There are generally two types of walls- load bearing walls and non-load bearing walls. In load bearing walls, the weight of walls of upper storeys and floors are carried by the walls and transferred to the foundation. In non-load bearing walls, weights of upper storey walls and floors are carried by columns and transferred to the soil through footings. There are mainly four techniques employed for the construction of walls. They are masonry bonding, cavity walls, composite masonry and rammed earth. In masonry bonding, we can use English bond bricks or Flemish bond bricks. Laurie Baker introduced a new type called rat-trap bond which involves keeping bricks on edge creating a gap in the thickness of the wall. In cavity walls, a provision to improve thermal insulation of the walls is introduced. Composite masonry use bricks made of two different materials. Stone-cum-brick, stone-cum-SMB, brick-cum-unburnt brick etc. are examples. In Rammed earth technique, either earth or stabilized earth is compacted in layers between two plates.
