Author
S.K. ARORA Building Research Establishment
and
G.J. EDGELL British Ceramic Research Limited

Abstract
The earlier assessments of EC6/!SO masonry codes showed that the rules for vertical load design gave highly conservative solutions requiring greater wall thicknesses and/or stronger materials than those given under BS5628:Part 1. The subsequent UK comments were designed to minimise such differences, although they could not be fully supported by experimental evidence at the time. It is now possible to reconsider these comments in the light of tests on storey high walls and compressive wallettes constructed from 35 different brick and block units. The main conclusion is that the UK comments are still valid in most respects. However, for the characteristic compressive strength of masonry ft, the latest EC6/ISO formula appears to be a better predictor for UK walls than the tabulated values in BS5628:Part 1.