Masonry - Wall coverings

Apart from exposed masonry, the use of which has declined sharply in recent years with the virtual disappearance of stone masonry and the lack of qualified bricklayers, which in regions with a strong tradition of exposed brickwork in the North, meant that foreign workers had to be called in, masonry involves cladding both inside and out: the choice of cladding system (cf. article Masonry. The choice of cladding (see "Designing structures" in this treatise) depends on the function the cladding is intended to perform, and these choices are often interdependent for both exterior and interior cladding.

In most cases, the coatings chosen are adherent coatings of the plaster type, because they are generally the most economical, and because the evolution of industrial products in this field has been continuous towards more reliable and labor-saving products, which are also easier to install.

The typical wall currently used in France with this masonry technique is composed from the outside in:

• a thick, single-coat rendering of hydraulic binder mortar applied directly to the substrate;

• hollow masonry units, hollow concrete blocks or hollow clay bricks, generally 20 cm thick;

• a lining complex of BA 10 plasterboard (thinned edge, thickness 10 mm) and expanded polystyrene 6 to 8 cm thick, itself bonded on the inside with plaster-based adhesive mortar.

But there are many other types of cladding, both exterior and interior, providing waterproofing, thermal and/or acoustic insulation, wall appearance and sometimes all or several of these functions. The conditions of application of these directly adhering coatings, applied by mechanical fixing or adhesive bonding, whose definition has already been covered in article Masonry. Materials in this treatise are described below.