. Assembly Buildings: These shall include any building or part of a building, where
groups of people congregate or gather for amusement, recreation, social, religious,
patriotic, civil, travel and similar purposes, for example, theaters, motion picture
houses, assembly halls, auditoria, exhibition halls, museums, skating rinks,
gymnasiums, restaurants, places of worship, dance halls, club rooms, passenger
stations, terminals of air, surface and marine
public transportation services, recreation piers and stadia, etc.

v. Business Buildings: These are any type of buildings or part of a building which is
used for transaction of business for keeping of accounts and records and similar
purposes, professional establishments, service facilities, etc. City halls, town halls,
court houses and libraries shall be classified in this group so far as the principal
function of these is transaction of public business and keeping of books and records.
Business building could be; Offices (architects, engineers, doctors, lawyers, etc.),
banks, professional establishments, Laboratories, research establishments and test
houses, Computer installations,

vi. Mercantile Buildings: These shall include any building or part of a building, which
is used as shops, stores, market, for display and sale of merchandise, either
wholesale or retail.

vii. Industrial Buildings: These shall include any building or part of a building or
structure, in which products or materials of all kinds and properties are fabricated,
assembled, manufactured or processed, for example, assembly plants, laboratories,
dry cleaning plants, power plants, pumping stations, smoke houses, laundries, gas
plants, refineries: dairies and saw-mills.

viii. Storage Buildings: These shall include any building or part of a building, used
primarily for the storage or sheltering (including servicing, processing or repairs
incidental to storage) of goods, wares or merchandise (except those that involve
highly combustible or explosive products or materials), vehicles or animals, for
example, warehouses,‘ cold storage, freight depots, transit sheds, storehouses, truck
and marine terminals, garages, hangars (other than aircraft repair hangars), grain
elevators, barns and stables. Storage properties are characterized by the presence of
relatively small number of persons in proportion to the area, Any new use which
increases the number of occupants to a figure comparable with other classes of
occupancy shall change the classification of the building to that of the new use, for
example, hangars used for assembly purposes, warehouses used for office purposes,
garage buildings used for manufacturing.

ix. Hazardous Buildings: These shall include any building or part of a building which
is used for the storage, handling, manufacture or processing of highly combustible
or explosive materials or products which are liable to burn with extreme rapidity
and/or which may produce poisonous fumes or explosions; for storage, handling,
manufacturing or processing which involve highly corrosive, toxic or noxious
alkalis, acids or other liquids or chemicals producing flame, fumes and explosive,
 poisonous, irritant or corrosive gases; and for the storage, handling or processing of
any material producing explosive mixtures of dust which result in the division of
matter into tiny particles subject to spontaneous ignition.

1.2 Building Structural Members

These are members or elements that are assembled together structurally to be able to meet
with the purpose of design and also to carry its self weight. Generally, building structural
members includes

• Roof: Is a structural member covering the top of a building, serving as a protection

against rain, snow, sunlight, wind, and extremes of temperature. Roofs have been
constructed in a wide variety of forms which could be flat, pitched, vaulted, domed,
or in combinations as dictated by technical, economic, or aesthetic considerations.

• Beam: a rigid member or structure supported at each end or fixed at one end
(cantilever) which is subject to bending stresses from a direction perpendicular to
its length. It’s a member that carries loads from roof or slab and transfers it to the
columns. A beam is a structural element that primarily resists loads applied laterally
to the beam's axis. Its mode of deflection is primarily by bending. Beams can be
made from concrete, steel, timber etc.

• Column: Is a member that carries loads from the beam and transfer it to the
foundation. A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a
structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure
above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a
compression member.

• Wall: Is a vertical structural member of a building used in partitioning either

external or internal. Wall can be load bearing wall or non load bearing wall. It can
be made from blocks, bricks, timbers etc.

• Slab: Is a horizontal structural member naturally large, thick, flat piece of concrete,
steel or timber which could be in any shape (square, triangle, rectangle etc)
depending on Civil Engineering design. It also serves as a roof for a building. A
concrete slab is a common structural element of modern buildings. The thickness
greatly depends on the structural design.

• Foundation: Is a structural member that carries the whole loads of a building, dead
load and impose load and transfer it straight to the ground. It should be built on a
naturally or artificially created stable ground. It is recommended that foundation of
any building should be well constructed so that it will be able to withstand the loads
coming on it without any failure. There are different type of foundation which
greatly depends on the type of structure to be erected and the nature of the soil to
withstand the upcoming load.
2.0 Block Laying

Is an art of construction which involves the laying of blocks in an horizontal form to make a
vertical wall. Blocks are joining together with the use of cement mortar made from sharp
sand, cement and water to form a sold wall or an entity or a homogeneous mass.

2.1 Technical Terms

The following terms are generally use in block laying.

1. Course: This is a term applied to the row of block laid between bed or homogeneous
joint. The thickness of each course is taken to be 250mm i.e. 230 + 20 = 250mm
(thickness of the block and the joint).

2. Horizontal Joint: These are mortar joint normal to the pressure. Horizontal joint is
the joining of block laid in a horizontal direction also for joining of the upper and
lower course of the block together with the use of cement mortar. The thickness is
usually 20mm.

3. Vertical Joint: Is the joining of laid block in a vertical direction. That is joining of
sides of blocks to one another.

4. Stretcher: Is the laying of block with their length parallel to the ground surface. A
course in which the block is stretcher is known as stretcher course.

5. Header: Is the laying of block with their breath parallel to the ground surface. A
course in which the block is header is known as header course.

