Coursing is the extension of one or more courses of stone or brick from the face of a wall to serve as a support for wall plates. It is crucial for both the appearance and structural integrity of a masonry or tile surface. Coursing only applies to consistent dimensional lay outs of material, such as bricks, concrete masonry units (CMU), stone, shingles, and tiles.
A course is a horizontal layer of bricks or stones running horizontally in a wall, while a bed is the surface of stone perpendicular to the line of pressure. It indicates the lower surface of bricks or stones in a loose, noncohesive manner. External walls must have an acceptable finished appearance, considering factors like fair faced masonry, render, curtain walling, rainscreen cladding, and brick.
The choice of home exterior stone type significantly impacts the overall look of a home’s exterior. Options include natural stone, manufactured stone, and abrasive finishes. Coursed masonry construction arranges units in regular courses, and double coursing is a method of applying two layers of material per course. Coursing stone is primarily used to face interior or exterior walls, or for cladding walls or pillars within a landscape design. Double-coursing uses two layers of shingles or one layer of shakes over a layer of No. 3 or No. 4 shingle, allowing for wider weather conditions.
A brick coursing chart is a useful document used by builders and brick layers to calculate the number of bricks needed to achieve a particular wall height or regularity. A coursed wall is essentially a wall where the layering is more exact, and the key is how to achieve this regularity.
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What is the gap between two rocks called?
Faults are defined as deep cracks caused by the movement of earthquakes, with distinct rock types visible on either side. The most common types of rock include those of igneous and metamorphic origin, as well as fine-grained rocks comprising small grains that necessitate the use of a magnifying glass for easy observation.
What size is coursed stone?
Our coursed natural limestone and Hornton Ironstone building stone comes in various sizes and finishes, with course heights ranging from 65mm to 140mm. It can be supplied as Sawn, Split and Tumbled, or Sawn and Split. The stone is supplied in a set proportion to avoid a heavy appearance. The stone is 100-110mm on bed, but wider options can be specified up to 300mm. Each block is a random length between 200mm and 450mm long. Building stone can be used alongside traditional ashlar plinth, quoins, and window surrounds to display it beautifully in a natural environment.
What is a course in masonry terms?
A course is a horizontal layer of the same unit in a wall, such as bricks, concrete masonry units, stone, shingles, or tiles. Coursed masonry construction arranges units in regular courses, while coursed rubble construction uses random uncut units infilled with mortar or smaller stones. A wythe is a continuous vertical section of masonry one unit thick, independent of or interlocked with adjoining wythes. A single wythe of brick that is not structural is referred to as a masonry veneer.
What is the course of a brick or stone wall?
A course is a horizontal layer of the same unit running horizontally in a wall, such as bricks, concrete masonry units (CMU), stone, shingles, or tiles. Coursed masonry construction arranges units in regular courses, while coursed rubble masonry construction uses random uncut units infilled with mortar or smaller stones. A wythe is a continuous vertical section of masonry one unit in thickness, independent of or interlocked with adjoining wythes. A single wythe of brick is called a masonry veneer. A standard 8-inch CMU block is equivalent to three courses of brick. A bond pattern is the arrangement of several courses of brickwork.
What does coursed stone mean?
A coursed wall is a structure with consistent stone heights, allowing for varying lengths but maintaining a constant height throughout. This is exemplified by the use of cropped limestone walling stone. The process involves a rough stone being cut through a cropper, a large guillotine designed for stone, to create a flat face. This face is then used as the visible side of the stone during construction.
Facing a stone is the process after the cropping, where a stone mason rounds the edges with a hammer and knocks the crisp edges created by the cropper. This is a crucial part of building in stone. Most walling stone is sold cropped, meaning it requires facing. If a builder with limited experience with natural stone doesn’t know they need to face, it can result in poor finishes in buildings.
What does coursing mean in construction?
Coursing in construction refers to the actual dimensional layout of a masonry wall, tile wall, or other layered material assembly. It is crucial for a professional mason to layout the total assembly of material to achieve the intended coursing. Proper coursing is essential for the appearance and structural integrity of a masonry or tile surface. Coursing only applies to consistent dimensional materials like brick or block, and does not apply to veneer stone walls or other materials that are not dimensioned in a consistent manner.
What is a course of brick?
A course is a continuous row of bricks or masonry laid in a wall, forming a level range throughout a building’s face. Headers are bricks laid flat and perpendicular to the wall’s face, forming a header course. Brickwork parts include bricks, beds, and perpends, with the bed being the mortar upon which a brick is laid. Perpends are vertical joints between bricks, usually filled with mortar, and are usually horizontal.
The dimensions of these parts are generally coordinated so that two bricks laid side by side have a total width identical to the length of a single brick laid transversely on top of them. Stretcher courses are bricks laid flat with the long face parallel to the wall, and when all bricks in the course are laid in this manner, it is called a stretcher course.
