STONE MASONRY
Stone Masonry
The construction of stones bonded together with mortar is
termed as stone masonry where the stones are available in a
abundance in nature, on cutting and dressing to the proper
shape, they provide an economical material for the
construction of various building components such as walls,
columns, footings, arches, lintels, beams etc.
Uses
1) Building foundations, walls, piers, pillars, and architectural
works.
2) Lintels, Beams, beams Arches, domes etc.,
3) Roofs and Roof coverings.
4) Cladding Works
5) Dams, light houses, monumental structures.
6) Paving jobs
7) Railway, ballast, black boards and electrical switch boards
Selection of stone for stone masonry:
1) Availability
2) Ease of working
3) Appearance
4) Strength and stability
5) Polishing characteristics
6) Economy
7) Durability
Through
Stone
General Principles
The stones to be used for stone masonry should be hard,
tough and durable.
The pressure acting on stones should be vertical.
The stones should be perfectly dressed as per the
requirements.
The heads and bond stones should not be of a dumb bell
shape.
In order to obtain uniform distribution of load, under the
ends of girders, roof trusses etc large flat stones should be
used
General Principles
The mortar to be used should be good quality and in the
specified faces.
The construction work of stone masonry should be raised
uniformly.
The plumb bob should be used to check the verticality of
erected wall.
The stone masonry section should always be designed to take
compression and not the tensile stresses.
The masonry work should be properly cured after the
completion of work, for a period of 2 to 3 weeks.
General Principles
As far as possible broken stones or small stones chips should
not be used.
Double scaffolding should be used for working at higher
level.
The masonry hearting should be properly packed with
mortar and chips if necessary to avoid hallows.
The properly wetted stones should be used to avoid mortar
moisture being sucked.
Laying The Stone
Decrease the stone thickness from the bottom to the top of
wall.
Ensure that the headers in the heart of the wall are the same
size as in the face and extend at least 12 in (300 mm) into the
core or backing. (Avoid Dumb-bell shaped stones)
Ensure that headers in “walls of 2 feet (600 mm) or less in
thickness” extend entirely through the wall. The headers shall
occupy at least 20 percent of the face of the wall.
Laying The Stone
Lay the masonry in roughly leveled courses. Ensure that the
bottom of the foundation is large, with selected stones.
Lay the courses with leaning beds parallel to the natural bed of
the material.
Regularly diminish the thicknesses of the courses, if varied, from
the bottom to the top of the wall. Keep a surplus supply of stones
at the site to select from.
Before laying the stone in the wall, shape and dress it so that it will
not loosen after it is placed. No dressing or hammering which will
loosen the stone will be permitted after it is placed.
Clean each stone and saturate it with water before setting it. Clean
and moisten the bed that will receive it.
Bed the stones in freshly made mortar with full joints. Carefully
settle the stones in place before the mortar sets.
Ensure that the joints and beds have an average thickness of not
more than 1 inch. (25 mm).
Ensure that the vertical joints in each course break with the
adjoining courses at least 6 in. (150 mm).
Do not place vertical joints directly above or below a header joint.
If a stone is moved or if the joint is broken after the mortar has
set, take the stone up and thoroughly clean the mortar from the
bed and joints. Reset the stone in fresh mortar.
NOTE: Do not lay the masonry in freezing weather or
when the stone contains frost, except with permission
subjected to the required conditions.
Whenever possible, properly point the face joints before the
mortar sets. If joints cannot be pointed, rake them out to a depth
of 1 in (25 mm) before the mortar sets.
Do not smear the stone face surfaces with the mortar forced out
of the joints or the mortar used in pointing.
Thoroughly wet the joints pointed after the stone is laid with clean
water and fill with mortar.
Drive the mortar into the joints and finish with an approved
pointing tool.
Keep the wall wet while pointing. In hot or dry weather, protect
the pointed masonry from the sun and keep it wet for at least three
days after the pointing is finished.
NOTE: Do not perform pointing in freezing weather or
when the stone contains frost.
After the pointing is completed and the mortar is set, thoroughly
clean the walls and leave them in a neat condition.
Masonry Joints
Some other joints are:
Butt joint: The dressed edges of two adjacent stones are placed
side by side.
Rebated or lapped joint: The rebate or lap(>70mm) is
provided to prevent the possible movement of the stones.
Cramped joint: These prevent the tendency of joints to open out
due to slippage of the stones and are usually of non-corrosive
metals such as gunmetal,coppe etc
Plugged Joint: It consists of making plug holes of dovetail shape
in the sides of adjacent stones which is filled with molten lead.
