Masonry Accessories

Masonry accessories are the hardware that holds a brick, block, or stone-veneer wall together and keeps water moving back out of it. They include reinforcement, connectors, sealants, flashing, coatings, and vapor and moisture barriers. None of it shows once the wall is up. All of it decides whether that wall stays connected and sheds water for fifty years or starts failing inside a decade.

Here’s the thing most buyers get wrong: the parts cost almost nothing relative to the brick and labor, but picking the wrong tie, the wrong flashing, or the wrong corrosion finish is what generates the callback. Match the product to the wall type and the exposure. That’s the whole game.

The Main Categories and What Each One Does

Four jobs: reinforce, connect, seal, protect. Everything sorts into one of them.

Reinforcement ties the wall together horizontally and vertically. Masonry joint reinforcement is cold-drawn wire in accord with ASTM A82, with nine-gauge deformed longitudinal rods and nine-gauge cross rods welded to them. Rebar handles the vertical structural loads in grouted walls. Bar reinforcement meets ASTM A615, deformed type, Grade 60 for bars, ties, and stirrups.

Connectors are the ties and anchors that attach a veneer to its structural backup. Adjustable ties are useful for accommodating differences in elevation of bed joints, and can be very flexible if used at large eccentricities. That adjustable two-piece design is what lets a brick veneer line up to a backup wall whose coursing doesn’t match.

Flashing and weeps manage water — the part most likely to fail. Sealants fill the intentional gaps. Sealants prevent the passage of water where gaps are intentionally left in masonry walls — expansion joints in clay masonry, control joints in concrete masonry, and construction joints between sections. Worth knowing the clock on those: because the polymers deteriorate under ultraviolet light and ozone, the normal life of sealants in exterior exposures is about 7 years, and they should be replaced at intervals roughly equal to their expected life.

Joint Reinforcement: Truss vs. Ladder vs. Box Ties

This is the most common selection decision on any block or veneer job. The right type follows directly from how the wall is built.

Wall construction	Reinforcement type
Single-wythe masonry	Truss type, overlapped at corners
Double-wythe, coursing aligned, unreinforced backup	Truss type with box ties
Double-wythe, coursing aligned, reinforced backup	Ladder type with box ties; box ties and cross wires at 16” o.c.
Double-wythe, coursing does NOT align	Truss type (unreinforced) or ladder type (reinforced) with adjustable box ties

Two sizing rules that trip people up. The width of reinforcement should be 2 inches less than total wall width, except for stone masonry units, where width should be 3 inches less than total wall width. And if it’s a cavity wall, the cross rods matter: fabricate reinforcement for cavity wall construction with moisture drips in each cross rod. That little drip keeps water from tracking across the wire into the inner wythe.

Reinforcement comes in minimum 10-foot lengths, with prefabricated corners and tees at intersecting walls of the same design and finish. Use the factory corners — field-bending wire never sits as clean.

Flashing, Weeps, and Cavity Drainage

Water management is where masonry walls live or die, and in this climate the stakes are higher. Water that gets trapped in a wall and then freezes is what cracks brick and spalls block face. So the flashing has one job: a flexible waterproof barrier intended to permit water that has penetrated the outer wythe to re-exit the wall.

Put it everywhere the drainage cavity is interrupted — over window and door lintels, under window and door sills, and at the bottom of each story level on shelf angles or foundations.

On material, you’ve got choices with real trade-offs. Flashing is made of stainless steel, copper, plastic-coated aluminum, plastic, rubberized asphalt, EPDM, or PVC. The durability split is clear: metallic flashing lasts much longer than plastic flashing, and nonmetallic flashings are subject to tearing. For most jobs the sweet spot is the modern stuff — self-adhering rubberized-asphalt flashing is a good compromise between durability and ease of installation.

Installing it right is non-negotiable: flashing should be lapped, ends should be defined by end dams (flashing turned up at the ends), and directly above the level of the flashing, weepholes should be provided at 24-inch spacing. Skip the end dams and water runs right off the end of the flashing into the wall. Skip the weeps and the water you collected has nowhere to go.

For new veneer work, a manufactured drainage plane behind the brick or stone gives the water a dedicated channel. A rainscreen drainage plane like Sure Cavity maintains separation between thin veneer cementitious materials and the moisture-resistance system on the structural substrate, creating a drainage space. The product is built from high-impact polystyrene sheets with corrugations and a spunbond polypropylene fabric, with a 3/16-inch channel depth. That kind of drainage plane earns its keep where walls go through repeated wetting and drying.

