Common Brick Bonds and Terms

The most prevalent bond is called a stretcher bond / half bond or running bond when using a modular sized brick. The brick joint will be split right down the middle based on this bond style with a 3/8 of an inch mortar joint.

A soldier bond is going to be when the brick is faced up standing lengthwise and the face of the brick is going to be showing vertically. This is seen used mostly for accents above windows or they'll have an accent band going across the building.

Another bond pattern we see today is the stacked bond. With this bond you will see the brick basically stacked all the way up and it is very important that you use a very good brick dimensionally because if the brick is out of whack and not the same size, you're stacked bond is not going to look very nice and you could get a wavy line or shadows.

Terms to understand. The ends of the brick are called the heads. Most of the time there are going to 3 finished sides of a brick, the face (front) and the 2 ends. The heads are sometime visible on the end of a wall and if the brick is used on a windowsill as a rowlock. The heads may be a slightly different color than the face of the brick due to the surface area inside the kiln.

Our final bond pattern discussed is the Flemish bond. It’s not commonly used nowadays but a Flemish bond will have a header mixed in every so many bricks with a face brick. This method was utilized before wall ties, and it would allow the mason to tie the brick to the backside of the wall so the wall wouldn’t tip or bow out. Today, when this method is used it is primarily decorative and adds a nice pop to any project.