What is the gap between masonry stones called?
The text provides a comprehensive list of terms related to stone structures, including jack arch, joint, jointing scheme, jumper, keystone, lava, lead buttons, Lewis bolt, Lewis holes, limestone, liners, lintel, lipping, and lug sill. Jack arch is a horizontal or nearly horizontal structure with horizontal or nearly horizontal upper and lower surfaces. Joints are spaces between stone units, usually filled with mortar. Jointing schemes are detailed architectural drawings showing the dimensions, locations, and configurations of stone units and joints on the structure.
Jumpers are pieces of stone of higher rise than adjacent stones used to end horizontal mortar joints. Keystones are the last wedge-shaped stone placed in the crown of an arch, binding the whole. Lava refers to igneous rocks, such as basalt and rhyolite, that erupted from the earth by volcanic action. Lead buttons are spacers in solid horizontal joints to support the top stone until the mortar has set. Lewis bolts are tapered heads wedged in a tapered recess in stone for hanging soffit stones.
Lewis holes are holes in cut stone for lifting and support during setting of cut stones, sometimes for permanent support. Liners are strengthening elements attached to the back of stone slabs, while lintels are blocks of stone spanning the top of an opening. Lipping refers to flagging materials, and lug sills are stone sills set into the jambs on each side of masonry openings.
What is a coursing brick?
Topcrete coursing bricks are a dense aggregate brick designed for use with the Topcrete block range. They are versatile and suitable for various construction types, ensuring maintaining coursing heights, minimizing wastage, and minimizing infilling. With a wide range of strengths and thicknesses, they can be used for general coursing work, infilling, and around openings like windows and doors to achieve desired thermal values.
Where are coursing blocks used?
Insulite Coursing Bricks are lightweight concrete coursing units designed to maintain material continuity throughout walls and reduce the need to cut down whole blocks. Available in 100mm and 140mm thickness, they are produced to BS EN 771-3 and can be used as infill around openings, doors, windows, and adjust coursing heights. These Medium Density Bricks are available in ‘Standard’ finish texture, providing an excellent surface for mortars, renders, and plasters.
They are suitable for use above and below damp-proof course (DPC). Insulite Coursing Bricks are manufactured to BS EN 771-3, ISO 9001 Quality Assured, ISO 14001 Environmentally Certified, and hold BES 6001 Responsible Sourcing certification. They meet Part E of the Building Regulations and Robust Details.
📹 How to get stonework to look right!
Building with authentic-looking stonework is hard today because most exterior stone is a veneer and not solid masonry.
love this–I am a theater designer Brent and so often I am doing a play with a stone wall –all made of styro or blue foam–the coursing is very important–it’s not random–otherwise its never going to be believable. Now a rough stone wall is not the same as a building but there is a similar idea. As always it’s a great talk.
At least nowadays there is Brent, the New Urbanists, the Institute for Classical Architecture, Christopher Alexander and a few others plus the internet. Just imagine how much ignorance there was circa 1970. This kind of knowledge then would have been mocked as quaint, irrelevant, hippieish, or too extravagant. No doubt it still is by millions. What percent of American homes use vinyl siding? Marlon Brando was in a movie called “The Ugly American”. When, where, and why did ” The Ugly American House Syndrome” take root?
Thanks for the article Brent. How do you feel about the corners where the stone edges are shown? I ask because to me it appears that the corners reveal the secret that the stone is actually just a thin veneer. Typically the quoins would be large long all three axis. How might you overcome this, or is it not a concern?
This is an interesting point to make because it directly reflects the change in thinking that happened around WW2. Like for example, stone walls were only created in areas with lots of stone, and only with the stones in that area. Makes sense. That necessity created a cultural style, ie Tuscan house is very different from a Belgian house. Now you just buy a plot of land in the Texas desert and pick a look. It’s expected that the stone masons, no matter how good there work is, will have trouble replicating a real wall, because that’s all they’re doing, replicating. I don’t want to knock on Brent’s work because the quality seems very high but it’s still just as fake as the McMansion others are ragging on.
Very awesome. I really like how you explain what you have learned. The qoining on a lot of field stone homes in my area will show tooling marks where the mason would flatten the faces. The rest of the wall structure will be field stone face no modifications. I am assuming that it was done because you cannot find natural stone that is square on one end to make a finished corner.
This is a disappointing article. I’ve been a stone mason and contractor for 50 years. Any mason with 5 years of experience with natural stone could have told you all that you have described and more that you haven’t discovered yet in the first 15 minute conversation . Your method of building several experimental walls had to be a very expensive and time consuming thing. You are big on books. There are a lot of books about this. You also seem to care only about how it looks not what it actually is. Frank Lloyd Wright would have hated it. You are a good finish carpenter. But you probably shouldn’t give advice about natural stone.