Brick Work specification and Brick restoration

Brick Work specification and Brick restoration

All Brick, brick lining, brick paving and brick masonry required to be constructed under the Specification and for all related purposes and as may be required by the Employer’s Representative shall consist of the materials herein specified. The stipulation and requirements herein set forth shall apply to all brickwork, except when such stipulations and requirements are specifically modified by the Employer’s Representative for any particular item of work. Brick restoration includes preservation, leaving as much material untouched as possible, reconstruction to replace missing elements, and repair work to bring the building to a historically accurate condition in one particular time period.

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1. Materials

A. All brick supplied or used for the works shall conform to the requirements of Indian Standards for brick(Brick restoration) or such other standards as the Employer’s Representative may determine.

B. The earth material used for manufacturing the bricks shall be carefully selected and shall be of good firm loam or clay. The material shall be free from objectionable quantities of lime, gravel, coarse sand, roots, or other organic matter, and saline deposits.

C. Bricks shall be classified as follows:
1. Handmade Burnt Bricks:
(a) First class bricks shall be thoroughly burnt without being vitrified, shall be regular and uniform in space and size with sharp and square edges, paralleled faces and of deep red or copper colour. They shall be homogeneous in texture and emit a clear ringing sound when struck, and shall be free from flaws, cracks, chips, stones and nodules of lime. The average compressive strength of five representative bricks shall be not less than 10 kg/cm2
(b) Second class bricks shall be as well burnt as first class bricks, or slightly over-burnt, and shall give a clear ringing sound when struck. Slight irregularities in size, shape of colour will be accepted, but not such which may give irregular or uneven courses when used. The average compressive strength of five representative bricks shall not be less than 8 kg/cm2
2. The Bricks shall be tested dry and flat-wise: first class bricks should not absorb more than 15 percent of their weight.

D. Lime: lime shall be ordinary lime conforming to the requirement of the IS standards.

E. Portland cement: The Employer will furnish Portland cement conforming IS Code or British standards Institute specification BS 12.

F. Special Cement: Special cement shall conform to the applicable standards.

G. Sand: Sand for mortar used in the construction of brick lining, brick paving masonry etc. shall be furnished by the contractor in accordance with provision of and in complete conformity with the stipulations and requirements for sand specified in Section 17.

H. Water: The water used for the preparation of mortar shall be free from objectionable quantities of silt, organic matter, alkali, sulphates and other salts and other impurities, and will be subject to approval of the Employer’s Representative.

I. Brick to be used in brickwork with mortar joints shall be moistened with water from three to four hours before they are used by a method which will ensure that each brick is thoroughly and uniformly wetted.

J. Bricks shall be skilfully laid with level courses, uniform and completely filled joints, square corners, plumb verticals and true surfaces, except when otherwise shown on Drawings or directed by the Employer’s Representative.

K. Brick work constructed for a waterway shall be of the best standard of workmanship and objectionable offsets in the brickwork shall be removed by and at the expense of the Contractor. The smoothest practicable finished surface of the brickwork will be required whenever it is a part of a waterway, if not otherwise directed by the Employer’s Representative.

2. Curing and Repair

A. Brickwork requiring mortar shall be cured by water curing or other acceptable methods. All methods and operations of the Contractor in curing the different portions of the work are subject to the Employer’s Representative’s approval.

B. When curing by water the brickwork shall be kept wet continuously for at least 14 days, unless otherwise specified by the Employer’s Representative. Water used for curing shall meet the requirements of the specification of water used in the construction of brickwork.

C. If, after the completion of any brickwork(Brick restoration), a brick is out of alignment or not level, or does not conform to the lines and grades shown on the Drawings or shows a defective surface, it shall be removed and replaced by the Contractor at his expense, unless the Employer’s Representative grants permission, in writing, to patch or replace part of the defective area to his satisfaction.

