Common Causes of Cracking in Masonry Walls Diagnosis and Remedy

Abstract

Masonry: concrete block, lime stone and recently oven dried clay hollow bricks are widely used in most of the underdeveloped countries in the construction industry either as a wall bearing construction or as part of the structure skeleton for walls. Yet little is known about the deformations encountered once these units are in service due to the lack of research and information employed in the design. When it comes to the collective behavior the knowledge gap is worse, wall cracking is the typical drawbacks noticed in most of the low rise masonry buildings. These cracks are attributed to various effects ranging from unit properties, climatic boundaries, poor construction, and bad design: collectively leads to cracking and at ultimate can result in failure. This paper is thoroughly