Before any work is about to start as part of property maintenance, especially when it comes to repair and restore of existing structures in the building, accurate measurements need to be taken. Apart from this, there is the type of masonry that was originally used in the construction that has to be considered, along with the bedding material and the constituent parts.
Preparing the specific plan will have to show the kind of work that will be developed as well as the extreme care regarding the number or even the sequence of the units (bricks or stones) that have to be rescued. These ones should be stated in the plan and they should be carefully numbered when t hey are taken out and cleaned for storing into later re-use.
Inside the drawn plan there should be seen any additional work related to the restoration together with the specification. In case there is the need of making new units, these ones should be emphasized through a fuller size drawing for the replacement units to be accurately reproduced. In this respect photos will be indeed of a great help.
Brickwork has been used as integral part of property maintenance and able to produce fine work that includes balustrades, cornices, plinths, capping the parapet walling as well as piers, herringbone, brick lintels, niches and arches.
When it comes to prepare a fine axed arch there is the procedure which can differ from one type of arch to another, although the basic principle stays the same. The setting board should contain an outline of the arch and the position of the voussoirs should as well be marked on the arch’s extra-dos.
In case the arch is with a keystone, then these voussoirs should be set out diving the extra-dos in equal parts these ones being not bigger when compared with the width of the bricks.
In case the arch is desired as a bonded on the face side, voussoirs should be contained in even numbers, thus the springing brick will correspond with the keystone. As long as the size of the voussoir is settled, then the arch can be completed drawing it in radiating bed joint lines striking to the intended curve.
It should be observed that the brickwork as part of the property maintenance should be in compression, at the same time benefiting from loading. In case an extreme loading is predicted, the shape of the arch should be the parabolic one as this format is known to be the strongest when compression is involved.
Specific care should be taken as part of property maintenance when it comes to lateral forces as such more loading should be transferred from the arch via masonry and inside the flank walls as well.
