Masonry near you

Masonry units are classified by exposure, and this is the specification decision that quietly determines how a wall ages. The Housing Provisions recognise a Protected class for internal and sheltered locations, a General Purpose class for most uses, and an Exposure class for severe conditions including salt attack, salt spray and freeze-thaw. Coastal sites, walls in saline ground and walls that stay wet need the exposure specification, and so does the mortar with them. Mortar mixes are set by volume against AS 3700 or AS 4773, with a richer cement to lime to sand proportion for the exposure class than for general purpose work, and concrete masonry requiring a methyl cellulose water thickener.

Wall ties are the part nobody sees and everybody depends on. They must comply with AS 2699.1, and the duty rating is chosen against the wind speed at the site, with light duty ties limited to lower wind classifications and medium duty required above them. Spacing is prescribed: horizontally not more than 600 millimetres, vertically not more than 600 millimetres in the general case, and in cavity walls medium duty ties in aligning mortar bed joints at a vertical spacing of not more than 300 millimetres. Corroded, missing or mortar-fouled ties are why old veneer walls bulge, and no amount of repointing substitutes for them.

Lintels carry the brickwork over every opening and rust is what kills them. Steel lintels are specified to AS 4100 with corrosion protection to AS 2699.3, where the higher durability ratings call for hot-dip galvanising at 300 grams per square metre or stainless steel. A rust stain and a horizontal crack above a window is a lintel expanding as it corrodes and lifting the brickwork with it, and replacing the cracked bricks without dealing with the steel simply restarts the process.

Australian brickwork is designed to move, and articulation joints are how. The Housing Provisions require vertical articulation joints at not more than 6 metre centres in straight walls, not less than 10 millimetres wide, filled with a flexible sealant on a backer rod or compressible foam support, and positioned within 300 millimetres of vertical supports such as the sides of openings. A joint that has been painted over, filled with hard mortar or simply left out of a long wall is the reason so much Australian brickwork cracks in a predictable place. Ask where the joints are before a new wall is built and ask what has happened to them before an old one is repaired.

Drainage of the cavity is the second discipline. Weepholes must be a minimum of 50 millimetres in height by the width of the vertical mortar joint and be provided at not more than 1.2 metre centres, and the clear cavity behind a masonry veneer must be not less than 25 millimetres and not more than 75 millimetres wide. The cavity is a drainage space, not an insulation space, and mortar droppings bridging it, or a rendered finish taken down over the weepholes, turns the wall into a wick.

Then the damp-proof course, which is what separates a dry Australian wall from a damp one. Damp-proof course and flashing materials must comply with AS/NZS 2904 or the alternatives listed, and they must be continuous through the wall or pier and visible from the outside face of the wall, so anything that hides the line is a defect rather than a tidy finish. Minimum heights are prescribed against the ground: 150 millimetres above adjacent ground level in the general case, 75 millimetres above a paved area that slopes away, and 50 millimetres above a protected paved area, with reduced figures permitted only in low rainfall intensity areas. New paving, a raised garden bed or a concrete path poured against a wall is the most common way Australians destroy that clearance without realising.

Most cracked Australian brickwork starts in the ground. The Housing Provisions require the foundations where footings and slabs are located to be classified in accordance with AS 2870, and the classes describe how much the site moves with moisture: Class A for most sand and rock sites with little or no ground movement, Class S for slightly reactive clay, Class M for moderately reactive clay or silt, Class H for highly reactive clay sites that can experience high ground movement, Class E for extremely reactive clay, and Class P for problem sites including soft clay or silt, loose sands, landslip, mine subsidence and collapsing soils. For H, E and P sites the Code sends the designer back to AS 2870 itself. Melbourne, Adelaide and large parts of suburban Sydney and Brisbane sit on reactive clay, which is why a run of dry years followed by a wet one produces a season of cracked walls.

