NEW YORK BUILDING CODE - BRICK BUILDING PRACTICE Sec. 27. Materials of Walls. The walls of all buildings other than frame or wood buildings, shall be constructed of stone, brick, Portland cement concrete, iron, steel, or other hard, incombustible material; and the several component parts of such buildings shall be as herein provided. All buildings shall be inclosed on all sides with independent or party walls.
Sec. 28. Walls and Biers. In all walls of the thickness specified in this code, the same amount of Materials may be used in piers or buttresses. Bearing walls shall be taken to mean those snails on which the beams, girders. or trusses rest. If any horizontal section through any part of any hearing wall in any building shows more than 30 per cent area of flues and openings, the said wall shall be increased 4 inches in thickness for every 15 per cent, or fraction thereof, of flue or opening area in excess of 30 per cent.
The walls and piers of all buildings shall be properly and solidly bonded together with close joints filled with mortar. They shall be built to a line, and be carried up plumb and straight. The walls of each story shall be built up the full thickness to the top of the beams above. All brick laid in non-freezing weather shall be well wet before being laid. Walls or piers, or parts of walls and piers, shall not be built in freezing weather; and, if frozen, shall not be built upon.
All piers shall be built of stone or good, hard, well-burnt brick, laid in cement mortar. Every pier built of brick, containing less than 9 superficial feet at the base. supporting any beam, girder, arch, or column on which a wall rests, or lintel spanning an opening over 10 feet and supporting a wall, shall at intervals of not over 30 inches apart in height have built into it a bond-stone not less than 4 inches thick, or a cast-iron plate of sufficient strength and the full size of the piers. For piers fronting on a street, the bond-stones may conform with the kind of stone used for the trimmings of the front. Cap-stones of cut granite
or bluestonc, proportioned to the weight to be carried, but not less than 5 inches in thickness, by the full size of the pier, or cast-iron plates of equal strength, by the full size of the pier, shall be set under all columns or girders, except where a 4-inch bond-stone is placed immediately below said eap-stone, in which case the cap-stone may be reduced in horizontal dimensions at the discretion of the Commissioner of Buildings having jurisdiction. Isolated brick piers shall not exceed in height ten times their least dimensions. Stone posts for the support of posts or columns above shall not be used in the interior of any building. Where walls or piers are built of coursed stones, with dressed level beds and vertical joints, the Department of Buildings shall have the right to allow such walls or piers to be built of a less thickness than specified for brickwork, but in no case shall said walls or piers be less than three-quarters of the thickness provided for brickwork.
In all brick walls every sixth course shall be a heading course, except where walls are faced with brick in running bond, in which latter case every sixth course shall be bonded into the backing by cutting the courite of the fare brick and putting in diagonal headers behind the same, or by splitting the face brick in half and backing the same with a continu= ous row of headers. Where face brick is used of different thickness from the brick used for backing, the courses of the exterior and interior brickwork shall be brought to a level bed at intervals of not more than ten courses in height of the face brick ; and the face brick shall be properly tied to the backing by a heading course of the face brick. All bearing walls faced with brick laid in running bond shall be 4 inches thicker than the walls are required to be under any section of this Code.
Sec. 29. Ashlar. Stone used for the facing of any building, and known as "ashlar," shall be not less than 4 inches thick.