2.2 Block

Generally made from mixture of sharp sand, cement and water together in an appropriate
ratio and filled in to a formwork to give a smooth shape. The formwork is generally made
up metal. The mixture should be well vibrated mechanically to remove the void within the
mixture. A block can either be hollow or solid. Below is a typical diagram of a block.
2.1 Type of Block

i. 450mm X 225mm X 225mm usually called 9” block

ii. 450mm X 150mm X 225mm usually called 6” block

iii. 450mm X 150mm X 100mm usually called 4” block

.3 Bricks

A Bricks is a building material used to make walls, pavements and other elements in
masonry work. Traditionally, the term brick referred to a unit composed solid because it is
only made from mixture of clay and water. A brick is precise square edged perforated
smooth which is dense. It is used where low level of water absorption and compressive
strength are required. Bricks can either be hollow or solid.
2.3.1 Type of Bricks

• 215mm X 102mm X 65mm

• 215mm X 102mm X 75mm

• 190mm X 90mm X 90mm

2.4 Bonding

The systematic arrangement of blocks while making block work is simply known as bond.
The uniform size and shape of blocks can be arranged in a verity of patterns, which give
rise to different type of bond. Bonding is essential to eliminate vertical joints. A wall or
pillar having vertical joints is one line that does not behave homogeneous mass to
distribute supper imposed loads.

2.4.1 Type of Bonding

The following are different type of bonds. The only four (4) majorly used type of bonding
will be explained in this course and students are expected to carry out block laying using a
stretcher bond.

1. English bond
2. Header bond
3. Stretcher bond and
4. Flemish bond
5. Garden wall bond
6. English Cross bond
7. Facing bond
8. Dutch bond
9. Racking bond
10. Zigzag bond
11. Brick on edge bond

i. English bond: English bond in block/brick laying has one course of stretcher
only and a course of header above it, i.e. it has two alternating courses of
stretchers and headers. Headers are laid centered on the stretchers in course
below and each alternate row is vertically aligned. To break the continuity of
vertical joints, quoin closer is used in the beginning and end of a wall after first
header. A quoin close is a brick cut lengthwise into two halves and used at
corners in brick walls. It is regard as most strong bonding.

ii. Header bond: Header bond is also known as heading bond. In header bonds, all
bricks/blocks in each course are placed as headers on the faces of the walls.
While Stretcher bond is used for the construction of walls of half brick thickness
whereas header bond is used for the construction of walls with full brick
thickness. In header bonds, the overlap is kept equal to half width of the brick.
To achieve this, three quarter brick bats are used in alternate courses as quoins.
iii. Stretcher bond: Longer narrow face of the brick is called as stretcher as shown
in the elevation of figure below. Stretcher bond, also called a running bond, is
created when bricks are laid with only their stretchers showing, overlapping
midway with the courses of bricks below and above.
iv. Flemish bond: Flemish bond, also known as Dutch bond, is created by laying
alternate headers and stretchers in a single course. The next course of
brick/block is laid such that header lies in the middle of the stretcher in the
course below, i.e. the alternate headers of each course are centered on the
stretcher of course below. Every alternate course of Flemish bond starts with
header at the corner. Flemish bonds may be further classified as Double Flemish
Bond and Single Flemish Bond.

In case of Double Flemish bond, both faces of the wall have Flemish look, i.e. each
course consist of alternate header and stretcher, whereas single Flemish
bond outer faces of walls have Flemish look whereas inner faces have look of
English bond.
2.5 Mortar

Mortar is the mixture of cement, sand and water in an adequate proportion to binds bricks
and blocks together to give strength and stability to a wall. Freshly mixed mortar must be
soft and plastic so that it spreads easily and makes good contact without becoming too
strong. Too strong a mortar may crack and is wasteful and expensive. Mortar must not be
used after it has started to set, which usually occurs about two hours after it has been
mixed. Do not use too thick a layer of mortar between bricks or blocks (i.e. not more than
20mm) ; this is wasteful and may lead to cracking.

Mortar mixing should be done on a clean hard surface such as a smooth concrete floor or a
steel sheet. Small batches may be mixed in a wheelbarrow provided that the volume of the
batch is no more than half the capacity of the barrow.

2.5.1 Mortar Mix design

There is different type of mix design for mortar which greatly depends on the strength
required for the masonry work being carrying out. Types of mortar mix design are;

i. 1:3 iii. 1 : 5

ii. 1 : 4 iv. 1 : 6

Reference

https://theconstructor.org/building/types-bonds-brick-masonry-flemish-english-
wall/11616/http://www.probcguide.com/general/types-of-building/

https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Brick

https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/File:Quoin

http://www.afrisam.com/media/13743/Mortar_mixes_for_masonry.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete

www.businessdictionary.com/defination/building.html

http://www.buildsite.com/pdf/specmix/SPEC-MIX-Mortar-Cement-Sand-Mortar-M-S-N-
Product-Data-938696.pdf
 English Garden Wall Bond: This is similar to the English bond but with one course of
headers for every three courses of stretcher. The headers are centred on the headers in
course below. This gives quick lateral spread of load and uses fewer facings than an
English bond.

English Cross Bond: This alternates courses of stretchers and headers, with the alternating
stretcher course being offset by half a brick. The stretchers are centred on the joins
between the stretchers below them, so that the alternating stretcher courses are aligned.
Staggering stretchers enables patterns to be picked out in different texture or
coloured bricks.

In the UK, standard bricks are 215 mm long × 102.5 mm wide × 65 mm high.
This gives a ratio of 3:2:1:
▪ With a standard mortar joint of 10 mm, a repeating unit of bricks laid in a
stretcher bond will be 225 mm lengthwise and 75 mm in height.
▪ If bricks are laid cross-wise, two 102.5 mm widths plus two mortar joints gives the same
repeating unit as the length of one brick, ie 225 mm.
▪ If they are laid height wise, three 65 mm heights plus three mortar joints gives the same
repeating unit as the length of one brick, ie 225 mm.