Moisture management around the wall therefore matters as much as the wall. The Housing Provisions require surface water to be diverted away from the building, with the ground falling 50 millimetres over the first metre from the building in the general case, or 25 millimetres in low rainfall intensity areas with an impermeable surface, and require slabs to sit at least 150 millimetres above finished ground level, or 100 millimetres in low rainfall intensity areas. A downpipe discharging beside a footing, a leaking service, a garden bed held permanently wet against one wall or a tree drawing moisture out of clay on one side of the house all create the differential movement that cracks brickwork.

The other two Australian classics are chemical rather than structural. Salt attack shows as fretting mortar and crumbling brick faces, typically low on the wall and worst near the coast or in saline ground, and it is what the Exposure durability class exists to resist. Rising damp shows as a tide mark, blown paint, salt crystals and decaying skirtings inside, and it almost always traces back to a damp-proof course that has been bridged: by render taken down past it, by paving poured over it, by a garden bed, or by a cavity full of mortar droppings. The repair is to restore the separation, not to paint over the symptom.

Queensland divides this work into trade classes with published scopes. The QBCC bricklaying and blocklaying licence covers brick or block construction including surface preparation, building straight masonry steps and stairs with or without landings, laying segmental or unit paving, laying glass blocks, constructing battered masonry surfaces, installing prefabricated window or door frames, and concreting to simple forms including formwork, reinforcement and concrete. Stonemasonry is a separate class covering work with stone such as finishing, laying, machining, renovating and shaping, construction with stone including arches, fireplaces, stairs and walls, concrete work for stonemasonry, setting out and anchoring facades, and applying or installing waterproofing and damp-proofing for stonemasonry. A licence is required for building work above the QBCC value threshold, and for plumbing, drainage and gasfitting at any value.

New South Wales licenses the same distinction through the Home Building Act. Bricklaying is defined as erecting structures such as buildings by putting together individual masonry units known as bricks or blocks, and extends to brick fences, retaining walls, associated flashing and minor supporting concreting; stonemasonry is defined as construction work using natural or artificial stone laid unit by unit and set in mortar. A contractor licence is required for residential building or trade work above the Act's value threshold, penalties for unlicensed work are substantial for both individuals and companies, and holders of a qualified supervisor certificate supervise rather than contract. Western Australia registers building practitioners and contractors through the Building Services Board, supported by Building and Energy, under the Building Services (Registration) Act 2011, with a higher threshold for Class 10a work such as garages and sheds than for other building work. Victoria registers building practitioners and regulates domestic building contracts through Consumer Affairs Victoria.

LokalMatch is the sourcing step, not the deciding one. You describe the masonry job once, including whether the wall is brick veneer, double brick, block or stone, the age of the house, what has cracked or moved and what the ground and the exposure are like, and matched bricklayers and stonemasons contact you directly. Those businesses pay for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not lay or repair masonry, does not set prices, and does not vet, rank or recommend any contractor, so verifying the licence class and the insurance before work starts is your job.

Masonry jobs cross the statutory thresholds sooner than people expect, and the schemes have no overseas equivalent, so they are worth understanding before you pay anything. In New South Wales a written contract is required once the price passes the Home Building Act threshold, the deposit cannot exceed 10 per cent of the contract price, requirements step up again for larger jobs, and the builder must obtain home building compensation cover and give you the certificate for contracts above the scheme threshold. In Victoria, domestic building insurance must be taken out by the builder for works above the contract threshold, and you must be given a copy of the policy and a certificate of currency before any deposit or other money is taken; the cover responds to structural defects for six years and non-structural defects for two.

The paperwork that matters afterwards is technical rather than legal. Keep the site classification if one was obtained, the specification of the units and mortar including the durability class, the tie type and spacing, where the articulation joints are and what they were filled with, and photographs of the damp-proof course and weepholes before the wall was closed up or landscaped. A masonry defect usually declares itself one or two wet seasons later, and that file decides whether you are making a claim or having an argument.

Ask two questions of any quote for repair work. What is the cause, expressed as something other than the age of the wall, and what happens to the price if opening up the wall shows corroded ties or a bridged damp-proof course. Both are common, both change the scope, and both are cheaper to agree in writing beforehand than to negotiate with a scaffold already standing.