Corrosion Finish: The Decision That Outlasts You

If there’s one spec to get right, it’s the galvanizing. The wrong finish on an exterior wall rusts, swells, and cracks the mortar joint from the inside. Here it’s simple and it’s binary — interior versus exposed.

Location	Finish
Interior construction	Mill galvanized, ASTM A641 (0.10 oz zinc coating/ft²)
Exterior walls, and interior walls above 75% mean relative humidity	Hot-dip galvanized, ASTM A153, Class B-2

Mill galvanized is interior-only. Full stop. Any tie or anchor seeing exterior exposure or steady high humidity gets hot-dip A153 Class B-2 — that’s the finish spec’d on the veneer anchors, the chase wall ties, the corner Z-anchors, and the rebar positioners alike. The masonry veneer anchors carry that same hot-dip galvanized finish in accord with ASTM A153, Class B-2. Stainless is the step up where corrosion is a serious concern.

The fasteners themselves get tested. Self-tapping butyl-tape steel screws should be corrosion-resistant coated, passing the Kesternich test chamber (DIN 50018) with no red rust after a minimum of 30 wet-and-dry acidic cycles, plus a minimum 1000 hours salt-spray testing per ASTM B117. That 1000-hour salt-spray number is the bar worth holding any exterior fastener to.

Anchors and Fasteners: Match the Hardware to the Substrate

When you’re connecting to concrete or block — hanging a fixture, making a structural tie — the anchor has to suit both what you’re drilling into and the load it’ll carry. Consider the substrate (solid concrete, hollow block, or brick), the required load (tension vs. shear), and environmental exposure.

The basic sort:

• Heavy-duty structural connections — wedge, sleeve, or epoxy (chemical) anchors.
• Light-duty mounting — masonry screws (Tapcon-style) or expansion plugs are typically sufficient.

For cast-in-place work, the simplest anchor is the one set before the concrete cures. Anchor bolts come in 1/2-inch by 10-inch and 5/8-inch by 10-inch sizes for sill-plate and structural hold-downs.

Installation is where good anchors get ruined. Select the correct drill bit size and hit the proper embedment depth as specified by the manufacturer, and always clean dust from the holes before installing chemical or expansion anchors. Drill dust is the enemy — a hole full of powder kills the bond on an epoxy anchor and chokes the grip on an expansion plug. Blow it out and brush it before you set anything.

A couple of related items that round out the kit: rebar positioners hold vertical steel where it belongs in the cavity. A spider-shaped positioner allows rebar to be placed at the center of the wall or on either side of the cavity, made from minimum 9-gauge steel wire. Rebar chairs do the same for horizontal steel, and OSHA rebar caps go on every exposed vertical bar — that’s a jobsite-safety item, not optional.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between truss and ladder joint reinforcement? Both run horizontally in the bed joints to tie a wall together. The choice follows the wall: truss type goes in single-wythe masonry, overlapped at corners. In double-wythe walls where the coursing lines up, truss type pairs with box ties over unreinforced backup, and ladder type with box ties over reinforced backup, spaced 16 inches on center. When the veneer coursing doesn’t align with the backup, adjustable box ties handle the elevation difference.

Which galvanizing do I need for an exterior wall? Hot-dip galvanized to ASTM A153, Class B-2. Mill galvanized (ASTM A641, 0.10 oz zinc) is for interior construction only. The hot-dip finish is also required for any interior wall exposed to mean relative humidity above 75 percent. For severe corrosion exposure, stainless steel is the upgrade.

How far apart do weepholes go? Directly above the flashing, at 24-inch spacing. The flashing has to be lapped and finished with end dams — flashing turned up at the ends — or water runs off the end into the wall instead of draining out the weeps.

What flashing material lasts longest? Metallic flashings — stainless steel, copper, plastic-coated aluminum — last much longer than plastic. Nonmetallic flashings are prone to tearing. Self-adhering rubberized-asphalt flashing strikes a practical balance between durability and ease of installation for most jobs.

How wide should joint reinforcement be for my wall? Two inches less than the total wall width. For stone masonry units, make it 3 inches less than the total wall width. For cavity walls, specify reinforcement with a moisture drip formed into each cross rod so water doesn’t track across to the inner wythe.

Which anchor for a heavy structural connection versus hanging a light fixture? Heavy-duty structural goes to wedge, sleeve, or epoxy (chemical) anchors. Light-duty mounting is fine with masonry screws or expansion plugs. Either way, drill the correct bit size, reach the manufacturer’s embedment depth, and clean all dust from the hole before setting a chemical or expansion anchor.