Mortar for brickwork and blockwork

• It is essential that brickwork and blockwork be laid in true horizontal courses , and the olny way this can be done with bricks and blocks is to lay them on mortar
• Mortar is a mixture of sand and lime or a mixture of sand and cement with or without lime
• Proportioning of the material can be carried by volume or weight
• Mortar should never be re-tempered , and shouls be used within 2 hours of mixing or be discarded

Functions of mortar
-To join the brickwork or blockwork of a wall into one solid mass , thus increasing its strength and stability
TO transfer the rensile comprresive and shear stresses uniformly between adjacent bricks or blocks
-TO transfer up any inequalities of the bricks or blocks
-To make the wall reasonably waterpoof and airproof under ordinary conditions

TO perform its fucntions , mortar must satisfy certain requirement :

• It must have qdequate stregth , but not greater than that required for the design strength
• It must have good workability
• It must retain plasticity long enough for the bricks to be laid
• It must be durable over a long period
• It must band well to the bricks
• It must be able to be produced at the economic cost.