Styles for laying bricks

[vicky whitworth]

I'm not sure that title explains this post very well. We are about to have a 'fake' inner skin of bricks built inside our 'fake' 1990s pseudo inglenook (I know, but we didn't start this - the previous owners did it). I posted before about the brick skin and the view seemed to be, 'Do whatever you like. It's your home.' We think it will look better than the modern plaster work we have at present. But the question is what's the view on the way we should lay the bricks. I think the word I'm looking for is 'bonding'. The cottage is 1760. Should we do stretcher/header/stretcher across the rows or a row of stretcher and then a row of headers, or something else? What would 'they' have done in 1760? I know, 'they' wouldn't have faked up an inglenook. We will use reclaimed bricks. Thank you.

 

[MdB]

I can't comment on what is authentic but I like the look of Flemish bond and don't like Stretcher bond.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brickwork#Brickwork_bonds

 

[vicky whitworth]

Hi, that link is really helpful. I don't like the stretcher either and I have a feeling it's a modern option. Fleming looks good but so too does English.
Any one any thoughts on what went on in the mid 18th century brick bond-wise?

 

[Feltwell]

Stretcher is generally modern as it suits cavity construction. I built my new garage with a cavity but with "fake" English bond - which involved cutting several thousand bricks..... Looks so much better than if I'd done it in stretcher though.

My house is built with higher quality brick and a different bond on the front elevation compared to the side & rear !

As to what you would have had originally - brick bonding can be a very regional thing, also the same bond can have a different name depending on where you are in the country. I also expect that the preference of the bricklayer would have come into it as well! What's prevalent in your area? What's used elsewhere on your house? I wouldn't stress too much though, go with what you think looks right. It's not as if you're re-building something that was originally there.

 

[Flyfisher]

Feltwell's right to mention brick-cutting; the wall construction can have a big impact on the amount of cutting required, depending on the chosen bond.

I recently built a short section of low wall. It was two bricks thick so I used a flemish bond as that creates a strongly bonded wall that only required one brick to be cut per course - cut lengthways and known as a 'queen closer' I believe.

Using flemish bond for a single-skin wall (as I assume your 'fake' wall will be ) will involve quite a bit of brick cutting, which may or may not be an issue for you, but it's certainly worth knowing about. I think it looks good though.

 

[Feltwell]

Feltwell's right to mention brick-cutting; the wall construction can have a big impact on the amount of cutting required, depending on the chosen bond.

Mind you, given that you won't see the cut end it doesn't have to be a neat cut. The ones for my garage were just done with a brick bolster.

 

[Jill]

Vicky, our house dates back to at least the early 1700's and had a brickwall fireplace laid in Stretcher Bond, We are not sure if the brick wall was built at the same time as the main stone structure as it was not tied in at all and was also built where a door was originally, but it is definetly old. Because of the state of the wall we built a brick skin in the same stretcher bond using reclaimed bricks, which came from elsewhere in the house. The thing to remember with reclaimed bricks of this age is that they are not all the same size and thickness so any design which is not straight forward may need careful planning. Here is a photo when the fireplace which had previously been bricked up was opened.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Just an aside on bricklaying - I've just come back from the Netherlands (do go, it's lovely) and, as in Belgian Flanders a few years ago, I saw hardly any Flemish bond - two examples, I think, out of hundreds of lovely brick buildings, the rest were English Bond.
Then again, Flemish bond is fairly common in England, whereas English bond isn't (though not to the extent of a dearth of it)

 

[DaveBrigg]

The main fireplace at Riseholme park, just outside Lincoln, has the back in herringbone pattern. It looks impressive, although in a plain fireplace it might become the dominant feature.

 

[biffvernon]

It's page 29 of the book Worms introduced us to at http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11337