Brickwork - Co-ordination of Parts

Co-ordination of Parts

Parts of brickwork include bricks, beds and perpends. The bed is the mortar upon which a brick is laid. A perpend is a vertical joint between any two bricks, and is usually — but not always — filled with mortar. The allocated dimensions of these parts are in general co-ordinated so that two bricks laid side by side separated only by the width of a perpend have a width identical with the length of a single brick laid transversely on top of them. An example of a dimensionally co-ordinating metric commonly used for bricks in the UK is 215mm x 102.5mm x 65mm, which is intended to work with mortar beds and perpends of a uniform 10mm. There are many other brick sizes worldwide, and many of them use this same co-ordinating principle.