Block wall stagger/shift/coordination

[Olf]

'When detailing masonry panels, the designer should set out masonry units to full or half block lengths where possible to avoid unsightly and unnecessary cutting of units on site. Co-ordinating dimensions will also ensure that the masonry is properly bonded' - so says the manual.

I started sketching the layout of the blocks for the extension (mainly to be more accurate with ordering of the materials, but also to save on the amount of cutting ) and that of course cannot be followed: with 100m block + 150mm cavity + 100mm block there is no way both walls can have courses shifted exactly by half. Also such textbook rule immediately fails in any corners!

 

 

So I started with the external wall (lower sketch) and the half block shift and ended with some small bits to fill on either end.

Internal wall looks more sensible to me: every 2nd row does not need any cutting. But simply following the patern dictated by how the blocks meet in the corner, I end up with a shift between the rows of 120mm - so a quarter, rather than half of the block. Is that acceptable?

[PeterW]

Order about 50 concrete coursing bricks, tell the brickies you want a decent bond on the blocks then go put the kettle on ...

 

when ordering, it’s 10 blocks to the square metre, measured through for wastage. That means you measure height and width and ignore the door and window openings (unless they are huge) and just multiple the square meterage by 10. 
 

There is no need to have the internal and external perps aligned, just keep the beds aligned and it will be fine. 

[Olf]

15 hours ago, PeterW said:

tell the brickies you want a decent bond

 

What if the brickie is looking at me in the mirror ?

Note that my brick building experience is all based on Lego, hence I'd rather double check how to deal with stuff with no studs!

 

[Declan52]

You either space it out with slightly bigger perps or when it gets to around 50mm you tighten up to allow you to squeeze a brick in. 

Make a height stick with the heights of the block coursing marked on it, 225mm,450,675,900, etc. And nail it plumb to each external corner.  A corner block on each side and a string set at the mark and build to the line.

The height is much more important than the width. You can always put extra mortar on a perp. Cutting blocks down as your heights are out is a problem you don't want.