Spacer for the bricks of a facing brickwork to be placed in front of an inner brickwork

A spacer for bricks of a facing brickwork placed in front of an inner brickwork, whereby the spacer can be universally used and at the end of the bricklaying work can be removed from the mortar joints of the front of the wall, so that it does not constitute a disposable part and can be reused. Such a spacer includes a unitary body having two contact surfaces in a common plane and below the contact surfaces nominal width stops in two parallel planes perpendicular to the contact surfaces and nominal depth stops are located in two further parallel planes perpendicular both to the plane of the contact surfaces and to the planes of the nominal width stops for adjacent bricks, with the distance between the planes corresponding to the nominal depth of the distance between the facing brickwork and the inner brickwork. The nominal depth stops extending between two adjacent bricks of the facing brickwork on the one hand and the inner brickwork to be faced on the other.

The invention relates to a spacer for the bricks of a facing brickwork to 
be placed in front of an inner brickwork. 
The problem of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive spacer 
which, through being inserted as a disposable supplementary part between 
in each case two adjacent bricks of the facing brickwork and also between 
the latter and the already erected inner brickwork facilitates the correct 
and accurate alignment of the bricks when erecting the facing brickwork. 
Such a spacer must at the same time be as simple as possible, but also 
sufficiently stable, so that the additional expenditure resulting from its 
use as a disposable additional part in very large numbers is kept low. 
According to the invention, this problem is solved by a spacer of the type 
defined hereinbefore which comprises a body in one piece having two 
contact surfaces in a common plane and below said contact surfaces nominal 
width stops in two parallel planes perpendicular thereto and in two 
further parallel planes perpendicular both to the plane of the contact 
surfaces and to the planes of the nominal width stops for adjacent bricks, 
the distance between said planes corresponding to the nominal depth of the 
distance between the facing brickwork and the inner brickwork, nominal 
depth stops for in each case two adjacent bricks of the facing brickwork 
on the one hand and the inner brickwork to be faced on the other. 
The invention also relates to a spacer which has a covering plate extending 
to opposite sides from a vertical central wall and whose one part which at 
its front end passes into the vertical wall giving the nominal width forms 
on its other side the horizontal contact surfaces passing in a common 
plane and on its lateral edges carries vertically upwardly projecting 
walls whose height is that of the nominal height and whose other part, 
whose length corresponds to the nominal depth forms with its top a further 
contact surface and has on its lateral edges vertically downwardly 
projecting walls whose height corresponds to the nominal height. Thus, a 
spacer is obtained which can be used much more universally, and in 
particular when erecting a facing wall can also be used on the front 
thereof and then when the bricklaying work is at an end can be drawn out 
of the mortar joints of the wall front again, so that in such a case it 
does not constitute a disposable part and, if desired, can be used again. 
This spacer is simple, but sufficiently stable and as a plastic shaped 
article can be economically manufactured in very large numbers. In 
addition, such a spacer can be used when building the facing brickwork on 
the back thereof for maintaining the spacing relative to the inner 
brickwork and for maintaining all the joint spacings between a particular 
brick and the adjacent bricks, it being left in the brickwork as a 
disposable component. It can also be used on the front of the facing 
brickwork for maintaining the joint spacings of each brick relative to 
adjacent bricks and the possibility then exists to draw it in the forwards 
direction out of the still soft mortar on completing the brickwork. 
According to another proposal of the invention, in order to facilitate its 
removal, that part of the covering wall, whose length corresponds to the 
nominal depth, is provided with an opening in the form of an eyelet in 
order to possibly facilitate the removal from the front of a bricked wall. 
Further advantageous developments of the invention can be gathered from the 
subclaims.

