The methodology of reinforcing common houses, school buildings and other public buildings, such as clinics, with galvanised wire-mesh wall reinforcement is in essence no different from any other type of reinforcement that makes the walls better earthquake resistant. The objective of any type of reinforcement is to provide stress resistance to walls that lack sufficient natural stress resistance to function as shear walls or to resist bending of the wall perpendicular to its surface.
Galvanised wire is another modern building technology having some special advantages.
Cement is heavy and difficult to carry and therefore additionally expensive in transport. Reasonable quality of sand is required for the cement mortar, but not always available in villages. To achieve good adherence inside the construction, a long ladder-like strip is knitted from the galvanised wire in such a way that the knots provide optimum grip power with the surrounding stone construction or adobe masonry. The galvanised wire-mesh provides between six to ten ties per square meter wall. Also, the thicker the wall, the wider and more resistant is the wire-mesh reinforcement.