Dowelled Joint: It is formed by cutting rectangular holes in each
stone and inserting dowels of hard stone,gunmetal,brass.
Rusticated Joint: This is used in those stones whose edges are
sunk below the general level such as plinth,quoin,outer wall of
lower storeys etc.
Saddled or water joint: It is used in cornices and weathered
surfaces to divert the water moving on the weathered surface away
from the joint.
Types of Stone Masonry:
Based on the arrangement of the stone in the construction
and degree of refinement in the surface finish, the stone
masonry can be classified broadly in the following two
categories
[Link] masonry
B. Ashlar masonry
a) Rubble masonry:
In this category, the stones used are either undressed or roughly
dressed having wider joints. This can be further subdivided as
uncoursed, coursed, random, dry, polygonal and bint.
(i) Random rubble masonry: This is the cheapest, roughest and
poorest form of stone masonry. The stones used in this type of
masonry very much vary in their shape and size and are directly
obtained from quarry. Random rubble masonry can be divided
into the following.
a) Uncoursed random rubble
b) Built to courses random rubble
[Link] rubble masonry
a) Uncoursed random rubble masonry:The weak corners
and edges are removed with mason’s hammer. Generally,
bigger stone blocks are employed at quoins and jambs to
increase the strength of masonry. Sound bond should be
available both transversely as well as longitudinally.
(b) Built to Courses random rubble masonary:
The work is roughly levelled up to form courses varying
form 30-45cm [Link] the courses are not of same
height.
For the construction of this type of masonary, quoins are
built first and line (string) is stretched between the tops
of quoins .
The intervening walling is then brought up to this level
by using different size of stones.
This form of masonary is better than uncoursed random
rubble masonary.
2. Square rubble masonry
a) Uncoursed squared rubble: also
known as square- snecked
rubble.
In this type the stone blocks are
made roughly square with
hammer. Generally the facing
stones are given hammer-dressed
finish. Large stones are used as
quoins. As far as possible the use
of chips in bedding is
[Link] appearance can be
achieved by using risers,leveller
and sneck in a pattern, having
their depths in the ratio of 3:2:1.
Built to courses square rubble masonary:
In this type of masonary stones having straight bed and
slides are used.
The work is levelled up to courses of varying depth .
The courses are of different heights.
Each course may consists of quoins, jamb stones,
bonders and throughs of same height with smaller
stones built in between them upto the height of the
larger stones, to complete the course.
(c) Regular coursed square rubble masonary: In this type of stone
masonry the uniform height stones are used in horizontal layers
not less than 13cm in height. Generally, the stone beds are
hammered or chisel dressed to a depth of at least 10cm from the
face. The stones are arranged in such a manner so that the vertical
joints of two consecutive curse do not coincide with each other as
shown in figure below.
[Link] Types:
(a) Polygonal walling: In this type of masonry the stones are
roughly dressed to an irregular polygonal shape. The stones
should be so arranged as to avoid long vertical joints in face
work and to break joints as much as possible. Small stone chips
should not be used to support the stones on the facing as shown
in the figure below.
(b) Flint walling: This type of masonry is used in the areas where
the flint or cobble is available in plenty .The flint stones varying
in thickness from 7.5 to 15cm and in length from 15 to 30cm are
arranged in the facing in the form of coursed or uncoursed
masonry. The stones are extremely hard. But they are brittle and
therefore may break [Link] arrangement is shown below:
4. Dry rubble masonry
This type of masonry is made to
courses and require more skill in
construction. This is used in the
construction of retaining walls
pitching earthen dams and canal
slopes in the form of random
rubble masonry without any
mortar. The hallow spaces left
around and stones should be
tightly packed with smaller stone
pieces as shown in the figure.
Ashlar Masonry
This type of masonry is built from accurately dressed stones
with uniform and fine joints of about 25 to 30cm in height
by arranging the stone blocks in various patterns.
The height of blocks in each course is kept equal but it is not
necessary to keep all the courses of the same height.
The backing of Ashlar masonry walls may be built of Ashlar
masonry or rubble masonry. The size of stones blocks should
be in proportion to wall thickness.
Ashlar Masonry
The various types of masonry can be classified under the
following categories are
1) Ashlar fine
2) Ashlar rough
3) Ashlar rock or quarry faced
4) Ashlar facing
5) Ashlar chamfered
6) Ashlar block in course
1. Ashlar fine tooled:
This is the finest type of stone masonry [Link] stone is cut to
regular and required size and shape so as to have all sides rectangular,
so that the stone gives perfectly horizontal and vertical joints with
adjoining stone.
