Nobody knows when masonry building began. Yet, ever since man learned to mold the environment according to his wishes, the craft continued to develop into what we know it to be today. All throughout history, we’ve created fascinating structures with masonry building, some of which have remained standing for thousands of year. However, the craft is so complex that many of the techniques used in its early years have been lost seemingly forever ago.

For example, to this day, even the smartest architects and builders of the modern era have been stumped by the great pyramids. Not only have they not been able to figure how where the ancients derived the huge blocks of stone they used to build the pyramids, but also how they laid those stones one on top of each other in such perfect form.

Although, even with its great mysteries that may never be solved, masonry building will always be a part of our heritage and whatever path civilization may choose to follow for many more years to come.

What is Masonry Building?

Masonry work is loosely defined as the art and trade of construction. It involves the use of several different materials, such as stone, clay, mortar, and concrete.

Over the years, we learned that masonry works were prone to damage from the strong forces of nature. Therefore, we also learned how to reinforce those basic materials.

In the early years, grass and straw were used to reinforce clay. Today, modern masons use steel rebars to reinforce concrete.

In the future, there is no doubt that we’ll discover more effective ways to reinforce whatever material we learn to use in masonry. This means that the craft will continue to evolve into something more efficient and hopefully less demanding on natural resources.

Types of Masonry Works

Almost anything we see being constructed today involves some form of masonry. From roads and sidewalks to homes and the tallest buildings of the world, you can be sure that masonry was part of it’s construction.

Since this craft makes use of a lot of different materials, the type of masonry is often defined by the type of materials used in construction.

Homes that are constructed with brick involve brick masonry. Anything constructed with stone involves stone masonry. The same goes with concrete, marble, and any highly durable material used in construction.

The reason why the type of masonry building is categorized according to the main type of material used is because of the different skills needed to use that material.

Concrete uses a different set of skills than brick or stone masonry. Even though many of the processes seem similar, such as using mortar to hold together the main materials, like concrete blocks or clay bricks, the actual process uses different techniques.

How Masonry Building Affects Our Daily Lives

Regardless of whether we’ve learned the craft of masonry or not, it will still affect the way we live one way or another. For example, when clay was still the main material used to construct homes, we learned to restructure our lives to adapt to buildings made of clay. When concrete became the main material, we’ve learned to adapt to concrete.

As masonry evolves and the main material turns into something else, there’s no doubt that we’ll learn to adapt to that material as well.

Conclusion

Many of the homes we build using masonry are not just simple structures but subtle works of art because of the skills required to construct those homes. Therefore, when something goes wrong, masons with the same level of skills will be required to fix the problems. At Affordable Tuckpointing Pros, our masons have the necessary skills to work on your homes as if they were works of art.