Properties & Tests on Paints

1. Important buildings were once designed and put together by master masons who knew how to work with stone, and understood the advantages and limitations of the material. Stone structure should be a combination of structural firmness, technical commodity and aesthetic delight.

2. Ensure proper wall construction. The wall thickness should not exceed 450mm.

3. Round stone boulders should not be used in the construction! Instead, the stones should be shaped using chisels and hammers.

4. Use of mud mortar should be avoided in higher seismic zones. Instead, cement-sand mortar should be 1:6 (or richer) and lime-sand mortar 1:3 (or richer) should be used.

5. Ensure proper bond in masonry courses: The masonry walls should be built in construction lifts not exceeding 600mm.

6. Through-stones (each extending over full thickness of wall) or a pair of overlapping bond-stones (each extending over at least ¾ ths thickness of wall) must be used at every 600mm along the height and at a maximum spacing of 1.2m along the length.

7. The stone masonry dwellings must have horizontal bands roof and gable bands). These bands can be constructed out of wood or reinforced concrete, and chosen based on economy. It is important to provide at least one band (either lintel band or roof band) in stone masonry construction.

8. Care should be taken to ensure that the fixing method adopted for the construction is appropriate to the type of stone being used.

The energy needed to collapse a structure comes from the structure itself. The high frequencies can cause high vertical inter-stone vibrations that result in irreversible relative displacements of the stones, which is mainly due to the non required shape of the stones, thus stone walls mainly crumble under their own weight.