11/1/2019 What is Masonry Wall? Types of Masonry Walls - Civil Engineering 11/1/2019 What is Masonry Wall?
Engineering 11/1/2019 What is Masonry Wall? Types of Masonry Walls - Civil Engineering
What is Masonry Wall? Types of
Masonry Walls
Raqifa Rahman Chowdhury
The work of Constructing Buildings is one kind of art. Thus, there is a linear relationship between
construction and building materials. Today’s modern Housing Associations, architectures, and engineers
are concerned about ‘masonry walls’. Masonry together with wood is considered as one of the most
important building materials in the History of humankind. It has been used as the construction material for
several thousand years and still it is used. In the last decades, other materials like steel and concrete
have been used frequently and thus replacing masonry as a structural material. This situation is present
and particularly remarkable in all over the countries, where almost all new buildings are constructed using
reinforced concrete. Masonry has been mostly used as a non-structural material, as an infill of reinforced
concrete and steel frames. Therefore, a question must arise in our mind – what is it? How does it work or
what to do with is this? Let us dig into this explanation:
The Masonry Basics
Masonry is a term used to indicate the part of the construction that uses brick, concrete block, structural
clay tile, and stone. These materials are held together with mortar. Mortar for masonry is not cement mix,
the material used for sidewalks, patios, or driveways. Mortar mix contains lime, sand, and gypsum, each
in the proper proportions. Cement mix, on the other hand, has stones in the sand and does not contain
lime.
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What are Masonry Walls?
Masonry walls are the most durable part of any building or structure. Masonry is the word utilized for
development with mortar as a coupling material with singular units of blocks, stones, marbles, rocks, solid
squares, tiles, and so forth. Mortar is a blend of restricting material with sand. Restricting materials can be
concrete, lime, soil or any other constructing materials.
Professionals do the Masonry projects and the unit works for various purposes. Some works for building
constructions, some makes barriers for boundaries to separate property line and some make
house wall for structural used.
Types of Masonry Wall
Masonry walls render strengths, lastingness to the structure and help to maintain indoor and outdoor
temperature as well as it keeps protect the buildings from the outside world. Depending on the motor mix
materials, there are various types of Masonry Walls used in building constructions.
Types or Categories:
Load bearing masonry wall
Reinforced masonry wall
Hollow/Cavity masonry wall
Composite masonry wall
Post-tensioned masonry wall
Brief descriptions of these masonry wall types are given below.
Load bearing Masonry Wall
Based on load bearing walls could be Load Bearing and Non-load Bearing walls.
Load bearing wall is a wall that bears a load reposing upon it, which depends on weight constructing and
the work of foundation structure. Usually, this type of wall used for large buildings. e.g. housing or tall
buildings construction work. It is mainly made with brick, concrete block, or stone. Load bearing wall helps
to transfer weight from root to the foundation. This type of wall depends on types of buildings and their
number of stories that are assessed to a suitable thickness to bear the weight above them. Without this
wall, there is a chance for instability in walls’ foundation works. Another, this type of wall can also be
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exterior and interior. Load bearing walls are flexible because it is easy to spend a little amount of money
than other types of walls, as it is the traditional framed structure of constructing buildings. The load
bearing walls can be reinforced or unreinforced masonry walls.
Non-load bearing walls that are only intended to support themselves and the weight of the cladding or
sheathings attached. This kind of walls provides no structural support and may be interior or exterior walls
used extensively in bridges, elevated slabs (parking structures and residential or commercial buildings),
residential foundations, walls, and columns. Designers commonly take advantage of this method to
produce buildings and structures with clear open spaces allowing more architectural freedom.

Reinforced Masonry Wall

A reinforced masonry wall is made with any type of brick, concrete or another type of masonry materials
that strengthened the use of other buildings materials to increase resistance to deterioration due to weight
bearing or other forms of stress. This type of wall could be a non-load bearing or load bearing. One of the
common examples of masonry involves exterior walls that are created using concrete blocks or clay
bricks. Along with these materials, steel rods are works into the structure, often using some type of
vertical framework that allows bearing the weight of connecting walls and floors within the building. The
use of this type of walls helps it to resist pressure forces and heavy compression loads. During
earthquake or failure of under heavy compression loads, the unreinforced walls could be crack
horizontally. The purpose of this type of walls protects the walls from cracks and makes the strength to
fight against unexpected earthquakes or other kinds of natural disasters. To defeat these problems,
reinforced walls are used; and their quantity and spacing are based on walls and structure conditions.
Reinforcement can be used both in horizontal and vertical order at a required layoff.
Depending on which materials are used, and how they are located, reinforced masonry (RM) walls can be
divided into the following categories:

Confined Masonry
Reinforced Cavity Masonry
Reinforced solid Masonry
Reinforced hollow unit Masonry
Reinforced grouted Masonry
Reinforced pocket type Walls

Hollow/Cavity Masonry Wall

Hollow masonry walls are made with cement blocks. This type of masonry walls is used to stop dampness
from getting inside of the building. It creates a hollow area between the outside and inside of masonry
walls. Cavity wall will also assist with climate control. Modern masonry walls are constructed from hollow
masonry units or combined hollow and solid masonry units.
Solid walls are systematically certified by metal ties, masonry investments or by collective reinforcement.

Composite Masonry Walls

Composite Masonry walls are made with the combination of two or more building materials; stones and
bricks or hollow bricks and bricks. The purpose of this type of walls construction is –reduce the overall
cost of construction and make the structure durable by providing materials of better quality and good
workmanship in the faces. Composite masonry walls work to improve the appearance of a structure by
covering up the inferior works by use of superior quality of material in the desired positions. This type of
walls is better because it is cost-effective and optically appealing.
Types of Composite Masonry walls:

Brick Backed Ashlar

Brick facing with Rubble or Concrete Backing
Stone facing with Brick, Rubble or concrete Backing

Post-tensioned Masonry Wall

Post-tensioning provides an additional axial load to masonry structures and thus increases resistance to
lateral force. This type of walls has over their conventionally reinforced equivalents, such as increased in-
plane strength and the absence of residual post-earthquake wall displacements. Post-tensioning now is
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