bonding

The beginning of the relationship between a mother and her newborn child. The mother births the baby and (ideally) gets to hold the baby immediately on having her. She attends to the baby's needs by feeding her, stroking her, keeping her clean and devoting her time and energy to the baby, so the baby feels safe, warm and secure.

The relationship between the mother and baby is the first one the baby has ever known; and is critical to the baby's emotional and phsyical development.

In bricklaying, the various methods of making a solid wall are called bonding. There are several types of bond commonly used.

Stretcher Bond

Stretcher bond is the simplest type of bonding. It gives a single thickness of bricks, and all bricks are stretchers, which means that they are orientated with their long side parallel to the wall.

Corners are no problem, as the stretchers from the other wall form closing headers, which interleave with the stretchers on alternating courses. A header is a brick with its long side at 90^o to the wall.

+-------+-------+-------+-
|\       \       \       \
+H+-------+-------+-------+-
S\|   S   |   S   |   S   |  
+ +---+---+---+---+---+---+-
|\| H |   S   |   S   |   S 
+ +---+---+---+---+---+---+-
 \|       |       |       | 
+ +---+---+---+---+---+---+-
|\|   |       |       |     
+ +---+---+---+---+---+---+-
 \|       |       |       | 
+ +---+---+---+---+---+---+-
 \|   |       |       |     
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+-

English Bond

English bond uses alternating courses of headers and stretchers. This is used in a double thickness wall, the headers giving greater strength and rigidity.

Corners are more complicated than in stretcher bond, as queen closers are used - a queen closer is a half brick that was cut in half along its length.

+---+-+---+---+---+---+---+-
|\   \ \   \   \   \   \   \
+ \   \ \   \   \   \   \   \
H+S\   \ \   \   \   \   \   \
+|+ +---+-+---+---+---+---+---+-
|+|\| H |Q| H | H | H | H | H |
+ +H+---+-+-+-+---+-+-+---+-+-+-
 + \|   S   |   S   |   S   |
+|+ +---+-+-+-+---+-+-+---+-+-+-
|+|\|   | |   |   |   |   |   |
+ + +---+-+-+-+---+-+-+---+-+-+-
 + \|       |       |       |
+|+ +---+-+-+-+---+-+-+---+-+-+-
 +|\|   | |   |   |   |   |   |
  + +---+-+-+-+---+-+-+---+-+-+-
   \|       |       |       |
    +---+-+-+-+---+-+-+---+-+-+-

Flemish Bond

An increasingly popular alternative to English bond for double thickness walls is Flemish bond. Here, headers and stretchers are alternated within each course.

+---+-+-------+---+-------+-
|\   \ \       \   \       \
+ \   \ +-------+   +-------+
H+S\   \ \       \   \       \
+|+ +---+-+-------+---+-------+-
|+|\| H |Q|   S   | H |   S   |
+ +H+---+-+-+---+-+---+-+---+-+-
 + \|   S   | H |   S   | H |
+|+ +---+-+-+---+-+---+-+---+-+-
|+|\|   | |       |   |       |
+ + +---+-+-+---+-+---+-+---+-+-
 + \|       |   |       |   |
+|+ +---+-+-+---+-+---+-+---+-+-
 +|\|   | |       |   |       |
  + +---+-+-+---+-+---+-+---+-+-
   \|       |   |       |   |
    +---+-+-+---+-+---+-+---+-+-

A good way to understand how the various methods of bonding work is to borrow a Lego set and construct a corner in each type of bond.

Source:   Collins complete DIY manual. Jackson & Day