3. Pointing (Cement Mortar)

A. The joints of the brick, stone masonry shall be raked out to a depth or 20 mm (3/4″) and the surface of the wall washed and kept wet for two days before pointing. The material of mortar, cement and sand shall be of standard specification. Mortar shall then be applied in the joints slightly in excess and pressed by a proper tool of the required shape, extra mortar should not spread over the faces of bricks, or stone and the edges of bricks. Bricks (Brick restoration) shall be clearly defined to give a neat appearance. After pointing, the surface shall be kept wet for seven days.
1. Flush Point: The mortar shall be pressed into the raked, cleaned and wet joints and shall be finished of flush and level with the edges of brick or stone to give a smooth appearance. The edges shall be neatly trimmed with a towel and straight edge.
2. Ruled Pointing: The mortar shall be pressed into the raked, cleaned and wet joints and a groove of shape and size 5 to 6 mm depth shall be formed running a forming tool to steel along the centre of line of the joint. The vertical joints also shall be finished in a similar way at right angles to horizontal lines. The finished work shall give neat and clean appearance with straight edges.
3. Weather or struck pointing: The mortar shall be applied on the raked clean and wet joints, and the horizontal joints shall be pressed and finished with a pointing tool so that the slope is from top to bottom. The vertical joints shall be finished as ruled pointing.
4. Raised or Trucked Pointing: The mortar shall be applied in raked clean and wet joints excess to form base of 6 mm (1/4”) raised and 10 mm (3/8″) width or as directed.

B. Subject to the Employer’s Representative’s directions the pointing shall be carried out as;
1. Inside pointing shall consist of filling of joints to about 1 cm average depth from the face of brick.
2. Flat pointing shall consist of filling the joints to about 1 cm and not less then 2 cm width above the face.

C. After raking, the joints shall be compressed with a pointing tool. All tooling of joints shall be done after the mortar shall be partially set but is still sufficiently plastic to bond. Bricks with mortar voids visible beyond the depth of the raking shall be removed and re-laid with fresh mortar unless such voids can be completely filled by other methods, as approved by the Employer’s Representative.

The first steps in a restoration to the Secretary’s standards are to study the building and choose a time period for the Brick restoration. The new use of the building should be consistent with the original use or at least with the time period of the restoration. Materials which were added after the chosen time period must be documented and then may be removed while preserving and repairing the appropriate materials. Materials missing may be reconstructed to “…match the old in design, color, texture, and, where possible, materials.” which are evidence based. Modern chemical and physical treatments may be gently used if they do not damage the historic materials, and archaeological resources will be preserved or mitigated. The standards recognize that there are inherent conflicts with modern codes and regulations for energy efficiency, health, safety, and accessibility.

4. Restoration

The first steps in a restoration to the Secretary’s standards are to study the building and choose a time period for the restoration. The new use of the building should be consistent with the original use or at least with the time period of the restoration. Materials which were added after the chosen time period must be documented and then may be removed while preserving and repairing the appropriate materials. Materials missing may be reconstructed to “…match the old in design, color, texture, and, where possible, materials.” which are evidence based. Modern chemical and physical treatments may be gently used if they do not damage the historic materials, and archaeological resources will be preserved or mitigated. The standards recognize that there are inherent conflicts with modern codes and regulations for energy efficiency, health, safety, and accessibility. The standards allow sensitive alterations of historic buildings to meet the spirit of the codes and regulations, if necessary.

4. Measurement

A. Brick masonry(Brick restoration) will be measured for payment by the cubic metre. Quantities for payment will be computed from the lines and dimensions shown on the Drawings.

B. Payment for brick masonry will be made at the unit price per cubic metre quoted therefore in the Bill of Quantities, which price shall be full compensation for all costs in connection with brick masonry except that separate payment will be made for pointing of the masonry surface where required by the Employer’s Representative.

C. Pointing of brick masonry surfaces will be measured for payment by the square metre. Quantities for payment will be the square metres of overall (gross) wall surfaces designated by the Employer’s Representative to have joint pointing.

D. Payment for pointing brick masonry surface will be made at the unit price per square meter quoted therefore in the Bill of Quantities.

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