Course: Word of the Week

Course – A course is a course, of course – it can even be coarse. “Course” is one of those words that has many different definitions across many different subject matters. Since we are a website concerned with house design and construction, we’ll use the meaning from the masonry realm. Brickwork is a form of masonry made by laying bricks and mortar to build a structure, such as a brick wall. A course refers to a horizontal row of bricks. Each course of bricks is laid on top of the next, and the structure grows.

Each course is a layer of brick (or similarly sized building material) is continuously horizontal and one unit high. Other material that could form a course includes cut stone and concrete masonry units. Different types of courses include Stretcher, Header, Rowlock, Soldier, Sailor and Shiner.