In the embodiment of the spacer according to FIG. 1, the one-piece body 1 
is shaped like a block, comprising a parallelepipedic part 1', a smaller 
parallelepipedic part 1" placed on the front surface thereof and two 
covering walls flush with the top of said first two parts and which cover 
the angular spaces between the two parallelepipedic parts on the front 
ends thereof. The two undersides of these covering walls form contact 
surfaces 2 and 3 located in a common plane, as shown in FIG. 3, for 
placing the spacer on two adjacent bricks 19 and 20. 
Below the two contact surfaces 2 and 3, nominal width stops 4 and 5 are 
formed by the sidewalls of the smaller parallelepipedic parts 1" in two 
parallel planes perpendicular to the contact surfaces 2 and 3 and the 
distance between the same corresponds to the nominal width B of the 
vertical joints between the bricks 19, 20 of the facing brickwork. Nominal 
depth stops 6, 7 and 9 are provided in two further parallel planes, 
perpendicular both to the plane of contact surfaces 2, 3 and to the planes 
of the nominal width stops 4, 5 for adjacent bricks 19, 20 and the 
distance between said planes corresponds to the nominal depth T of the 
spacing between the facing brickwork and the inner brickwork. Said stops 
6, 7 and 9 serve to determine the spacing between in each case two 
adjacent bricks 19, 20 of the facing brickwork on the one hand and in the 
inner brickwork to be faced on the other. 
This nominal depth T can for example be 20 mm and the nominal width B of 
the joint between two adjacent bricks 19, 20 can for example be 10 mm. 
A further preferred embodiment of the spacer is shown in FIG. 2. It is 
constructed in the manner of a box-like hollow body 11 with approximately 
equally dimensioned walls 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. 12 is the covering wall 
of the box-like hollow body 11, 13 is a wall extending symmetrically 
downwards at an angle from the centre of the front edge of the covering 
wall and whose horizontal dimension corresponds to the nominal width B and 
is shorter than the front edge of covering wall 12, 14 and 15 are two 
walls which extend downwards at an angle from the lateral edges of 
covering wall 12 and whose horizontal dimensions correspond to the nominal 
depth T and extend to the rear end of covering wall 12, but is shorter 
than their lateral edges and 16 is a rear wall of the box-like hollow body 
11, which can be useful for stiffening the sidewalls 14, 15 but can also 
be omitted. 
It is also possible to provide other stiffening ribs between in each case 
two walls of the box-like hollow body 11 which form an angle between them, 
e.g. the T-shaped rib arrangement 17, 18 indicated by broken lines in FIG. 
2 comprising a traverse wall 17 between walls 12, 14, 15 with the height 
of the front edges of the two latter walls and a wall 18 extending between 
the centre of wall 13 and the centre of transverse wall 17. 
The spacer is preferably constructed as a shaped plastic body, so that it 
can be economically manufactured in large numbers and at low cost. 
A spacer which, as illustrated in FIG. 3, is placed between in each case 
two adjacent bricks of the facing brickwork and between the latter and the 
already standing inner brickwork (not shown in the drawing) and is left 
there, facilitates the alignment of the bricks of the facing brickwork 
during their construction, so that working time is saved. Furthermore, 
this aid also facilitates bricklaying for unskilled personnel. 
According to another embodiment of the spacer according to the invention, a 
projection is provided extending from the covering wall in the upwards 
direction and whose vertical dimension corresponds to the nominal height 
of the horizontal joints of the facing brickwork. In the case of the 
spacer 1 (11) shown in FIG. 3, such a projection is e.g. 21. Its vertical 
dimensions correspond to the nominal height T of the horizontal joints of 
the facing brickwork. It is immediately apparent that such an additional 
vertical projection on the spacers can constitute a valuable aid during 
the building of the facing brickwork, because it facilitates the adherence 
to the nominal height of the horizontal joints between the bricks. 
FIGS. 4 and 5 show a spacer, which can be much more universally used, 
particularly when erecting a facing brickwork when it can be used on the 
front surface thereof and then at the end of the bricklaying work can be 
removed from the mortar joints at the front of the wall. T is the nominal 
depth of the distance between a facing brickwork to be erected and the 
already existing inner brickwork of for example 20 mm, B is the nominal 
width of the vertical joints and H is the nominal height of the horizontal 
joints of the facing brickwork, whereby B and H are for example 10 mm in 
each case. 
The spacer according to FIGS. 4 and 5 has a covering plate extending to 
opposite sides from a vertical central wall 25 and whose one portion 26 
extends to one side of the wall 25 and whose other portion 27 extends to 
the other side thereof. One portion 26 of the covering plate passes by its 
front end into the vertical wall 13 which gives the nominal width B and 
forms on its underside the horizontal contact surfaces 2, 3 which are in a 
common plane. On its lateral edges, wall portion 26 carries upwardly 
projecting walls 30 and 31, the height of which corresponds to the nominal 
height H. The other portion 27 of the covering plate extending to the 
other side of wall 25 has a length corresponding to the nominal depth T 
and forms with its top a contact surface. 
On its lateral edges, portion 27 of the covering wall also has vertically 
downwardly projecting walls 14, 15, whose height corresponds to the 
nominal height H. Covering wall portion 27 also has an opening 32 
constructed as an eyelet into which can engage a hook-shaped tool in order 
to remove the spacer from the brickwork after construction of the wall. 
When erecting a facing brickwork, the spacer which can be produced as an 
inexpensive, but sufficiently stable shaped plastic part is used as 
follows: 
At the rear of the brickwork, the spacer is placed by its contact surfaces 
2 and 3 onto two corners of juxtaposed bricks so that the width of the 
wall portion 13 engaging between the bricks gives the nominal width B and 
the length of the portion 27 of the covering plate projecting rearwardly 
from the brickwork is in contact with the inner brickwork and consequently 
gives the nominal depth T. In the same way, such a spacer can be used on 
the front of the brickwork for giving the joint width by means of wall 
portion 13, whereby it also rests by means of contact surfaces 2, 3 on the 
corners of a brick. The nominal height of the horizontal joint for the 
alignment of the overlying brick is given by means of the wall portions 
30, 31 of the two spacers positioned in this way. Before positioning the 
overlying brick, a spacer is placed in a reversed position on the centre 
of the lower brick at the front and optionally at the rear, so that the 
contact surface 27 and the wall 25 are in contact with the lower brick. 
Thus, the height of the horizontal joint between the lower and upper brick 
can be predetermined during the alignment thereof. 
At the end of the bricklaying work, the spacers projecting at the front of 
the facing brickwork can be removed and optionally reused. The eyelet 32 
or, with the reverse positioning of the spacer, the forwardly projecting 
wall portion 13 can be used for the engagement with a hook-shaped tool.