Glossary of British bricklaying

• Air brick: a brick with perforations to allow the passage of air through a wall. Usually used to permit the ventilation of underfloor areas.
• Bat: a cut brick. A quarter bat is one-quarter the length of a stretcher. A half-bat is one-half.^[1]
• Bullnose- Rounded edges are useful for window sills, and capping on low and freestanding walls.
• Cant: a header that is angled at less than 90 degrees.
• Closer: a cut brick used to change the bond at quoins. Commonly a quarter bat.
• Queens closer: a brick that has been cut over its length and is a stretcher long and a quarter-bat deep. Commonly used to bond one brick walls at right-angled quoins.
• Kings closer: a brick that has been cut diagonally over its length to show a half-bat at one end and nothing at the other.
• Coralent: a brick or block pattern that exhibits a unique interlocking pattern.
• Corbel: a brick, block, or stone that oversails the main wall.
• Cramp: or frame cramp is a tie used to secure a window or door frame.
• Creasing tile: a flat clay tile laid as a brick to form decorative features or waterproofing to the top of a garden wall.
• Dog Leg: a brick that is specially made to bond around internal acute angles. Typically 60 or 45 degrees.
• Dog tooth: a course of headers where alternate bricks project from the face.
• Fire wall: a wall specifically constructed to compartmentalise a building in order to prevent fire spread.
• Honeycomb wall: a wall, usually stretcher bond, in which the vertical joints are opened up to the size of a quarter bat to allow air to circulate. Commonly used in sleeper walls.
• Indent: a hole left in a wall in order to accommodate an adjoining wall at a future date. These are often left to permit temporary access to the work area.
• Movement joint: a straight joint formed in a wall to contain compressible material, in order to prevent cracking as the wall contracts or expands.
• Noggin: infill brick panels in timber framework buildings
• Party wall: a wall shared by two properties or parties.
• Pier: a free-standing section of masonry such as pillar or panel.
• Plinth: a stretcher that is angled at less than 90 degrees.
• Quoin: a corner in masonry.
• Racking back: stepping back the bond as the wall increases in height in order to allow the work to proceed at a future date.
• Saw tooth: a course of headers laid at a 45-degree angle to the main face.
• Shear wall: a wall designed to give way in the event of structural failure in order to preserve the integrity of the remaining building.
• Sleeper wall: a low wall whose function is to provide support, typically to floor joists.
• Snapped header: a half-bat laid to appear as a header. Commonly used to build short-radii half-brick walls or decorative features.
• Squint: a brick that is specially made to bond around external quoins of obtuse angles. Typically 60 or 45 degrees.
• Stopped end: the end of a wall that does not abut any other component.
• Toothing: the forming of a temporary stopped end in such a way as to allow the bond to continue at a later date as the work proceeds.
• Tumbling in: bonding a battered buttress or breast into a horizontal wall.
• Voussoir: a supporting brick in an arch, usually shaped to ensure that the joints appear even.
• Withe: the central wall dividing two shafts. Most commonly to divide flues within a chimney.

References