Bricklaying is in itself an apparently simple process, inasmuch as it consists merely in laying or disposing regular and similar rectangular pieces of baked clay one upon another, layer upon layer, until a certain height is reached, spreading a composition of lime and sand called mortar between each layer, which hardens and connects the bricks together in a tolerably solid mass. There is, however, much more skill in bricklaying than is apparent at first sight, and really good bricklaying cannot be done without practice any more than other building processes.

The tools requisite in bricklaying are a large, strong steel trowel, with which mortar may be spread and bricks chopped asunder or reduced to any extent that may be required in order to produce a perfect bond. Mortar is carried up the ladder, and on to the part of the scaffolding where the bricklayer is at work, by his attendant laborer, in a vessel called a hod, which is shaped like a box, open at one end and cut across diagonally, and fitted at the bottom angle into a short pole. Then a small trowel for pointing, and a mortar-board to hold in the hand, on which the mortar or cement is carried.

A brick is accounted to be 9 inches long, 4½ inches broad, and 2½ inches thick, the breadth being half the length, and the thickness rather more than half the breadth, or one-fourth the length; an arrangement which renders bricks more convenient to use, owing to the correspondence and harmony of proportions in length, breadth, and thickness. The equivalents of the thicknesses of walls enumerated in terms of bricks will, therefore, be, when expressed in inches, ½ brick = 4½ in.; 1 brick= 9 in.; 1½ bricks= 13½ in.; 2 bricks = 18 in.; 2½ bricks = 22½ in., etc. There are many different kinds of bricks, embracing the three classes of building bricks, fire-bricks, and clinkers, or paving bricks.