2. Ashlar rough tooled:
In this type of masonary, the beds and sides of each stone block are
finely chisel dressed but exposed face is dressed by rough tooling. The
rough tooled face when tested with a straight edge 600mm in length,
should not show any point on the surface to vary by more than 3mm
in any [Link] is also known as bastard ashlar.
[Link] rock faced( rustic or quarry faced):
Here the exposed face of the stone is not dressed but a strip of about
25mm wide, made by means of a chisel, is provided around the
perimeter of the exposed face of every stone. The height of each
block may vary from 15cm to [Link] thickness of mortar joint
may be upto 10mm.
[Link] Chamfered:
Here the strip provided around the perimeter of the exposed face is
chamfered or bevelled at an angle of 45o by means of a chisel to a depth
of 25mm. Due to this, a groove is formed in between adjacent blocks of
[Link] this bevelled strip, another strip of 15 cm is dressed with
the help of chisel.
[Link] block in course:
This type of masonry is intermediate between rubble and ashlar
masonry. The faces of each stone are hammer dressed and the depth of
courses may vary from 15 to 30 [Link] is adopted in heavy works such
as retaining walls, bridges etc.
[Link] facing:
It is provided along with brick or concrete block masonry to give better
appearance. The sides and beds of each block are properly dressed so as
to make them true to shape. The exposed faces are rough tooled and
backing of the wall may be made in brick masonry.
Ashlar Masonry
Ashlar fine Ashlar rough
Ashlar Masonry
Ashlar rock or quarry faced Ashlar block in course
Ashlar Masonry
Facing
Ashlar facing Ashlar chamfered
Cornice
A cornice (from the Italian cornice meaning "ledge") is
generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns a
building or furniture element— the cornice over a door or
window, for instance, or the cornice around the top edge of a
pedestal or along the top of an interior wall.
The function of the projecting cornice of a building is to
throw rainwater free of the building’s walls.
Rain water
collection
Channel over
the top of
Decorative
Cornice
Slope to Drain off
Rain water
Decorative Cornice
SILL
The bottom surface of a door or a window opening is known
as a sill.
Sill is thus the horizontal member of brick, stone,concrete or
wood provided to give support for the vertical members of
the opening and also shed off rain water from the face of the
wall immediately below the opening.
Sill stones when provided are so dressed that they prevent the
entry of water to the interior of the building.
SILLS
Sloped Outer
REVEAL
Stone SILL
Rubble
Masonry
Wall
Chamfered
Quoins
Stone Sill
Edge Drop
Min 25Cm Overlap
into the abutting
masonry
Sill as a Ledge in
the Interior
PLINTH
Plinth is the horizontal projecting course of stone or brick,
provided at the base of the wall above the ground level.
Plinth raises the level of ground floor above the natural
ground level ,thus protecting the building from rain,
water,froast and weather effects.
PLINTH COURSE:
It is the upper most course of the plinth masonry.
PLINTHS
Traditional Plinth
Plinth in Random Rubble Masonry to receive A Load-Bearing wall Above.
Plinth Platform Conventional Plinth in Rural Areas
CLADDING
It is a thin layer of real or simulated stone applied to a
building or other structure made of a material other than
stone.
Stone cladding is sometimes applied to concrete and steel
buildings as part of their original architectural design.
Stone cladding often refers to lightweight simulated stone
products with a concrete-type base.
These stone cladding products are often fitted to lightweight
substrates to reduce the material cost of construction; this
would typically comprise
Cladding
Tools And Implements for Stone
Dressing
[Link] HAMMER:Used for rough dressing of stones.
[Link] HAMMER:Used for removing irregular bushings.
[Link] HAMMER:Used for rough dressing
[Link] HAMMER:Used for removing spalls
[Link] HAMMER:Used to strike narrow headed chisels.
[Link]:Used to strike mallet headed chisels.
[Link]:Used for striking chisels for carving work.
[Link]: Used to split stones.
[Link]: Used to give drag finish.
[Link] SAW:Used to cut soft stones.
[Link] CUT SAW:Used to cut hard stones.
[Link] SAW:Used to cut large blocks of stones.
[Link] TOOL: Used to make stones of required size.
[Link]: Used to set edges at right angles.
[Link]: Used to cut soft stones.
[Link]: Used for rough dressing
[Link]: Used for rough dressing of hard stones.
[Link]: Used to dress stones for cornices,string courses etc.
[Link] TOOL (NICKER): Used to form chisel lines on stone
surface.
[Link] HANDLED CHISEL:Used to dress soft stones.
[Link] CHISEL: Used to dress hard stones.
[Link] CHISEL:Used to dress hard stones.
[Link] CHISEL:Used for fine dressing.
