Get a better grip

Brick's long marriage with mortar may be over. The attractions of Hanson Bricks' glued brickwork, or thin-bed adhesive masonry to give it its official name, are just as strong for construction teams as they are for architects keen to escape the constraints of stretcher bond and lay bricks in a wider range of patterns.

Greater strength is glued brickwork's biggest asset. A bed of only 3mm to 6mm of adhesive will exert a tighter grip on masonry than the standard cement sand mortar course of 10mm. So strong is the bond that glued brickwork can span openings in a wall several metres wide without supporting lintels for doors and windows, just a cavity tray for rainwater. Builders can also dispense with some secondary steelwork, such as wind posts.

Other benefits include thin-bed's much faster setting time: full working strength is achieved within 24 to 48 hours compared with the two to three weeks required by mortar. It also offers better resistance to rain penetration.

One worker lays the bricks out while another works the glue pump and squirts the glue on. On the only major UK site so far to use glued brickwork, the University of the West of England's School of Architecture and Planning, the bricklayers were laying bricks with glue as fast as they could with mortar by the end of the project.

Hanson's big goal is to exploit the adhesive strength of thin-bed in prefabricated brick panels. Unlike mortared panels, glued brickwork won't start to fall to pieces when lifted into place.

  When the company has worked out how to fix such panels to a structure, construction teams should be able to prefabricate panels on site more cheaply than factory-made, brick-faced concrete alternatives.

Enquiry number 206