A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term brick denotes a unit primarily composed of clay, but is now also used informally to denote units made of other materials or other chemically cured construction blocks. Bricks can be joined using mortar, adhesives or by interlocking. Bricks are usually produced at brickworks in numerous classes, types, materials, and sizes which vary with region, and are produced in bulk quantities.
Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar. The term masonry can also refer to the building units themselves.
Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping and arranging stones, often together with mortar and even the ancient lime mortar, to wall or cover formed structures.
A tradesperson or tradesman/woman is a skilled worker that specialises in a particular trade. Tradespeople (tradesmen/women) usually gain their skills through work experience, on-the-job training, an apprenticeship program or formal education.
Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called courses are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall.
A trowel is a small hand tool used for digging, applying, smoothing, or moving small amounts of viscous or particulate material. Common varieties include the masonry trowel, garden trowel, and float trowel.
A millwright is a craftsman or skilled tradesman who installs, dismantles, maintains, repairs, reassembles, and moves machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites.
This page is a list of construction topics.
Ashlar is a cut and dressed stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones.
The Laborers' International Union of North America, often shortened to just the Laborers' Union, is an American and Canadian labor union formed in 1903. As of 2017, they had about 500,000 members, about 80,000 of whom are in Canada. The current general president is Brent Booker who was appointed general president in 2023. There are nine regions across North America; these regions are further divided into 500 local unions. One region is in Toronto, Canada, and is led by Joseph Mancinelli, Local 183, which is the largest construction local union in North America.
A masonry oven, colloquially known as a brick oven or stone oven, is an oven consisting of a baking chamber made of fireproof brick, concrete, stone, clay, or cob. Though traditionally wood-fired, coal-fired ovens were common in the 19th century, and modern masonry ovens are often fired with natural gas or even electricity. Modern masonry ovens are closely associated with artisan bread and pizza, but in the past they were used for any cooking task involving baking. Masonry ovens are built by masons.
A brick hod is a three-sided box for carrying bricks or other building materials, often mortar. It bears a long handle and is carried over the shoulder. A hod is usually long enough to accept four bricks on their side. However, by arranging the bricks in a chevron fashion, the number of bricks that may be carried is only limited to the weight the labourer can bear and the unwieldiness of that load. Typically, ten to twelve bricks might be carried.
Tuckpointing is a way of using two contrasting colours of mortar in the mortar joints of brickwork, with one colour matching the bricks themselves to give an artificial impression that very fine joints have been made. In some parts of the United States and Canada, some confusion may result as the term is often used interchangeably with pointing and repointing.
WorldSkills is an international charity that organises world and national championships for vocational skills and is held every two years in different parts of the world, and also hosts conferences about vocational skills. WorldSkills describes itself as the global hub for skills.
The Casiville Bullard House is a historic house in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It was built from 1909 to 1910 by stonemason and bricklayer Casiville Bullard (1873–1959), one of the few known African-American skilled workers active in the building trades in early-20th-century Saint Paul. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 for its local significance in the themes of black history and social history.
FBR Ltd (ASX:FBR) is a Perth based robotics company. FBR is the creator of Hadrian X, the world's first fully automated end to end robotic bricklayer. In November 2016, Fastbrick Robotics won the Western Australian Innovator of the Year Award.
The John, Harriet, and Eliza Jennett Duncan House, at 445 N. 400 East in Centerville, Utah was built around 1873. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
Operative Masonry or The Worshipful Society of Free Masons, Rough Masons, Wallers, Slaters, Paviors, Plaisterers and Bricklayers or simply The Operatives is a fraternal guild claiming a history of hundreds of years over which customs, traditions, knowledge and practices were developed and handed down. It is an invitation only, Masonic society dedicated to preserving the history, rituals, and traditions of medieval operative stonemasons guilds in England and Europe that were the precursors to modern speculative Freemasonry.
Apprenticeships have a long tradition in the United Kingdom, dating back to around the 12th century. They flourished in the 14th century and were expanded during the Industrial Revolution. In modern times, apprenticeships were formalised in 1964 by act of parliament and they continue to be in widespread use to this day.
