'Rat-trap bond' in a cottage wall at Coolham
Introduction
The photograph on this page of 'Rat-trap bond' in a cottage wall at Coolham by Stefan Czapski as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
'Rat-trap bond' in a cottage wall at Coolham
Image: © Stefan Czapski Taken: 14 Feb 2011
A closer view of the cottages seen in Image The front wall appears to have been built by laying bricks on edge - a somewhat skinflint method sometimes known as 'rat-trap bond'. A wall of conventional thickness could be produced by leaving a cavity between inner and outer faces - hence the reference to rats. It will be noticed that alternate bricks are laid with their ends showing in the face of the wall (the equivalent of 'headers' in a more conventional bond) - thus bridging the cavity and bonding inner and outer faces, very necessary for strength when skimping on bricks. See Graham Horn's contribution: Image
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
50.993263
Longitude
-0.405761